Stories from Friday, August 21, 2009

The Trumann Chamber of Commerce announced the 2009 Wild Duck Festival will be Sept. 25 and 26. All crafters, vendors, musicians and those who might be interested in being a part of this event are invited to contact the Chamber for an application. Please call the Trumann Chamber at 870-483-5424 during normal working hours or call 870-930-6918 after 5 p.m...

As you pass to and from Jonesboro and Memphis, you are seeing a recreational park taking shape at the Marked Tree exit. There are four baseball fields, lighted, a very nice concession stand whose crowning roof you mainly see as you pass. ...

I once opined that the arguments in Washington don't change, just the sides arguing do. Just look at the current health care debate and compare it to the debate over adding prescription drugs to Medicare a few years ago...

This is the first of a series of columns for you, our readers, about how things work here at the newspaper. I guess in the day to day grind of things we newspaper folk tend to take for granted that our readers magically know why we do some things the way we do them. ...

Shelby Nicole Johnson and Brian Collier Lovins of Marked Tree were married Saturday, May 23 at Church Street Station in Jonesboro. The double-ring ceremony was performed by Ron Lovins, father of the groom...

Trumann city council will hold a special session Thursday to consider purchasing land to build a retention pond in order to relieve flooding on Mulberry Street. The council decided to table an ordinance last week giving Mayor Sheila Walters the go ahead to buy the 45 acres after some council members questioned the $162,000 asking price...

The city of Trumann has been named Employer of the Year by a national senior workers program. Experience Works, a national, charitable, community-based organization that helps older adults get the training they need to find good jobs in their community, picked Trumann as the Arkansas 2009 Experience Works Champion...

Democrat Tribune News The Harrisburg City Council met in regular session Tuesday, Aug. 11 and addressed two primary issues: the necessity of new accounting software and neglected property at 206 Verser...

Elber Louis Jones Sr. recently announced his candidacy for Trumann School Board, Position 2. Jones and his wife Lind have been married 15 years. They have one child, Erika, who is in the ninth grade. They also have nine grandchildren, four of which are in the Trumann School District. Jones, his wife and their daughter are members of McCormick Baptist Church...

In what came down to a 6-2 vote the Marked Tree City council agreed to pay Associated Engineers of Jonesboro an additional $83,000 in engineering fees to complete the construction of the city's parks and recreation complex. The $83,000 is to be paid on top of the $195,000 in fees the engineering firm originally quoted as an estimate of services to the council...

The Old Community House was transformed last week into a 1950s era juke joint joint as members of the Trumann Lions Club heard a pitch from one of their own about an idea to secure Trumann's place in Rock n' Roll history. Mark Randall, who has been writing news stories about the club as a guest member for the last year, spoke to the Lions about the possibility of starting a rockabilly museum to promote a unique chapter in the city's history...

The Marked Tree City council tabled a resolution to hire an engineer to write a grant for an airport project during its regular meeting Monday, August 10. Mayor Dixon Chandler asked the council to approve Associated Engineers to write a $400,000 grant for new hangars to be built at the Marked Tree airport. If received, the state will award $320,000 with a stipulation that the city match the remaining 20%, or $80,000...

Trumann city employees and elected officials will see more in their paycheck starting this week. The city council last week approved a three percent pay raise for all full time employees and elected officials. "We wanted to do something because our community is only as good as our employees," said Alderman Larry Henderson who chairs the city's budget and finance committee. "We have some great, great people."...

Anybody that knows Debbie Brinkley knows that Rotary is bound to come up somewhere in the course of the conversation. As an educator, trainer, public speaker andmother, Brinkley has over 30 years experience working with families and children in schools, churches and businesses...

MARKED TREE -- Charles Bradley, Jr., 84, died Friday, Aug. 7 at Three Rivers Nursing Center in Marked Tree. Born in Tuckerman April 5, 1925 to Charles and Vandora Bradley, he lived in Marked Tree his entire life as a confirmed bachelor...

MARKED TREE -- Cecil Littleton "Shady" Shaver, 93, of Marked Tree and of Leawood, Kan., died Aug. 13, 2009. He was born in Jonesboro July 24, 1916 to Cecil E. and Edna Shaver. He married Favorita Elizabeth Payne in 1938 and lived in the Marked Tree area until after he death in 2002 when he moved to Leawood, Kan...

LEPANTO -- Sherri Rena Sweeney, 48, of Lepanto died Friday, Aug. 14 at Great River Medical Center in Blytheville. Born July 21, 1961 in Lepanto, she was a homemaker and of the Baptist faith. She was preceded in death by her mother, Bettye Foster...

Orilla Concila Roden Wood, 97 of Trumann died Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 at NEA Baptist Hospital in Jonesboro. She was born in Chewalla, Tenn., and had lived most of her lifetime in Trumann moving there from Corinth, Miss. She was a homemaker and a member of the First Baptist Church...