Stories from Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Oscar Antonio Arteaga Melgar, 44, of Monett, died at his home on Tuesday, April 4, following a sudden illness. Services are pending at this time. Arrangements are under the personal care and direction of Buchanan Funeral Home.

Margaret “Peg” Ayers, of Mt. Prospect Ill., (Chicago), formerly from Monett, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016. She was born June 6, 1922, in Monett, to Clyde and Mary Combes. She was preceeded in death by her husband of 60 years, Ed Ayers, of Neosho, and her brother Jack Combes...

The Pierce City golf team battled Mother Nature, Sarcoxie and McAuley on Monday at Monett's Windmill Ridge Golf Course. The Eagles took third with a 244, with McAuley won the event with 210, followed by Sarcoxie with a 233. The Eagles' Kaleb Meyer placed second overall individually with a 50, and Hunter Freeman tied for fourth with McAuley’s Gavin Gannaway, each shooting a 54...

The Andy Dalton Shooting Range near Ash Grove in Lawrence County will offer .22 rifle shooting basics from 8:30-11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Sessions will review terms, dominant eye, sight picture, sight alignment, breath control, trigger squeeze, shooting positions and more...

Do not look now, but there may be a changing of the guard in the bi-county area when it comes to Class 2 baseball. For the last decade, Purdy has been the standard bearer for much of the way, with Wheaton, Miller, Marionville and Southwest challenging the Eagles occasionally...

The Monett Ministerial Association will host a Lenten services at noon today at the St. Lawrence Catholic Church, 405 Seventh St. Jimmy Copley from Chapel of Grace will be the speaker. A light lunch will follow the services, around 12:30 p.m., at the host church...

Each of the three kindergarten classes in Purdy, which each have 15 students, were open for tours by incoming students.

Children from Monett, Mt. Vernon and Aurora starred in the Not So Square Youth Theatre presentation “Thwacked: A Fractured Tale of Frogs, Folks and Falling Skies” on Sunday at Mt. Vernon Arts and Recreation Center.

Pollinators were busy on Saturday preparing this apple tree in rural Pierce City for the year’s crop.

After two months of unexpectedly high totals, bi-county recipients of sales tax saw receipts dip sharply in March as businesses that pay quarterly logged in. The results left about half the cities up marginally for the first quarter in 2017, while the others hung lower in the negative column...

Monett schools will again offer an innovative pilot program targeting healthcare and preventative medicine made available by a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. Michelle Bekemeier, corporate account executive of business development for CoxHealth Systems, led a public presentation on the program recently in the library at Monett Intermediate School. ...

Lawrence County residents on Tuesday approved a half-cent law enforcement tax to help fund various branches of public safety. With 4,028 votes cast, nearly 70 percent of the ballots, 2,796, were in favor of the tax that will help fund law enforcement. A total of 1,232, or 30.59 percent, voted against the measure...

Purdy school district voters selected two newcomers on Tuesday, with two incumbents voted out. Both challengers led all vote-getters. Travis D. Brown was first with 26 percent, and Martin “Trae” Goetz was second with 23 percent. Russ Neill was the only incumbent to keep his seat, with 19 percent of the vote...

Pierce City voters re-elected every incumbent in Tuesday’s election. David Jones led all vote-getters with with 309 votes or 30 percent, Bryan Stellwagen had 307 votes or 30 percent and Greg Drollinger was re-elected with 181 votes, or 22 percent. Unsuccessful challenger Kelly Lakin earned 143 votes, or 18 percent...

Monett voters overwhelmingly approved a sales tax to build a new swimming pool with a 76 percent majority. Voters cast their ballots in favor of the issue 613-190. This is a developing story. More details will be released as they become available.

Both challengers were elected to the Monett School Board on Tuesday, while the board president was unseated. Challenger Jeff Carr and Incumbent Darren Bass tied for first with 714 votes, or 27 percent. Challenger Jim Randall also earned a seat on the board with 629 votes, or 24 percent. Board president Ken Gaspar placed last and was voted out with 601 votes, or 23%...