Monticello Live

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Around 5:20, Monday morning, this alligator, estimated to be approximately 6 ft. long, was found crossing HWY 277, near Tillar.

The gator’s presence prompted a phone call to the Monticello Police Dispatch, who sent a Drew County Sheriff’s deputy to the scene.

The gator was safely  taken into custody by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

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 MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Another alligator, estimated to be 9 feet in length,  was captured by AG&F officers in May, while trying to cross HWY 165, south of Dermott, in the Lake Wallace area of Drew County.  Drew County Sheriff’s deputies were also present.

The video of the May alligator capture has been viewed over 2,000 times on MLive.

Captured alligators are generally re-located to an appropriate habitat, where they will not be around people.

Click on the >< to enlarge

District Judge Ken Harper was on the meeting’s agenda to speak to the City Council Thursday night about the recent incident involving the MEDC and the courthouse doors, which led to an alleged incident between MEDC executive director Nita McDaniel and Harper.

MEDC president Benny Ryburn asked for a few minutes to speak about the incident. Ryburn said McDaniel and judge Teresa French had agreed on how to handle the door situation.

“I think everything has been blown out of proportion,” he said. “Mrs. McDaniel nor the MEDC have been in the wrong. She consulted with judge Teresa French, they came up with a solution to the problem of overcrowding at the front of the building. Read the rest of this entry »

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Spring break is over, and this is worth a re-post for the MMS students, who are returning to school today.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Monticello 6th grade students raised $4,773 for World Vision, to provide a water well in an undeveloped country.

Principal Jerry Martens is shown in the video swimming across the school pond, like he agreed to, if the students reached $3,100.

Also, 4 teachers agreed to spend Thursday night at school if $3,000 was reached, including Blake Abbott, who spent the night in a tent on top of the roof.

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A candlelight vigil was held Wednesday night at UAM’s Weevil Pond for Katlin Lidge.  Katlin was a member of the Kappa Eta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. fraternity, and was planning to graduate in May.

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Discussion of the need for a 3% water rate increase was brought before the Council by Mayor Allen Maxwell.

Because of an aging water system, maintenance, repairs and replacement costs are increasing significantly. It was pointed out that Monticello has some of the lowest water rates of any of the surrounding cities. Data for last year’s costs will be compiled and this matter will be discussed at upcoming meetings.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Also in the meeting, the Mayor advised the Council about the circumstances surrounding the Mt. Zion Water Association. It was decided that no further action would be taken until representatives for Mt. Zion appear before the Council.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

The 2010 Monticello Billies, who returned only 3 starters from their State Championshiop team, and still made it into the 2nd round of the playoffs, were recognized at the annual Billie Booster Banquet, Monday night.

Here is a list of the individuals award winners;

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During the “Mayor’s Report” at the City Council meeting, Mayor Allen Maxwell told the council an architect and an engineer will be here Friday to determine what will have to be done to repair the City Hall, MEDC, Fire Dept. and Police Dept. structures.

Maxwell said his goal is to get it to where “this entire building doesn’t leak”.  He specifically mentioned the leaks and falling ceiling tiles in the police dept., which have pans and buckets scattered around to catch the water.  He described the drippings as “tobacco juice” that has accumulated over the years.

Maxwell also updated the council on his work assembling a new parks commission and planning commission, and asked voluteers to contact him.

He also outlined his recent meetings with city  dept. heards.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

At Thursday night’s City Council meeting Mayor Allen Maxwell informed the council about financial issues faced by the city’s water department.

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MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

The Monticello City Council Thursday night voted to removed all city funding of the Monticello/Drew County Chamber of Commerce following new Monticello Mayor Allen Maxwell’s recommendation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tillar residents began a tradition, Thursday evening, with their 1st Annual Tillar Christmas Parade.

Among the items on the City Council meeting agenda Thursday night were resolutions to approve the city’s operating and sales tax budgets for 2011. 

