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.

P.Q. Gardner and DeAnna Doherty

Drew County Developmentally Disabled, including Sesame School, The Other Way, and other operations in surrounding couties.

The Marketplace

Monticello Schools, Emily White

Drew Central Schools, Alan Goodding

UAMonticello, Jim Edson

James & Rene Knowles family, of Possum Valley.

Click here for the feature article that MonticelloLive posted when James & Rene were announced as the Drew County Farm Family of the Year, in July.

Stephanie Harton operates the weigh station for Potlatch, and provides the weather forecast for for their drivers.

Her “dream job” was to do the weather on the radio.  Thanks to the CBS morning show’s “Dream Job” series, that dream came true.

Last Friday, Harton was featured on the CBS Early Show, where she wasa shown broadcasting the weather on The Point 94.1.  She also got to go do the weather at KTHV Channel 11.

Stephanie told MonticelloLive, “The most fun I had was doing the afternoon show with Mike Kennedy and Sharpe Dunaway the past couple Fridays, I wish that was my full time job.”

Wireless Internet is now available at Monticello’s McCloy Park, thanks to the City of Monticello and Cablevision.

Wireless service will soon be installed at Jordan Park, as well.

After four years with KTHV, Charles Crowson is leaving Arkansas for a new position as morning anchor/multi-media journalist with WMAR in Baltimore, Maryland.

“It was an opportunity I simply couldn’t pass up,” Crowson said while signing off during his final broadcast on Today’s THV This Morning Oct. 29. “Arkansas is my home. It always has been and always will be, regardless of where my career takes me.” (more…)

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The local blogs are back.

The local blog list is back in operation, at the top of the page. It had been for updates.

If you have a blog on the list, now would be a great time to update it.

To add your blog to the list, send an e-mail to Joe@MonticelloLive.com.

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Matthew Womack, age 46, of Panama City, FL passed away on October 11, at UAMS in Little Rock, from injuries he sustained in a collision with a chip truck at the intersection of the new HWY 35 bypass and HWY 425 North, on Sept. 27. 

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Tuesday, a Nissan 4-wheel drive pick-up, which was reported as being stolen back in 2004, was pulled out of the Old HWY 13, Plantersville Road Access end of Lake Monticello.

With the recent lack of rain, the water level in Lake Monticello is much lower than usual, and allowed the top of the truck to be seen by someone fishing from their boat.

The truck was located in water estimated to be  9 feet deep, approximately 50 from the boat ramp.

The ongoing investigation is being done by the Drew County Sheriff’s Dept.  The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and the Fire Dept. Dive Team assisted Triple A Towing in the recovery of the Nissan from the lake.

Eric Chisom and Kyle Berryman of the Fire Dept. are shown in the lake, as the truck is being towed out.

The photo was provided by monticellobigbass.com.

The Drew County Fairground’s educational exhibit building, mysteriously, had it’s roof  “blown” off, Monday afternoon between 1:30 and 3:30.

The fairgrounds was destroyed , to a large extent, back in May, 2009, by a tornado, and this building’s roof was rebuilt and re-attached, as indicated by the “shinier” tin before the roof-line.

The new roof is now laying in large sections on the north side of the building, and doesn’t provide any clues as to what happened this afternoon.

The Monticello Airport reported no wind gusts Monday afternoon stronger than 15 miles per hour.

There was no electricity or gas hooked up to the building, and an explosion of some type does not appear to be the cause for the damage.

When informed about the damage to the structure, many fair board member’s were in disbelief, after the recent history of fairground’s structures, being destroyed by weather and wind.

MonticelloLive.com celebrated it’s 3rd birthday last week, since operations were taken over by Joe Burgess (“the MonticelloLive guy”) back in October, 2007.

Readership has grown consistantly over the 3 year period, as shown by the 1.8 million pageviews that the site has received over in the past year, averaging 150,000 pageviews each month.   Just click on the black, white, & orange One Stat.com logo at the bottom left of MonticelloLive newspages, to view updated statistics.

