Stories from Monday, July 25, 2011

He's been away, but now he's back. The staff of the Poinsett County Democrat Tribune welcomes Anthony Cossey onboard, who will be doing ad sales and serving as sports editor. Born and raised in Trumann, Cossey has been living in Gadsden, Alabama since 2001 where he and his wife of 25 years, Kim, worked as houseparents at a children's home. For the last four years, Cossey has done sports photography and covered games when needed for the Gadsden Messenger. Now he's back in Trumann after ten and a half years away. "I'm getting reacquainted with the community," Cossey said. "I'm really excited to be back close to family and all the friends we grew up with. It's been a smooth transition." "I'm very excited to be doing sports here. My first sports page is in this week's paper, and I'm excited to see what it's going to look like." Cossey's favorite sport is football and his favorite teams include the Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, the Arkansas Razorbacks, and the ASU Red Wolves. On the ad sales side of things, Cossey covers existing clients, looks for new businesses to advertise, and does sales for special insert sections as well as the quarterly Delta Crossroads publication. He'll be covering Marked Tree, Lepanto, Tyronza, and some of Trumann. "I like both the sports and ad sales side," Cossey said. "It's going to be fun and challenging learning the ad sales side of it." Feel free to contact Anthony at acossey@democrattribune.com for any ad sales needs or sports stories.

Kim Wortham, a born and bred Trumann native, has joined the Poinsett County Democrat-Tribune family, bringing with her a spunky personality and a warm smile. Wortham has lived in the area her whole life. One of the reasons she loves Trumann is because most of family lives here too. Wortham has one son, Zevyn Wilson. Throughout the years, she has worked in the childcare industry and worked for Frito Lay for two and a half years. Now she has teamed up with the Democrat-Tribune to try her hand at ad sales in Trumann, Bay, Harrisburg, Jonesboro and Wiener. "I'm most excited about meeting new people and learning the business," said Wortham. "I love a job were I get to talk." Wortham's family is close-knit, bonding over sporting events. In fact, Wortham plans on helping out with the sports section by taking photos and occasionally covering an event. One of Wortham's passions is cooking. "My favorite thing to watch is Food Network," she said. "My family is always cooking together." Wortham's other passion is people. "I'm excited about getting to know everyone in the community. This is a great place to work because everyone is so close." To contact Kim Wortham for ad related questions call the Democrat-Tribune office at (870) 483-6317 or email her at kwortham@democrattribune.com.

Entergy donated 25 fans to the East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging in Trumann Thursday, July 14. The Area Agency on Aging has been in business for over 25 years and is currently run by Mary Williams, Poinsett County Case Manager. The Area Agency on Aging provides services for seniors and local residents with disabilities. Some of these services include the Elder Choices program, which helps seniors remain in their homes or relative's home, non-emergency medical transportation, independent living services, the Foster Grandparent Program, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and various wellness and lifestyle programs. The Area Agency on Aging also can install Personal Emergency Response Systems, or PERS, in the homes of elderly residents. Medicaid covers most of the services, and if a person doesn't have Medicaid and meets the criteria, the Area Agency on Aging helps find a source of money for that person to receive care. The fans donated by Entergy will go to help keep senior citizens who cannot afford or do not have a proper cooling system from dangerous heat levels during the summer months. "I already have a list of people who are in need of a fan," said Williams. "There is still a large demand. The need is always great." Along with Williams, Sherry Way works at the Area Agency on Aging as an RN and Lisa Chris is the office manager.

Aaron's has moved to a new location in Trumann and Tuesday, July 19, was their grand opening celebration. They have remodeled the old video store in Trumann, on the corner of Hwy 69 and 463, and have turned the building into a fresh, modern showroom, stocked full of comfy couches, classic coffee tables and big screen televisions. Fred Pearson and Geron Vail entered the Trumann market in 1996 when they purchased Dot's Trading Post, which was located on the corner of Main Street and Ozark. They changed the name of the business to Payless Rentals and, within a year, they moved the business to the shopping center on the southeast end of town. Later, Pearson and Vail purchased the former post office building across from the school on Hwy 463 and the name was changed to FAN Sales and Leasing, doing business as Furniture and Appliances Now. In 2005, Vail bought Peason's interest in the company and in July of 2010, FAN became an Aaron's Franchisee and converted all of its stores to Aaron's. "Allen Armstrong is the General Manager," said Vail. "He and his team have done a wonderful job converting to the Aaron's system and way of running the business. Trumann has always been a very good market for Pearson and Vail. We are very grateful for the good relationships we have with our customers, the city and other businesses in town." Aaron's is a publicly traded company with over 1800 stores in North America. Roughly a third of those stores are owned by franchises and the rest are corporately owned. They are a retail store based on both sales and leasing. "We have the lowest prices guaranteed," said Armstrong. "Our customers are always preapproved and we offer 120 days same as cash." For more information about Aaron's drop by the store, located at the corner of Hwy 69 and 463 or call 870-483-7076. DeAndre Holmes, a proud Aaron's employee, summed up the atmosphere of the day nicely, "Nobody beats Aaron's, nobody."

