Stories from Saturday, June 11, 2016

It seems odd that a festival dedicated to something as obscure as ragtime music should have taken hold in Sedalia. Like many other fans of the music, I made the pilgrimage to the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival last weekend, which you will get to read about in next week's edition of The Monett Times Midweek. Others attending came from as far away as Scotland and Japan...

The Monett girls basketball team hosted its annual summer youth camp. Attendees work on the basic fundamentals of the game and were introduced to the Monett ways of playing. Attendees included: Addison Cole, Adelynn Inman, Isabell Coffey, Adaline Ridenour, Lydia Holmes, Cameron Cox, Hannah Parris, Abigail Inman, Karlee McCallister, Emma Kate Hensley, Miah Payne, Suzette Yarbro, Kayli Barten, AnneLiese Lindsay, Maggie Lindsey, Alexa Austin, Audree Wormington-Cox, Caitlyn Waterman, Natalie Rivera, Meghan Long, Allyson Inman, Alexis Waltrip, Zandria Blevins, Kylie Knight, Lia Meredith, Callie Logan, Jaida Worm, Jordan Cole, Kaylee Herald, Kaia Johnson, Caitlyn Calhoun, Kaity Ingle, Abby McCaffrey, Kimberlee Parris, Natalie Turner, Lara Denney, Abby Jastal and Taylor Southard. ...

My grandfather used to say that good help was hard to find. He owned a plumbing business in Joplin for a few years, and winter and summer were his busiest seasons. Pipes would freeze in January and new construction peaked in the summer. In the spring, my grandfather would hire additional help to meet the growing demand for his services...

Monett is starting to become a hotbed for baseball players committing to Crowder College. Cameron Witt is the latest Cub to declare his intentions to be a Roughrider. Witt follows in the footsteps of his brother, Spenser Witt, who graduated from Monett and played for Missouri Southern in Joplin, and Aaron Patton, who just signed with St. Louis University after completing his education at Crowder...

Driven by another great response from CoxHealth employees and more community partners, 27,000 diapers were collected during the 2016 CoxHealth Diaper Drive. This total is up by several thousand over last year. Locally, Cox Monett collected 1,853 diapers for Crosslines in Monett. That amount exceeds last year by 218 diapers...

John Brunner, Republican candidate for governor of Missouri, made his third campaign swing of the election season into the bi-county area on June 8.

Monett Main Street will host a car show from 6 to 10 p.m. today in the 400 block of East Broadway, between Fourth and Fifth streets. All vehicles are welcome. A $5 entry fee is requested, which may be filled out on site. The 20th annual ice cream social at the New Liberty Methodist church will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. ...

Members of the Mt. Vernon Community Theatre (MVCT) are hosting a most unusual type of production, the first in their songbook series entitled "Duets," which will be performed in three locations -- Monett, Mt. Vernon and Aurora. "This will be an evening of entertaining pairs," said Adam Verstraete, a board member with MVCT. ...

Students in summer school at the Purdy school district have "Blast Off," an outer space exploration theme, for their classes.

The first five months of flight activity at the Monett Regional Airport showed plane takeoffs and landings running even with the same period in 2015, though the distinct trend shifting more to business activity accelerated. Through May, staff at the airport, documenting takeoffs and landings during business hours on weekdays, recorded 1,775 business flights and 328 non-business flights. ...

Introducing fireworks sales in Monett has required new forms, new inspections and new procedures never implemented before by city employees. "It's been fun," said Rayetta Tate, the administrative assistant in the building inspector's office. Since the Monett City Council approved the sale of fireworks on Friday, May 20, applications and requests for permits began coming to Tate as early as the following Monday. ...

For the second year, the Southwest Missouri Area Health Education Center will bring its annual M*A*S*H (Missouri AHEC Science and Health) day camp to Cox Monett Hospital on July 13-15. The summer day camp is open to students entering high school through 12th grade who are interested in health careers or who have a particular interest in science...