MonticelloLive is still designed to be “User Friendly”, with all current news stories on the front page.  For school lunch menus, obituaries, yard sales, or the classifieds, they’re just one click away, at the top of the page.

News and events may be submitted to MonticelloLive by sending an e-mail to joe@MonticelloLive.com.

If you are around town and see a guy in a MonticelloLive.com shirt, that’s probably Joe. You many want to slow down, because there may be a car wreck, fire, or other event nearby that would be better to read about, than be a part of.

And, of course, “Happy Anniversary” to the sponsors that make our time together each morning possible.

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At this time, we’d also like to announce that MonticelloLive has implemented a new policy concerning the posting of reader’s comments.

Positive comments are welcome and encouraged.

However, certain readers have felt that MonticelloLive was designed to be a forum to annonymously post comments intended to start rumors, stir up controversy, emphasize their specific causes, or insult another party.

While comments have been moderated in the past, before being posted: that policy will now be more specific, as to the negativity that has previously been accepted.  I agree with everyone’s “Freedom of speech”, but that does not include the “freedom to insult.”

Comments that are supportive of someone receiving an honor, or losing a loved one are appropriate; while, name-calling and comments that appear to only be meant to “draw fire” will not be posted.

While the embarrassment of someone that has been arrested may begin with an article that tells the public of that person’s list of charges, it does not seem appropriate to publicly detail every act that led them to this point.

Please remember, with over 1.8 million pageviews in the past year, MonticelloLive continues to be Monticello’s leading daily news source; a locally owned and operated business, providing a service to it’s readers.

Since taking over operation of MonticelloLive, it has been my intention to cover the news and events that affect Monticello and Drew County, not to provide a public discussion forum for the benefit of annonymous individuals hiding behind false e-mail addresses.

All comments will be read by MonticelloLive management, but the standards that must be met for them to be publicly posted has been raised.

MonticelloLive.com reserves the right to reject or remove any comment.  MonticelloLive.com does not endorse or adopt any comment.  Comments do not reflect the views or opinions of MonticelloLive or it’s owners, employees or associates.

Your understanding in this matter is appreciated.

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A jury of 6 men and 6 women took approximately 30 minutes to find Col. Robert Avery not guilty of the charge of sexual assault of a former student of the Warren ROTC program director.

The alleged victim had reported 3 different dates during late October 2009, as being the date the single act took place, included homecoming Friday, Halloween, and the date that she testified to in court.

She also admitted, on the witness stand,  that she had lied to Arkansas State Police investigators about prior sexual activity.

Although her “skin DNA” was found on a couch cushion, where the alleged intercourse took place, there was no other form of DNA present there.  This seemed important, due to the 17 year old’s testimony that the act lasted “around an hour” and based on her “cycle”.

In summary, the jury did not believe that Avery had sex with the former student, who was a part of the ROTC program he supervised at Warren High School.

Robert Gibson and Cliff Gibson represented Avery, all of whom were pleased with the jury’s decision.

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A fire was reported at the Sadie Johnson Community Center in Jordan Park around 5 o’clock Saturday afternoon.

The Monticello Fire Dept. responded, but flames had already burned through the north rear wall and roof of the building when they arrived. (more…)

As workers at the Ridgeway were removing old plaster inside of the “old pool hall” , they discovered this sign for Horse-Shoe Feeds.

The sign was likely painted between 1912 and 1929.

It  is located on the east wall of the HMWells building, which was an outside wall during that time period.

Around 3 pm, Friday afternoon, a grass fire in a field at the end of Old Troy Road crossed into a nearby forest, and started a major forest fire, southeast of Monticello.  The fire, according to Sheriff Mark Gober, was likely started by a downed power line.

An early estimate from someone at the scene indicates that around 200 acres of timberland were destroyed.

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