RECOLLECTIONS

50 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic Vol. 5 No. 17 Thursday, April 23, 1970

While it does happen, it has been some time since most of us have seen a homemaker wringing off a chicken’s head in the backyard, a kettle of scalding water waiting nearby and a wad of newspaper ready for use in the singing off the pin feathers. This does not mean that the chicken has lost its popularity on the dinner table. It means that the average chicken no longer takes a shortcut directly from the pen to the kitchen door. It is now a modern, well-bred, carefully fed, efficiently cared for chicken. The Leroy Creekmore farm was featured showing the 25,000 chickens raised there.

Pea Ridge’s newest business has been established by a hometown boy returning to the town from which both he and his wife sprung. The business is the Ronald Bray Custom Steel Fabricating. It has been founded by Ronald Bray and his wife, the former Janice Lee. Both were 1959 graduates of Pea Ridge High School. He is a son of a local teacher, Mrs. Henry Bray, and his wife’s parents are Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Lee.

A Seligman, Mo., man was killed in action in Vietnam. The young soldier’s widow, the former Shirley J. Rickert of Garfield, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Bruton of Seligman, Mo., were notified that Pfc. Bruton, 20, had been killed on April 14.

40 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic-Scene Vol. 15 No. 17 Wednesday, April 23, 1980

A petition is being passed in Pea Ridge to obtain signatures of persons opposing passage by the Benton County Quorum Court of an ordinance to regulate agricultural wastes. The petition is at Webb’s Feed store.

One man present at the Benton County Republican Lincoln Day dinner Saturday night in Rogers was singled out for special recognition. Fred Calvin, 90, Pea Ridge, has attended every Lincoln Day dinner the group has held — 15 in all.

Monday at 7:30 a.m. NEBCO was called to a brush fire at the Crane property near Posey Mountain. NEBCO firefighters fought the blaze until 4:45 p.m. at which time the state forestry service arrived. State forestry ranger Bill Markey blamed an arsonist.

Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Pea Ridge, officers were elected recently. They were Lola Mae Beaver, conductress; Hazel Walker, president; Pansy Whitlock, senior vice president; Louise Gaines, junior vice president; Beaula Parker, one-year trustee; Freda Fletcher, patriotic instructor; Eula Mae Walker, secretary and treasurer; Dot Williams, chaplain; Maxine Richardson, guard; Bertha Kitterman, two-year trustee; and Midege Elington, three-year trustee.

30 Years Ago Pea Ridge Country Times

Vol. 25 No. 17 Thursday, April 26, 1990

Increased valuation of property by fall’s property tax increase approved by the voters and increased enrollment will all help improve the Pea Ridge School District’s fiscal position said superintendent Marvin Higginbottom. The assessed valuation in the district increased from the 1987-1988 school year to the 1988-1999 school year from $12.3 million to $13.4 million.

Pea Ridge Council members voted to pass an ordinance clarifying a previous ordinance and rewrite a second ordinance to help keep the city clean. According to Police Chief Sam Holcomb, an imprudent driving charge was dismissed in Pea Ridge court last month because of its vagueness.

Stephen Brubaker, the director of the Pea Ridge Area Community Choir said the group’s first performance was such a success that another is likely, around Thanksgiving. The choir sang “Hallelujah, What a Savior” on Good Friday before an interdenominational audience at First United Methodist Church in front of an audience of between 140 to 150 people.

All dogs in the Pea Ridge city limits must have a city tag by June 1, Police Chief Sam Holcomb said. Ownership of a dog with no current tag could mean a fine of $44. Tags are $2 for a male and $3 for a female.

20 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 35 No. 17 Wednesday, April 26, 2000

Creativity was the name of the game at a meeting Thursday night as developers of a large-scale subdivision and the Pea Ridge City Council struggled to find ways to make the development happen. The developers of Sugar Creek Golf and Country Club met for three hours with city officials to discuss the city’s intentions regarding services to the 400- to 450-acre golf course subdivision with 600 homes.

“The important stuff is going on over here,” says Matt Scantling, high school English teacher and coach at Pea Ridge, referring to the classrooms. In an unlikely combination, PRHS’s advanced placement English teacher is also head junior high football and track coach and assistant high school football coach.

From their new office in the soon-to-be completed pentagon, Vic Steilow and wife, Laurie, plan their strategy for the coming invasion at Quail Oaks Craft Fair. Now in its 18th year, the Quail Oaks Crafts Fair on U.S. Highway 62 just west of the intersection with Arkansas Highway 72 southeast of Pea Ridge is being spruced up and improved for the May craft fair weekend.

The Passover Seder for

Christians sponsored by the Pea Ridge Ministerial Alliance was held at the Emergency Service building Saturday. The alliance is composed of seven churches in Pea Ridge — Weston Street Chapel, Mt. Vernon Presbyterian, United Methodist, First Baptist, Assembly of God, Pentecostal and Church of the Nazarene.

10 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 45 No. 17 Wednesday, April 28, 2010

John Cody was fired from his job with the city of Garfield Friday after being arrested Tuesday prior to the Pea Ridge City Council meeting. After an executive session lasting more than an hour, the Garfield City Council came back with a verdict of “terminate immediately” for Cody, Garfield water and street superintendent.

John Cody dismissed his two recent arrests as “minor offenses” and said “it’s all gonna calm down.” He said he is still running for Benton County Justice of the Peace and does not intend to resign from his Pea Ridge City Council position.

A good foundation is as essential to a yard and garden as it is to a house, said Steve Davison, owner of Perennials Etc., in Garfield.

A short agenda faces the Pea Ridge Planning Commission

Tuesday with a variance request for a rear setback for 376 Baker Street to be considered in a public hearing.

Pea Ridge High School senior Erin Duvall placed in four events, adding points to spark the Lady ’Hawk track squad to a sixth place finish at the 4A-1 District meet last week in Gravette.