Susan Christian, Vice President of Marketing for Ritter Communications, spoke to the Marked Tree Rotary Club last week about Tubetown, the new tv channel Ritter Cable TV has premiered. "Tubetown is a new local channel geared toward Northeast Arkansas and aimed at local communities," Christian said. "The channel has always been called Channel 21. We recently decided to give it a name and a brand to fill a gap that's missing on tv: local activities." Christian said that in the past, Channel 21 has always had high school football, but now Ritter Cable TV is taking things a step further by producing original programming for Tubetown. Original programs so far include: Simply Cooking, with Chef Marco, a cooking show starring Marco Trimarchi, a chef from Piero's, and Golfing the Natural State, which gives on-location overviews of local golf courses in Arkansas by Bud Schroeppel. Other programming includes high school football and basketball, which will air games weekly on a delayed/replay basis. Tubetown also features sports from SEC schools like the Arkansas Razorbacks. ASU games air on Tuesday nights. There is also a show that highlights the best hunting and fishing around the state called Ozark Outdoor Adventures. A wrestling program called New Experience Wrestling will also air. This show features the students of Nightmare Ken Wayne School for Professional Wrestling. "We've been asked to put wrestling on the air for some time," Christian said. "There's a lot of demand for it, and this is a popular school with some impressive names." Christian said some possibilities for original programming in the future include covering community events, council meetings, holiday events and charity coverage. "Tubetown is continuing to evolve, and we encourage ideas from the community for stuff to participate in and future ideas for programming," Christian said. Christian also mentioned Channel 17, Fox Sports Plus, which has all the Cardinals games that are covered on-air. These games used to be on Channel 21.

The Trumann Chamber of Commerce held their Business After Hours at Southern Bancorp, Tuesday, July 19. Pictured is Mayor Sheila Walters speaking with Trumann's new Superintendent, Myra Graham and Assistant Superintendent, David Rutledge. (DT Photo/JACKIE WILSON)

After being closed for remodeling since December, Marked Tree Delta Area Museum reopened this summer with some new faces. A native of the area and former literature teacher, Marolyn Robbins-Garr will be serving as curator for the museum. Born and raised in Marked Tree, Robbins-Garr has been away for a while but has returned home. She said she is thrilled at the opportunity to work with the museum. "I would have been a history major if not for my love of literature," Robbins-Garr said. "It's just a joy to work with these things. I feel like a kid getting to play in the museum. We're glad to have unusual things for the young people. We're giving the museum a new start." There are several galleries in the 4,800-square-foot museum. The first gallery is a reproduction of an old general store. The main gallery displays several aspects of the area's history including local American Indian pottery from around AD 1300-1400, a telephone display which includes a switchboard from the old Portis Telephone Company, a 500-pound cotton bale, and a loom and spinning wheel among other items. The middle gallery changes its exhibits a couple times a year. It has a reproduction of a back porch and currently has a kitchen display and several locally-produced models of buildings such as a jail, a shotgun house, and the Floating Palace -- a honky-tonk that floated on the river during Marked Tree's earlier days. The final gallery is a medical display, which encompasses four rooms and incorporates several hospital items that came from the Verser Hospital Clinic in Harrisburg, which closed in the 1970s. Some of the items in this display date back to 1913. Robbins-Garr said she would like to do a school exhibit during the Cotton Pickin' Jubilee featuring past displays of past decades since several people will be back in town for class reunions around that time. Other possibilities for future displays include a Native American display and a military display. She would also like to do some fashion displays representing different decades. "I'm looking for men's fashions," she said. "I don't know if anyone has an old zoot suit lying around." The Delta Area Museum is part of the Tri-City Area Cultural Council and covers the history of the towns in the surrounding area, not just Marked Tree. They are always looking for donated items to add to their collections, especially items from the 1800s through the 1940s. Behind the scenes, the museum has several rooms set aside for preserving items not currently on display such as clothes, hats, and toys. From time to time, many of these items will be brought back out to change up the displays. A recent acquisition is a filing cabinet for storing receipts from the Frank Fleeman Grocery store that was found in Clay County. The museum is currently open from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Sunday and 9 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturday.