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A small child’s life was saved Saturday afternoon around 1:30, at the Super 8 Motel swimming pool, thanks to the quick thinking and actions of a father and daughter (the Rose family) of Colorado. (more…)

The weekend’s two day free dental clinic, sponsored by ArMOM (Arkansas Mission of Mercy) has come to an end, with a lasting benefit to 1,254 south Arkansas residents.

Dr. Terry Fiddler, director of the program, told MonticelloLive that 3,001 teeth were extracted from patients, and thousand’s of fillings were done.

The value of the services that were provided for free would have cost, $760,000, if they had to be paid for.

125 dentist and 798 volunteers made the event possible.

Comments from patients included, “Thank you so much, I couldn’t afford to have this done,” “This is such a  blessing,” and “This will make my life so much better, I’ll be able to eat regular food again.”

Thanks to everyone that made this event possible; dentists, volunteers, UAM, and the other businesses that provided products and services. (more…)

You can save most website as “shortcuts” or “icons” on your desktop by placing you mouse over a blank portion of the site, right clicking on it, and selecting “create shortcut”. Your computer will ask you if you want to, and just click yes. The icon will be there for “one click” access in the future. You can also use that method to go directly to specific pages of websites, such as “classifieds” or “UAM Sports” on MLive, or any page on other sites, to save you wasting time just “passing through” useless pages.

Here is a list of local websites that you may want to keep handy.

MonticelloLive.com

City of Monticello

Drew County Sheriff’s Dept.

MEDC

Chamber of Commerce

UAM

Monticello Schools

Drew Central Schools

Drew Memorial Hospital

Hope Place Pregnancy & Family Center

Workforce Training Center

Local Veteran’s Office Info.

AA Winners Group

Alanon

CASA

Advantages of Southeast Arkansas

Commercial Bank

Union Bank

Ryburn Automotive Superstore

Luckys of Monticello

Monticello Airport Weather Conditions

County Assessor’s Records

Drew County Conservation District

Designs By A.J.

SeaArk Boats

War Eagle Boats

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Phoenix Renewable Energy, based out of Hot Springs, received a “cease and desist” letter from the Arkansas Securities Dept., for inducing investors to put up around $1.4 million, to be converted to stock in the German Stock Market. 

A press release from the state also stated that over $330,000 had been paid out to Phoenix’s development director, Stephen Walker, and CEO Sam Anderson.

Phoenix Renewable Energy is the company that held their ceremonial ground breaking in Camden 9 months ago, but has done little else, there.  They were also discussed at an Intermodal Facility meeting last year, as having contacted several other southeast Arkansas communities, about the possibility of expanding in this area, along with their $180 million Camden facility.

Locations toured in hopes of adding a large employer like Phoenix promised to be, included Monticello, Warren, and Rison, among others.

The “cease and desist” order doesn’t close the company, but certainly limits the availability of funds for a potential start-up.

This story has been covered by KTHV channel 11 and Arkansas Democrat, among others, but didn’t include the local references, except for Camden.

Phoenix Renewable is not affiliated with either of the other two bio-mass, bio-fuel entities that are also interested in expansion into the Monticello area.

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.

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Just before 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, Ward Rabb, a local pilot, was returning to Monticello from a trip to Kansas, when the single propeller airplane he was flying, began having engine trouble, and had to perform an emergency landing, on HWY 425 North, near Campground Road.

According to Drew County Sheriff Mark Gober, Rabb had contacted the FAA, prior to landing the plane on the highway. Neither the pilot or the plane’s other passenger were injured.

The plane, shown here, was pushed into a nearby yard; repaired; and then took off, disappearing over a hill, as spectators watched.

According to Lt. Jason Akers of the 10th Drug Task Force, a Central Arkansas based methamphetamine trafficking operation was shut down by Task Force Agents this past week.

According to Akers, an investigation into methaphetamine traffickers from Little Rock, Arkansas that began in Monticello resulted in the arrest of several suspects believed to be involved in bringing the drug to Bradley, Drew and other counties throughout the State. 

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A 21 year old Monticello man was arrested on a warrant by the Monticello Police Dept, last week and is being held on a $300,00 bond, following his 1st appearance hearing Thursday. (more…)

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.

Documents filed with the Drew County Circuit Clerks office show the the charges against Robbie Taylor have been “nolle prossed”, by the prosecuting attorney’s office, due to issues involving evidence. 

The court order includes the phrases,”without prejudice,” and “insufficient evidence to convict the defendant at this time.” (more…)

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U.S. Representative Mike Ross met with representatives of Drew County’s “Twenty for the Future” group in his Washington, D.C., office Wednesday, during their visit to the nation’s capital to meet with federal legislators.