When it came time for the operating budget’s approval, Carolyn Brown made a motion to postpone the vote until January to allow input from Mayor-elect Allen Maxwell on the decision. The motion to postpone the budget vote failed with a 4-4 tie, allowing the vote to approve the budget to proceed.

The operating budget for 2011 then passed with a 5-3 margin. Alderman Tim Chase (one of the three “no” votes)  stated, “I vote ‘no’ solely for the reason that I feel we should wait til January to pass it.  The budget’s fine. I just would like for the incoming mayor to have some input on it.”

When the budget for the sales and use tax came around,  Brown again made a motion to postpone the vote til January and it also failed with a 4-4 tie.

City attorney Bill Daniels reminded the council they can make an adjustment to the budget at anytime in the upcoming year, not just in December, as is the usual practice.

This budget also passed with a 5-3 margin.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

The Drew County Industry of the Year award was recently presented to Launius Enterprises, also known as The Marketplace, at the MEDC/Chamber of Commerce banquet. The Marketplace is a 47,000 square foot building in which space is offered to individuals and businesses in order to sell their products. This week’s One Monticello Life tells of the beginning and growth of The Marketplace and its owners, Gene and Shelly Launius.

When Gene and Shelly Launius moved to Monticello from Hector in order for Gene to continue his education in forestry, an idea like The Marketplace never crossed their minds. Years later after owning J&L Timber Company and Prestige Home Furnishings, they purchased the old building that currently houses The Marketplace in hopes to lease the property to other companies. After numerous failed attempts, Gene had an idea and started the wheels rolling.

The Marketplace opened in September of 2009 with 77 booth spaces available and one man’s dream of becoming “THE” place to shop in Southeast Arkansas. The booths completely filled up within a few months so work quickly began to open up more of the building for additional spaces. Located at 249 Hwy 425 North in what most Monticellonians remember as the old Safeway grocery store, The Marketplace currently has 190 retail booth spaces between two parts of the building with future plans of more being added once the third phase of the building is finished.

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The Monticello City Council approved an additional $20,000 to add to the currently allocated $45,000, from several years ago, to be used for renovations and improvements to the Monticello City Square.

The modernization project will take place in four stages:

1.   fountain
2.   sidewalks
3.   columns
4.   sod

This is the same topic of last week’s meeting, where council member Claudia Hartness argued with the rest of the council over the improvements.  At that meeting, the council asked the square improvement committee to provide a drawing and cost estimates, which led to Wednesday night’s meeting.

Last week’s video has been viewd 425 time, so far.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Click on the video above to go on a tour of the new Mainline Community Health Clinic in Monticello.  (Click on the “cloverleaf” to set it to full screen.)

Mainline’s Allan Nichols will take you on a tour of the facility, and explain many of the features of the clinic, and the services that they offer to Monticello and the surrounding area.

43 Veterans Attending Memorial Service

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Rep. Allen Maxwell

Mayor Joe Rogers

Videos below from Monday night’s Political Forum at Pilgrim’s Rest AME Church, featuring mayoral candiate Allen Maxwell and Mayor Joe Rogers.

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

The Monticello City Council approved an increase in city water rates at Thursday evening meeting.

Water rates will increase by 3%, except for the minimum usage bills, which will increase by 50 cents  per month.

MEDC director Truman Hamilton met with the Monticello City Council, Thursday night, for their planned committee meeting to discuss the process of dealing with properties that have been reported to be run down and/or abondoned.

After the meeting, MonticelloLive asked each of the eight council members if they were in favor of proceeding with the process of dealing with potentially “nuisance properties”, as explained by Hamilton.  The only council member who stated that he was opposed to the measures was Judge Clifton Bond.  All others stated that they were in favor of proceeding with the 9 steps, as they were described in the meeting.

