Stories from Tuesday, January 13, 2015

If last week's wrestling action was a test for the Monett wrestling team, its final grade, according to Coach Daryl Bradley, was an "A". Bradley crammed four dual matches into Thursday and Friday, and then ran his wrestlers through the meat grinder Monett Invitational Tournament on Saturday...

What a difference a month can make. The Purdy boys basketball team had a long heart-to heart meeting about a month ago after 67-61 loss at Miller. The subject of that meeting was to refocus a young team that was struggling. Coach Tommy Egan told his team that they needed to pull together and focus on doing the little things right if they hoped to win this season...

Licenses issued at the Lawrence County Courthouse Pedro Jose Figueroa, 23, Brookline, to Danielle Nichole Valdez, 22, Brookline, Dec. 26. Matthew Shane Maples, 44, Aurora, to Stacey Lynn Willis-Center, 44, Aurora, Dec. 26. Jason Ray Ward, 32, Mt. Vernon, to Kelly Marie Schmidt, 33, Mt. Vernon, Dec. 30...

Purdy Flowers and Gifts donated a diaper cake to the winner of The Monett Times annual First Baby Contest and was omitted from the announcement story list. The Ozark Christian Writers Guild will meet at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15 at First Baptist Church, South Highway 37 in Monett. For additional information, people may call 235-7209...

Aurora fire officials are waiting for a report from the fire marshal on the fire that heavily damaged the New Hope Fellowship Church, at 36 E. Cline St., in Aurora on Sunday.

A Seligman man was seriously injured in a wreck Friday afternoon on Highway 37, two miles north of Seligman. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, 33-year-old Joseph Carroll, of Seligman, was driving a 1997 Toyota Corolla northbound on Highway 37 at about 4:22 p.m. when his vehicle ran off the right side of the roadway and struck a tree...

Mark Conn will present a history of the Knights of Columbus fraternity in Lawrence County at the next meeting of the Lawrence County Historical Society. It starts at 2 p.m. on Jan. 18 at the MRC Museum in Mt. Vernon. Conn will include a look at the history of the Catholic church in Verona and Aurora, as well as mention of the Menace publishing company, which produced a virulent nationally-distributed anti-minority, anti-Catholic weekly newspaper from 1911 to 1919 in Aurora...

Market Fresh, a Nixa-based produce marketing and distribution company, formally opened operations in Monett last week after completing renovations as part of acquiring the former 16,000-square-foot Harlin Fruit Company facility, located at 602 N. 17th St...

Innovations and new safeguards provided additional resources for the technology department for the Monett School District over the past year. Technology specialists Melody Paige and Stephen McMillin studied the district's system, including reviewing requests from help desks at the middle school and high school, the ticketing system provided through Spice Works, plus an assessment from AOS Technologies, which focuses on the security of servers and devices in the system...

Clark Community Mental Health Center is exercising its option to purchase the the Ray Carver Building, formerly the National Guard Armory, in Pierce City. Frank Compton, president of the board and former Chief Executive Officer, notified Pierce City aldermen they would exercise the option to purchase at the end of the 84-month lease in February for the negotiated price of $75,000...