Ross, as well as our other elected Washington delegation members, met with the group to discuss Monticello and Drew County’s economic challenges and needs and how best to facilitate economic growth in the region.

Items on the agenda to be covered included:
University of Arkansas at Monticello, for funding of projects for the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, the School of Nursing, and to replace the university’s current phone system.
Drew Memorial Hospital intended to request funding for an electronic medical records system, a nurse call system, a digital mammogram machine, a 64-slice tomography scanner, and a telemetry system for the E.R.
The City of Monticello planned to point out the  benefits of a potential Monticello community center.
Other topics to be discussed were: I-530, the Southeast Arkansas Regional Library to build a new library the local Intermodal Facility, and nearby Yellow Bend Port.

Meeting were held Wednesday, and the group is returning to Monticello, today.

Just before noon Monday, the driver of the vehicle shown here was attempting to park outside of Western Sizzlin’, and reportedly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal of the car.

The car then crashed through the wall and window of the restaurant, injuring 3 customers while they were eating their lunch.

Two of the injured customers were taken by ambulance to Drew Memorial; the third was being transported by personal vehicle.

Monticello police, fire & rescue, Drew County sheriff’s deputies, and Arkansas State Police responded to the scene.

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Between 9:30-10 p.m., Tuesday evening, as many North and South Gabbert Street residents were getting ready for quiet night’s rest, police lights and sirens caught everyone’s attention, not once, but twice, as a police chase that began in McGehee, after a reported domestic disturbance, headed toward Lincoln County, and then turned south, traveling down HWY 83, North Gabbert Street,  and South Gabbert Street, before the driver hit a dead end and reversed, traveling back north on South Gabbert and North Gabbert, then east on Oakland, north on Cooper, and finally gave up at the end of East Calhoun Street

The pursuit, which started with McGehee police, grew to include Arkansas State Police Troop E and Troop F patrol units, as well as Drew County deputies and Monticello police officers.

At the dead end of Calhoun Street, the suspect stopped the car, and officers quickly took  the driver and female passenger out of the vehicle, and placed them under arrest. (more…)

Following Monday’s MLive story “New Year’s Eve Bullet Lands in Child’s Bed”, reports of another home being hit by New Year’s Eve stray bullets have been reported to MonticelloLive.

A home near the intersection of East Jackson and Cherry Streets was hit, not only once New Year’s Eve, but twice. (more…)

New Year’s Eve brought with it the usual activities, Thursday night, however the rain and cool temperatures seem to reduce the number of people celebrating.

Monticello Police arrested 3 drivers that were charged with DWI, proving the phrase, “if you drive hammered, you’ll probably get nailed” to be true.

Several churches held New Year’s events as well.  The top photo is from Mt. Pleasant Campground United Methodist Church held a  “sing in the new year” recognizing the music of Gospel Music Publisher, Songwriter, Music and Singing School Teacher, Singer and Musician Marty Phillips, and his wife Ann.  Marty’s song, “What a Meeting in the Air” has been featured in one of Bill Gaither’s Homecoming videos.

Immanuel Baptist Uth took part in a lock-in, overnight.  Shady Grove and Holmes Chapel also had activities planned.

The Robin Hood Family, Andy Brannon, and others joined together in an “all night singing” at Christ Church.

This photo was taken by a MLive reader, while she was waiting at the stop light on HWY 425 North at the HWY 278 intersection.

Like they used to say on Sesame Street, “one of these thing doesn’t belong here.”

There was no wreck, and no one was injured.

MEDC president Benji Ryburn announced at the Monticello City Council meeting Thursday night that the Ridgeway Hotel project has been approved by the Arkansas Development Finance Authority to receive $5.4 million in funding.

The city agreed several months ago to provide up to $32,000 in sidewalk and lighting improvements to the area, which will house the Ridgeway’s 32 elderly, low income residential units.

The project is expect to have much better benefits from exchange tax credits, than have been available recently.

Ryburn received an e-mail shortly before the meeting, and expects all of the details to become official in a month, when the actual letter arrives.

The Drew County Housing Authority has agreed to provide gap funding, if needed, up to $500,000.

“The Ridgeway” was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in February. (more…)

A Drew County jury found Benjamin Briney not guilty of aggravated animal cruelty, following the admitted beating to death of a horse on August 1, with a baseball bat.

This is Arkansas’ first attempt at prosecuting someone under the new “felony aggravated animal cruelty” law that went into effect as of midnight on July 31.  The death of this horse occurred approximately one hour later. (more…)