Hamilton presented the following list to the group, outlining the order in which events are to take place in the process of dealing with the property owners of those potentially “nuisance properties.” Read the rest of this entry »

MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

 As the topic turned to tax related issues, Gay Griffith asked the County Attorney Cliff Gibson for a clarification as to what limits would bind the use of the “1400” account, which is a sales tax fund, that can have multiple designated purposes.   Basically, Gibson responded the court can set it’s own purpose for the money in that fund, as long as it’s done in a public forum, once a year.

Next, Arlene Russell asked to come before the court and discuss her feelings on the possible increase of millage taxes. Russell is reluctant to support the tax increase due to the fact that the county is not “hurting” for money. She feels that the county is likely going to be getting more money. She also mentioned that the Quorum Court should be paying for their own healthcare benefits.

“We pay for our own, and I don’t see how you can in good conscience take it out of the general fund,” stated Russell.

 After several comments from the Quorum Court about the ad velorum (millage) tax issue, they voted to leave the tax on property at the same rate that it has been set at since 1983, which is 1.8%.

Beverly Hudson lead a debate last Thursday during the regular city council meeting on condemning buildings for city clean ups. She opened the topic by showing pictures taken by Truman Hamilton depicting the old, abandoned buildings. Hudson wanted the council to enforce the ordinance already in place that states that if the council deems a building to be a nuisance they can condemn it and ask the owner to tear it down and clean it up, or if the owner refuses, the city can take down the building. Read the rest of this entry »

Click on the “cloverleaf” on the bottom of the video screen, to enlarge it to full screen view.

Drew County, Monticello, AR Fair Parade, 2009 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Click on the “box in a box” on the video player, to make the video full-screen.

Current research indicates that for students to grow as readers they need to read 1,000,000 (yes, that’s one million) words per year. In terms of books, that’s approximately 25 books of 200 pages in length.

To encourage students to make 1,000,000 words their goal for the year, Melissa Eason, literacy coach for grades 4-8 issued to middle school students at Drew Central the chal-lenge to read 25 books this school year. The campaign was known as the Twenty-five Book Campaign. The theme of Read Like a Rock Star was chosen. Drew Central students, Aaron and Alan Jones, wrote a rock song, “You Gotta Read to Succeed,” and their rock band, which includes their father, performed it at the campaign kick-off.

DC’S MRS EASON GET HEAD SHAVED AFTER STUDENTS READ 3400 BOOOKS from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Each student and staff member at Drew Central signed a pledge to try to read 25 books and kept a list of books read. To get credit for the books, students had to make 70% on the AR test or turn in a satisfactory literary letter about the books read. As an added incentive to get kids to read,

Mrs. Eason promised to shave her head if students read 3,100 books which would be the same as of if one-half of all fifth, sixth, and seventh graders read 25 books. This week when teachers turned in their class totals, students were congratulated for having met and surpassed the 3,100 book goal.

Drew Central Middle School Students read 3,400 books this year! It was time for Mrs. Eason to live up to her end of the bargain. At an early morning assembly today, Read the rest of this entry »

RELAY FOR LIFE-CARRIE WELLENBERGER’S TESTIMONY ABOUT HER CHILDREN-2009-04-24 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

RELAY FOR LIFE AWARDS-2009-04-24 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

RELAY FOR LIFE LUMINARIAS-2009-04-24 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

This year’s MADD sponsored DWI mock accident was held on the parking lot area of the Monticello High School, Monday.

This year’s event was held in honor of Dustin “Rooster” Ferguson.

The first video show the accident re-enactment.
The second covers Steve Brantley’s comments about the event.
The last video is of Dustin Ferguson’s mother’s statements from Monday, which was the first time she has spoken publicly about the wreck that took Dustin’s life.

MADD MOCK DWI 2009-04-13 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

Dustin’s parents came out to speak for the first time since the accident. His mom told the students attending, “Sept. 22, 2008, two days after his 19th birthday, our son lost his life from a drunk driver. One choice of an indivdual changed our lives and our community. I stand before you as Dustin’s voice. His plans and his dreams could not be achieved because of the choice of another. Remember your choice affects everyone.”

DVD video’s of last year’s presentation are available at James Quick Print.

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