Stories from Monday, June 16, 2003

On Thursday, June 5, the Poinsett County Sheriff's Department began to receive several complaints from the Lepanto area of vandalism to farm shops and power well units. An auxiliary deputy, who is also a farmer, worked Thursday night in an attempt to catch the vandals...

In a short meeting Monday night, the East Poinsett County Board of Education decided to hold on employing an individual to work exclusively on the buses that the school owns. In the meeting, held on the Lepanto campus, board members debated the pros and cons of hiring a person to do maintenance on the school's buses. ...

Governor Mike Huckabee has activated disaster recovery services through the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) and the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) to assist homeowners in counties with uninsured losses from tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flooding that struck the state beginning May 16...

The Crowley's Ridge Development Council (CRDC) Board of Directors will meet in regular session at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at the CRDC Head Start Complex, 213 North Fisher Street in Jonesboro. Board members from the eight-county CRDC service area will gather at that time to act on matters affecting the numerous community service programs supported by the agency...

Graveside services for Carl E. Rorie, 79, of Jonesboro, who died Thursday, June 5, at St. Bernard's Medical Center, were held at 2 p.m. Sunday in Pordue Cemetery at Onia. Logan Lawrence officiated. Rorie lived in Arkansas the past several years. He was a retired farmer and truck driver. He was of the Baptist faith...

Reda I. Strickland, 76, of Pocahontas, died on Friday, June 6, 2003. She was born in Dexter, Mo. on May 19, 1927, the daughter of the late Ed and Pearl Hooker Cates. Strickland was a member of the Baptist Church and a homemaker. Survivors include her husband, Clifford Strickland of Pocahontas; one son, Ronnie Strickland of Pocahontas; two grandchildren, Scott Strickland of Pocahontas and Kristin Strickland of Fayetteville; one great-grandson, Ryne Strickland of Pocahontas; two brothers, Leland Cates of Tumbling Shoals and Wayne Cates of Trumann; and several nieces and nephews.. ...

The Lepanto Inner-City League recently held its annual awards banquet and presented awards to each player who participated in this year's league. In the banquet, held at the EPC-Lepanto Cafeteria last Thursday, 11 teams from three different leagues were rewarded for their efforts. ...

The Marked Tree 7-8 year old baseball team finished in fourth place last weekend, in a tournament held in Marked Tree. In the tournament, which was set up as a pool-play format, the team, coached by Michael Bell, Jeremy Bond, Boyd Duvall and Tommy McCrary battled against four other teams from Northeast Arkansas in their own division. ...

Sports news items that have fallen through the cracks, for the week of June 12, 2003: Monk sweepstakes begin: It appears that EPC standout athlete Marcus Monk has caught the interests of schools from all the major conferences in America. According to the website, http://www.scout.theinsiders.com, Monk is a top recruit who has picked up high interest in the last few months. ...