Stories from Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Bi-county voters made their voices heard on the national stage Tuesday in Missouri's Presidential Preference Primary, with Ted Cruz taking the vote in Barry and Lawrence counties, and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders splitting the counties. For the Republicans in Barry County, Cruz won the county 3,189 votes (45 percent), Donald Trump came in second with 3,030 votes (43 percent), John Kasich garnered 400 votes (6 percent) and Marco Rubio finished with 255 votes (4 percent)...

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Effective Jan. 1 of this year, 60 Barry County employees, with the exception of officeholders, received a 3 percent pay increase. The raise applied to all full-time, county employees, including secretaries, jailers deputies. While county employees were happy to receive a raise, deputies will not see boosts on their paychecks, based on the way they are paid...

Having stalled in efforts to reduce costs for the Purdy sewer project, Purdy City Council members hired a lobbyist and planned other steps to improve the city's position for funding. Council members hired Scott Marris, a lobbyist who represents the City of Monett on utility issues, at a cost of $2,500 over five months. ...

A Carthage man was arrested in Monett on Friday after allegedly breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home on 8th Street. Byron Paxtor, 28, of Carthage, is charged with one felony, first-degree burglary, and two misdemeanors, third-degree domestic assault and second-degree property damage...

Two families with children in the Purdy school district have recently expressed their concerns over its new approach to math instruction. Erica Biloki said her fifth- and sixth-graders could not keep up with the latest instruction strategy. Susan Brown said she worked for two hours with her sophomore son and could not help him. ...

The Barry County Retired Teachers and School Personnel will meet on Friday, March 18, at the St. John's Lutheran Church in Monett. Social hour will start at 10 a.m. with the business meeting following at 10:30. The speaker will be an employee from Wickman Gardens, who will be speaking on the topic, "Garden Made Simple." A door prize from Wickman Gardens will be given away at this meeting.

A Purdy man is facing a felony charge after an altercation with law enforcement led to his arrest on Saturday. Pedro Martinez-Velasquez, 28, of Purdy, is charged with possession of a controlled substance, and has been released from the Barry County jail on a $15,000 bond...

For a couple months, the Purdy Board of Education has conducted a book study on grades at the conclusion of its meetings. The discussion has been spurred on by a few courses, mainly in the middle school, where teachers have experimented with identifying missed steps in the learning process, rather than just checking items wrong and scoring, Superintendent Steven Chancellor said in described the process...

A Purdy man was injured in a wreck on Tuesday at 12:25 a.m. on Farm Road 2140, two miles south of Butterfield. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, James Ray, 24, of Purdy, was driving a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix westbound when his vehicle ran off the roadway and overturned...

John Richardson, of Monett, went straight to work Tuesday morning, marking his candidate in the presidential primary at the Monett Lawrence County polling place at the First Presbyterian Church. Voting continued at a steady, but not hectic pace through the day...

It has been awhile since there has been this much optimism for Monett's girls track team. Last season, the Lady Cubs made huge strides to get back to relevance in the conference. A youth movement initiated last year is even more relevant this season with the infusion of a large and talented freshman class...

The Monett golf team has undergone a major transformation this season. It includes everything from a new coach to a new roster. Dan Janssen, who spent the last three springs as the coach of the Lady Cubs soccer team, was asked to take the helm of the golf team after Chad Depee's departure...

Monett freshman Clayton Kaiser was named the 2015 points winner of the Southwest Missouri Junior Golf Association in the 13-to-15 age group.