Stories from Saturday, February 9, 2019

Dorothy Marie Pigg, 78, of Cullman, Ala., died at 5:58 a.m., Monday, Feb. 4, at Mt. Vernon Place Care Center. Graveside services will be held at a later date at Valley Springs Church Cemetery in Good Hope, Ala. Arrangements are under the direction of the Fossett-Mosher Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon...

Claudene Helen McCully, 81, of Aurora, Sunday, Feb. 3, in her home. A funeral service was held Friday, Feb. 8, at the Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home in Aurora with burial at the Mt. Olive Cemetery.

Andrew Jackson “A.J.” Hurst, 17, of Missouri, died Saturday, Feb. 2. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, February 9, at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Anderson, under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at Hazel Green Cemetery in Boulder City...

Jerry Lee Hoffman, Sr., 75, of Aurora, died Tuesday, Feb. 5. Cremation arrangements are under direction of Fohn Funeral Home in Cassville. Burial will be at a later date at Gunter Cemetery in Butterfield.

Lloyd Daniel George, 57, of Monett, died Friday, Feb. 1, at Cox South Hospital in Springfield. A Celebration of Life service will be held from 2-5:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Monett South Park Casino. Arrangements have been entrusted to Buchanan Funeral Home, Monett...

Dolores Delayne Scheuerman left us for Heaven on Jan. 29. She was born to William Tom Billinger and Ethel Hampton Billinger on March 21, 1935, in Hereford, Texas. She married Billy Joe Marshall in Wichita Falls, Texas on Nov 6, 1950. They had four children and later divorced. She later married her soulmate and the love of her life, Edwin L. Scheuerman, on June 8, 1998, in Eureka Springs, Ark...

After another week of conversations about 911 and central dispatching in Monett, a consensus is closer. There is general agreement that we want 911 service to continue locally. A sales tax in Lawrence County will pay for it. Dipping into a general fund with no new source of revenue would put a heavy strain on small towns, and most couldn’t afford it. Verona Mayor Joseph Heck reflected the sentiment when he said simply, “I want something that works.”...

People are hard-pressed to find fans as passionate about basketball as the fans of Verona. On Wednesday, those wild and zany fans were given their first glimpse of the Class 2, District 11 schedule. In short, they are going to need to bring all of their good luck and cheering if the Wildcats and Lady Wildcats are going to vie for a district title...

It was a heartbreaking setback for Monett on Thursday in a 70-67 overtime loss to Cassville. Jackson Spencer’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out on a night where he hit his first six attempts from downtown. Monett came into the game with hopes of improving its district seed with a win over the Wildcats, but the Cubs were without the services of normal starter Gavin Carr for the contest...

Only a handful of games remain on the regular season schedules for the small school basketball teams in the area. On Wednesday, Class 1 and Class 2 schools found out their district seed and first round opponents for the win-and-move-on tournament. For Class 2, District 12, a field where four of the eight teams are from the bi-county area, the action begins on Feb. 18 at Webb City High School...

Character education medals focusing on acceptance have been awarded at Prudy Elementary School.

Trinity Lutheran School in Freistatt recently honored outstanding students for the second quarter.

Purdy Elementary School teachers Cindy Burnside, rear left, and Sarah Willson, rear right, hosted the annual Purdy Elementary Spelling Bee on Jan. 29.

Trinity Lutheran School in Freistatt has named its top readers for the month of January.

Purdy High School has released its honor roll for the first semester of the 2018-2019 school year. Principal Derek Banwart announced the following students qualified for the A honor roll: Seventh grade: Alexis Davidson, Gauge Davidson, Deisy Gonzalez, Raeley Henderson, Audra Mahurin and Zoe Voirin...

Two officers from the Verona FFA presented their year of accomplishments to the Southwest Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

Purdy High School Student Council hosted its annual Homecoming Week festivities Jan. 28 through Feb. 1.

• Dylan Edward Anderson Cope, speeding, misd. B, 30 days in Lawrence County Jail, SES, two years unsupervised probation, 20 hours of community service, fined $500, LERF $50, CVCF $10. • Laque K. Dalton, failure to maintain vehicle insurance, misd. Unclassified, SIS, two years unsupervised probation...

Piano students of Ruth Burnside performed in the Joplin Piano Teachers’ Association area-wide piano recital in December at Missouri Southern State University.

The Monett Special Road District commissioners will meet at 5:15 p.m. on Feb. 13 at the road district barn west of Eisenhower under the bridge overpass. The board for the Monett Area Workshop will meet at noon on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 204 S. Central in Monett...

The Verona City Council wrestled with procedural issues on several levels as they met in January. At the board’s special meeting on Jan. 14, aldermen moved Police Officer Robert Jacobus from part-time to full-time status. Council members also authorized opening a bank account under the name of the Verona CIVIC Group, using the city’s employer identification number. ...

The Ozark Festival Orchestra will continue its 39th season at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17, with a “Masterpieces and Young Artist” concert at the Monett High School Performing Arts Center in Monett. Under the baton of Music Director Todd Borgmann, the OFO will continue its long-running annual series of Young Artist concerts, providing performance opportunities for young people in southwest Missouri. ...

Pierce City School board members recently reviewed the district's guidance and counseling program. Counselors include Emily Mulcahey, high school, Courtney Garner, middle school and Travis Van Horn, elementary school. Counselors work in collaboration to provide a seamless program that meets the needs of students at all academic levels, facilitating their academic, personal and social development, and for high school students, help focus on their career and post-secondary education development, whether through college, vocational school or the military.. ...

Monett Main Street issued its annual report to Missouri Main Street Connection and found a particularly well-accomplished year. Dennis Pyle, who serves as Main Street's board vice president, noted six noteworthy achievements during the year: • Construction on the Jerry D. ...

The City of Monett has filed a motion to intervene with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over electric rates charged by Liberty Utilities, formerly Empire District Electric. Skip Schaller, Monett utilities superintendent, recounted how each July, Liberty presents the city with new rates as part of the city’s long-term contract that expires in 2020...

After an early onset of winter, the weekday business hours count of flights in and out of the Monett Regional Airport ended 2018 with the first significant drop in five years. Fuel sales for the year, however, sowed a new record for sale of jet fuel and a decrease in aviation gasoline sales back to 2014 levels...

What started as a confrontation resolved into consensus as the Monett-Lawrence County 911 Advisory Board met in Monett on Thursday. Old issues were rehashed, but common ground was discovered, as a deadline for forming a campaign committee for the 911 sales tax referendum approaches a three-week deadline...