Monticello Live

The Drew County Courthouse and Road Dept will be closed Monday, May 27, 2013 in observance of Memorial Day. Sanitation routes will run as follows:
Monday route pickup- Tuesday
Tuesday route pickup- Wednesday
Wednesday route pickup- Thursday
Thursday route pickup – Friday

Have a safe Memorial Day and remember the Fallen Soldiers.

Beth Davis, Drew County Assessor Reminds Everyone

The Deadline to assess your personal property taxes is May 31, 2013

You may do this by calling 870-460-6240, online at www.drewcountyassessor.com, www.actdatascout.com or by coming by the Assessor’s office located in the courthouse.

A 10% late penalty will be added after this date.  Commercial personal property cannot be done by phone, a signature is required by law.

Reminder: If you own your home and it is your primary residence you may qualify for up to a $35 homestead tax credit.  Please let our office know if you have become disable or will turn 65 by Dec. 31st, 2013.

TONIGHT
Quorum Court, 7 pm

TUESDAY
DCHS Graduation, 8 pm
Cornerstone Coalition Banquet, UAM, 6 pm

WEDNESDAY
DMH Board Meeting, Noon

THURSDAY
Head of the Class Graduation, 6 pm
Adult Ed Gradaution, 7 pm

In Arkansas, nearly 14 percent of pregnant women smoke during pregnancy. This Mother’s Day, the Arkansas Tobacco Quitline is offering pregnant women who smoke expanded services to help them quit for themselves and for their child. Pregnant women receive 10 free one-on-one phone sessions with a personal QuitCoach, which is a more intensive program than for non-pregnant callers.

(more…)

The Drew County Courthouse will be the new local office for the Arkansas Revenue Dept. and their sales tax enforcement branch.

(more…)

After years of operating on a “handshake agreement”, the county and city will now support the local museum by means of a services contract, like other local organizers receive, for the educational and historic service that the museum provides to county residents, schools, and organizations.

At last week’s Quorum Court meeting, the JPs heard Judge Akin report that the ADEQ had told the county to stop using the “old Katrina camper” as an office.

(more…)

Due to muddy conditions, the Drew County Landfill will be closed, today.

The city’s Transfer Station is not affected, and will be open.

Effective immediately, sanitation workers will only pick up trash that is in the county provided containers.  No extra bagged trash that is set out beside or on top of the container will be picked up.

Due to recent back injuries and wounds from hypodermic needles, all cans will be picked up by the automated system on the truck.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Extra trash containers may be purchased for the one time price of $54.25.

Drew County Judge Robert Aiken

The Drew County Quorum Court met Monday night (for the third time in a week) to discuss, and approve the proposed continuation of the 1¢ county road tax for a public election, to be held on July 9.

If approved by voters, the 1¢ tax will be divided with 75% going to county roads, leaving the remaining 25% available to be designated by the Quorum Court for emergencies and shortfalls in the county operating budget.  It also could be used for county roads, if needed.

(more…)

The Drew County Quorum Court called a special meeting, Tuesday night, to discuss the proposed continuation of the county’s one cent road tax, which will be set for July 9.

The main discussion topics were whether to designate a 75/25 or 80/20 split to be designated for the Quorum Court to be able to direct to shortfalls in other budget areas, would thee be a better chance of voter passage if it were divided into two questions, and should the proposed continuation should be for 4 or 6 years.

(more…)

An Ordinance for the renewal of the 1% Sales and Use Tax, Ordinance 2013-3, and Ordinance 2013-4, an Ordinance to call a special election to vote on the Sales and Use tax, was presented to the Quorum Court for discussion by Attorney Cliff Gibson. This Ordinance is for the purpose of renewing the 1% sales tax that has been enacted in Drew County for a number of years.

(more…)

At Monday’s Quorum Court meeting, Judge Robert Akin brought up the matter of what to do about the tree on the north side of the courthouse. There is concern that the tree will cause foundation damage to the courthouse, and one recommendation was that the tree be removed.

(more…)

The Drew County Assessor’s office would like to remind all taxpayers that own personal property to assess prior to May 31, 2013. Taxpayers can do this by visiting the Drew County Assessor’s office located at 210 S Main ST, assess over the phone by calling 870-460-6240 or assess online by visiting www.drewcountyassessor.com or at www.actdatascout.com Online assessing is available 24/7 for those who do not have time to make arrangements for assessing during normal business hours – 8:00 am – 4:30 pm.

Eight local business leaders and government officials visited our elected officials in Washington D.C.Tuesday and Wednesday, to discuss our local infrastructure needs.

During their trip, members of the MEDC and 20 for the Future met with Congressman Tom Cotton, Senator Mark Pryor, and Senator John Boozman.

