Stories from Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Storm siren failure prompts purchase by Freistatt Village Board (06/15/11)
The Freistatt Village Board of Trustees voted to buy a new storm siren at their June meeting. Failure of the village's storm siren to work at all on May 22 when the tornado that hit Joplin approached the village prompted firefighter Brandon Wormington to drive around town in a fire truck with the siren running, urging people to take cover...

Purdy AmeriCorps responds to Joplin (06/15/11)
When the May 22 tornado devastated the Joplin community, a very special group of Purdy teachers sprang into action. The AmeriCorps Purdy Reading Coaches were called to assist in the disaster on Monday morning, according to Renae Neill, Purdy's AmeriCorps director. As soon as teachers finished up with the final day of classes on May 23, they were off to Joplin to help staff the phone banks for the American Red Cross...

Garden train tour returns to Monett (06/15/11)
The Ozark Garden Railway Society will host its 10th annual pre-convention tours for southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas June 18 through June 20. The pre-convention tour is free to the public and is being held in conjunction with the national convention which will be held in Kansas City June 21 through June 25...

Jump for a cause (06/15/11)
Starwalk Entertainment, of Oak Grove, Ark., recently hosted an event at the Monett City South Park, "Jump for Joplin." The company set up inflatables under the F-4 Phantom jet veterans memorial next to the city park lake. This was a free event for the community of Monett and the surrounding area to contribute to the city of Joplin following the tornado. ...

Estate buyers welcome family treasures (06/15/11)
Premiere Estate Buyers are in Monett this week to evaluate family treasures. Above, holding some of the items brought in this week, are, from left, Sara Heafner, of Godfrey, Ill., Sandy and Scott Kubala, of Farmington, and Brian Camp, of Roodhouse, Ill. Below,...

Freistatt Girls State delegates named (06/15/11)
The Ladies Auxiliary to the Hubert H. Kleiboeker American Post #419 in Freistatt has named its representatives to Girls State, the model government program to be held June 19 through June 25 at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Delegates for the Legion Auxiliary are Nicollette Fellwock, daughter of Phillip and Stacey Fellwock, of Monett; Ashton Gaddy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eric Gaddy, of Mt. Vernon; and Loren Schoen, daughter of Jeff and Amy Schoen, of Springfield...

WaterThrashers take third at Carthage meet (06/15/11)
The Monett WaterThrashers swam to a third-place team finish at the Carthage Invitational over the weekend, scoring 955.5 points in the two-day meet. The Siloam Springs Flyers won with 1,019 points, followed by the Joplin Stingrays with 1,005.5. A total of 12 teams participated, representing Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas...

Monett Speedway racing results (06/15/11)
The Monett Speedway tore up the track on Sunday. The Speedway ran a full slate of races with six feature races on the evening. Results for the races were as follows: Street Stock Heat Race #1 1. Jeremy Huffman 2. John Coats 3. Carl Davis 4. Nick Korte...

FFA officer interviews held at Verona High School (06/15/11)
The Area 11 FFA officer interviews were recently held at the Verona High School agriculture department. There were 16 candidates running for eight area offices. This year Monett FFA officer candidate was Jared Childress, pictured center. The candidates are scored on FFA knowledge test scores, FFA leadership points and the interview. The voting delegates were Leanna Marion, left and Bailey Pfitzner, right. Childress will be serving as president of the Monett FFA for the 2011-12 school year...

Monett Elementary celebrates first week of summer school (06/15/11)
Monett Elementary School recently celebrated the end of the first week of summer school with "Fun Friday." The students enjoyed water games, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and popsicles.