Stories from Saturday, August 6, 2016

Primary elections promote interest in voting. Primaries help parties define who they are and rally people to their cause. The volume of interest will vary with the candidates, but the actual exercise of choosing between candidates stimulates interest...

Patricia Ann Flinn, of Blue Springs, passed away in her sleep on Tuesday, Aug. 2. She was born Aug. 9, 1959, in Monett. Patty was a 1977 graduate of Cassville High School and valedictorian of her class. She received her degree in medicine from University of Missouri...

Robert Allen Garoutte, 78, of Mt. Vernon, died at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at Mercy Hospital in Springfield. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 5, at Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon. Burial, with military honors, will follow at the Mt. Vernon IOOF Cemetery...

The Monett Athletic Booster Club is seeking a business with 12-15 volunteers to help run the concession stand for the Aug. 20 varsity football game with California. In return for labor, businesses will be allowed to pass out promotional items to fans in attendance...

C.J Uhl takes a moment to get a drink of water during the Cubs' football practice on Thursday morning.

A four-man band and three vocalists will present a concert of cool jazz, blues and soft rock at 7 p.m. today at the Monett Community Church, 2101 E. Cleveland. Admission is free. The band has played in the area for the past year. Vocalists include Robin Braun, Andrew Jones and Brady Hessington...

Howdy Neighbor Days in Pierce City opens Wednesday and runs through next Saturday in the Pierce City South Park.

Ernte-Fest, the annual celebration of German culture and the harvest presented by the Freistatt Lions Club, will be back for the 43rd year on Aug. 12-13 on the Ernte-Fest grounds on the north end of Freistatt. This year's event will run from 4:30 p.m. ...

The 17th annual Kings Prairie Community Center Benefit Concert, highlighting three bands, has been slated for Saturday, Aug. 13 at the historic Kings Prairie school, east of Monett. The annual concert provides an opportunity for the rural Monett community to gather and invite neighbors in for an evening of fellowship, music and food. Funds raised help support the school as a community center and fund improvements, such as the construction of bathrooms...

The three-way race for eastern commissioner in Lawrence County proved to be an easy win for challenger Tim Selvey, who won six of the eight precincts at stake in an election that generated a 28 percent voter turnout. The election included the three precincts in Aurora, which take in votes from outside the city limits, plus the Buck Prairie precinct, covering Marionville, Ozark and Turnback, north of Marionville, Verona and Freistatt. Selvey carried the election with 1,323 votes, or 49 percent...

Barry County voters selected Keith Daniels as the Republican candidate for public administrator with a wide distribution of votes, according to the precinct breakdown. Daniels, a retired health care finance executive, won the race with 2,448, or more than 39 percent of the vote, capturing 9 of the 16 precincts, including the cities of Cassville and Monett...

As school approaches, the Outdoor Classroom south of Monett Elementary School is teeming with wildlife.

Discussions between Verona school officials and teachers have become less civil as the debate over district financial policy moved into its third month. In July, former superintendent Robert Abeln addressed the board for the first time in 10 years. Asked by the teachers to assess the district's finances, Abeln attempted to respond to the presentation made by Superintendent Tony Simmons in June, after teachers made their salary request in May. ...

Although Lawrence County commissioners signed an agreement recently aiming to cut jail numbers and reduce the cost of housing inmates in other counties, Lawrence County Sheriff Brad DeLay is wary of possible benefits the county touts. Kathy Fairchild, Lawrence County treasurer, said in a press release the agreement with LBS Monitoring, a Lawrence County company, provides for 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week electronic monitoring of inmates approved for the program through the court system...

For eight years of my life, I worked at a quick service restaurant. With a jovial personality, I usually was pushed to the drive-thru or front counter. I didn't mind the customer interaction at all. As a matter of fact, I had fun with my job. Generally, I would take 200 to 300 orders a shift, which meant that I could practice 300 individual greetings...

With just three returning players from last year's squad, the Monett tennis team will be young and learning on the job. "It will be a rebuilding year again," said Bob Crain, Monett coach. "We didn't have a junior varsity team last year, and that hurts our depth this year."...