This photo was taken during their meeting with Senator Boozman.

Chuck Dovish will present the documentary film on Bayou Bartholomew on AETN, tonight at 6:30.

Chuck Dovixh, with AETN, recently held a preview of the completed footage from the upcoming Bayou Bartholomew documentary scheduled to be broadcast on Thursday.

The interest history of “the Bayou” was discussed.  It had as many as 96 steamships traveling its waters, coming as far upstream as Baxter.  It also supported the early log-rafting industry, supplying logs to downstream sawmills

Bayou Bartholomew is the 3rd most diversified waterway in the US , with 117 species of fish in it.

Do you want to learn more about cooking techniques, new recipes, new/old cooking aides, etc.?

Would you like to meet new friends who share a common interest in food preparation?

Join with us on March 7 at 6:30 PM in the Club Room at the Drew Co. Courthouse and share your ideas concerning what you would like to do in a cooking club. This meeting will be our organizational meeting and is open to everyone; regardless of gender, race, religious or political affiliation or to educational level.

For more information call Juanita Webb at 367-5804 or Hazelene McCray at 460-6271

Anyone interested in being a member of 4-H should come by the Extension Office or may attend any of the 4-H meetings.

Here’s a list of the Drew County 4-H clubs…..

(more…)

Mark Tiner, of Union Bank, has been appointed to served Drew County on the public facilities board.

Tiner replaces Charlie Searcy, who was elected to serve as county treasurer.

Tiner was appointed by the county judge, with the approval of the Quorum Court.

Judge Robert Akin is shown signing the Proclamation of 100 years for the Arkansas Department of Health.

For your convenience, the Drew County Tax Collectors Office is now accepting Credit Card payments, for delinquent taxes and beginning March 1, on the Current 2012 Tax Year, according toTonya Loveless, Drew County Tax Collector.

Please note that there will be a 2.49% service charged by the supplier that will be applied to your tax payment amount for using your Credit Card.

(more…)

Assessor, Beth Davis has announced the Drew County Assessor’s office has become one of the first counties in Arkansas to implement an innovative technology that will help her office fairly and equitably apply the homestead tax credit on real property. Davis’ office is now using the Homestead Credit Finder ™ application from DataScout, LLC, a Fayetteville, AR based data services company to help identify property owners who have more than one property being assessed in Arkansas as their principle place of residence.

(more…)

Approximately a dozen logging and construction contractors attended the Drew County Quorum Court meeting, Monday night, after hearing rumors about the county’s proposed “heavy use access permits”, that included fines and potentially jail time as penalties for it’s violation.

(more…)

The Drew County Assessor’s office would like to remind all taxpayers that own personal property to assess prior to May 31, 2013. Taxpayers can do this by visiting the Drew County Assessor’s office located at 210 S Main ST, assess over the phone by calling 870-460-6240 or assess online by visiting www.drewcountyassessor.com  or at www.actdatascout.com Online assessing is available 24/7 for those who do not have time to make arrangements for assessing during normal business hours – 8:00 am – 4:30 pm.

Mon,., Feb. 18, County Quorum Court, Courthouse, 7 pm

Tues., Feb 19, Monticello School Board, 5:30 pm

Wed. Feb. 20 Inermodal Board, Warren BCIDC, 10:30 am

Thurs., Feb 21, City Council, 6 pm

Former Drew County Circuit Clerk Pat Scifres Savage Montgomery accepted a guilty plea on two of the three charges she was accused of,  in Drew County Circuit Court, this morning by a special appointed judge, Judge John Langston of Little Rock.

(more…)

(more…)

Want to be a Master Gardener? Applications are being taken(460-6270) for persons who want to sharpen their horticultural skills and then share their knowledge with others.

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service is conducting the Master Gardener training program from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on January 31, February 7, February 14, February 21, and February 28.

(more…)

After well over a decade with both the Arkansas Dept. of Correction, and Drew County Sheriff’s Dept. auxiliary unit, Drew County’s new 911 Co-ordinator / Emergency Services Manager has experience with handling ”unexpected incidents”.

However, on his first day on his new job, the log truck wreck (shutting down Monticello second busiest intersection) shows “you never know what will happen, and when it will happen.

(more…)

Former Drew County Judge Damon Lampkin and newly appointed District Court Judge P. Luevonda Ross were honored for their achievements at Monday night’s Martin Luther King birthday celebration by the NAACP.

This month several public meetings have been re-scheduled.

Quorum Court met on January 1, and will not hold their usual meeting.

City Council will likely meet on January 24, not January 17.

City Parks Committee will meet on Tuesday, January 15, not January 10.