Stories from Wednesday, March 23, 2016

A Shell Knob man died Wednesday in a wreck at 2 p.m. on Route YY, one mile southeast of Shell Knob. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, Roger Patterson, 68 of Shell Knob, was driving a 2012 Ford F150 eastbound when his vehicle traveled off the left side of the roadway and struck several trees...

Claris King, 84, of Bentonville, Ark., died Monday, March 21. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 26, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be in Mineral Springs Cemetery in Cassville. Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 25, at Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville...

Jackie Caswell Schmidt passed away March 23, at Mercy Hospital with family by her side. She was born on January 4, 1934, in Sand Springs, Okla. Jackie worked for Lily Tulip, Springfield Public Schools and The Drury Hotels. She loved her church family at Immaculate Conception and became Catholic in 1995. ...

Members of the Southwest Missouri Chapter of Whitetails Unlimited hosted the fourth annual banquet Saturday, March 19, at St. Mary's Catholic Church multipurpose room in Pierce City.

Brady Powers, of the Screeching Eagles 4-H Club in Purdy, was among 333 people attending the annual Missouri 4-H Teen Conference, March 12 and 13, at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

The Barry-Lawrence Ambulance District honored District 5 director Daryl Fenski at the close of its March board meeting for 16 years of service.

Alisha (Williams) Davis, Monett High School Class of 2000, was part of the 135th Army Band from the Missouri Army National Guard, based in Springfield, that performed as part of the St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 12 in St. Louis.

In recognition of April's designation as Public Health Month, the Barry County Health Department will be offering private well water testing kits at a cost of $10. Samples must be collected in the department-provided water test kit and be submitted to the office between Monday, April 4 and Wednesday, April 6...

A former Barry County has pleaded guilty to delivering in illegal substance to inmates being held in the jail in August 2015. Judge Jack Goodman sentenced Matthew Hernandez, 24, of Butterfield, to five years of supervised probation for pleading guilty to smuggling marijuana to a pair of inmates in the jail...

Barry County native Janet Kavandi is continuing to move up at NASA, as she has now been named director of the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland after a year as deputy director. A student at Cassville schools before moving and graduating from Carthage High School in 1977, Kavandi is the first female director of the Center, and its first director to have flown in space...

A fire that created billowing black smoke bursted out of the loading dock at the rear of the Industrial Machine and Engineering Company (IMEC) plant on North Ninth Street in Monett shortly before 4 p.m. on Monday. Firefighters made an extensive investigation after stopping the flames. Damage appeared limited to the rear of the building. Smoke continued to billow out the rear approximately 40 minutes after the main fire stopped...

Dates have been set for the remainder of the school year in the Purdy school district. At Superintendent Steven Chancellor's recommendation, the board set high school graduation for May 14. The second Saturday in May has historically been the district's commencement day...

Cherry Warren, Barry County presiding commissioner, reports that the county's emergency fund is better shape than it has been in several years. "The emergency fund is an expenditure in the budget," Warren said. "That's the surplus we set aside, kind of like a rainy day fund. If you have a shortfall in sales tax, you can go into the emergency fund to help balance your books. It's considered to be in better shape than in recent years, thanks to the 1/8-cent sales tax."...

Along with responding to nearly 350 calls in 2015, the Purdy Fire Protection District in the past year has added multiple vehicles and are also working out of two stations, instead of just one. The district responded to a record number of calls for service last year, completing 349. This is up from a total of 276 calls in the year 2014...

A Pierce City woman was injured Monday in a wreck at 1:45 p.m. on Route H, one mile west of Mt. Vernon. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, Colene Moore, 77, of Stotts City, was driving a 2010 Cadillac SRX northbound when her vehicle crossed into the path of a southbound 2012 Ford Fusion, being driven by Adline Bartkoski, 77, of Pierce City...

The Monett Ministerial Association will hold its last Lenten Services at noon on March 23 at the Monett Community Church, 2101 E. Cleveland, with Jeff Robertson from Countryside Christian Church speaking. A light lunch will follow the service. The Purdy kindergarten teachers will host their annual Kindergarten Round-Up today to welcome next year's kindergarten students and their families to Purdy Elementary. ...

The Big 8 Conference released its all-conference teams, and two Cubs earned honors this season. Logan Coones recorded a First Team selection, and Jonah Paszek claimed a Honorable Mention nod. The Cubs finished the season 19-9. The complete all-conference list is as follows:...

The Purdy girls softball team is not messing around this season. The memory of watching Stockton upset the Lady Eagles in Purdy in last year's quarterfinal is still fresh on the minds of the coaches and players. Purdy went 23-4 last season, and 8-0 in Ozark 7 Conference play. The Black and Gold return eight starters from that team this year...

The Monett girls basketball team was shut out of all-conference awards for the Big 8 this season. Coach Alyssa Kennedy has already posted the results for her team and set the first of what will be many goals for next season -- earn an all-conference spot...