RECOLLECTIONS
50 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic Vol. 5 No. 1 Thursday, Jan. 7, 1970
Pea Ridge schools, scheduled to re-open Monday after the New Year holiday, were closed due to the second major snow of the season, resulting in headaches for road crews and major problems for farmers, factory employees, wholesalers and retailers trying to keep supplies stocked.
The trial date for a man accused of assaulting an officer of the law in Pea Ridge was set for Jan. 19 in the Benton County Circuit Court. H.T. Buchanon Jr., of Farmington, was to appear in court to face the charges which arose out of an uprising of Farmington fans at a football game in Pea Ridge.
A well house was destroyed by fire about 6 p.m. Saturday on the Larry Shaffer farm east of Pea Ridge. Involved in the fire was also an adjoining hay storage shed.
40 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic Scene Vol. 15 No. 1 Wednesday, Jan. 2, 1980
First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Rogers submitted an application to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to permit the establishment of a branch office in Pea Ridge. After an agent in Little Rock reviewed the application, it was to be submitted to the board in Washington, D.C.
In a letter to the editor, Mrs. Charlie Crabtree suggested the thing Pea Ridge country needed most was a nursing home. She was willing to help out financially, by selling some lots in Pea Ridge or even their $60,000 home on Route 94.
Shiloh sent two basketball teams to Pea Ridge Jan. 3 and both were beaten by the Pea Ridge Junior High girls and boys. The girls defeated the Shiloh girls 30 to 16, and the ’Hawk boys defeated their opponent 41 to 25.
30 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 25 No. 1 Thursday, Jan. 3, 1990
Pea Ridge Fire Chief Jerry Collins inspected fire destruction at the home of Irvin Wise at 603 S. Curtis Ave. The fire was reported at 3:25 a.m.; by the time the fireman arrived five minutes later, the house was well involved in flames.
The U.S. Postal Service was seeking a suitable site on which to build a new main post office in Garfield, according to postmaster Richard Rakes. He said a site of 47,000 square feet was needed.
The Pea Ridge School District was put on accreditation probation by the state the previous April and had until the first part of April 1990, to resolve its violations. The violations included too many students in kindergarten and an inadequate number of personnel for the number of students enrolled in high school.
20 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 35 No. 1 Jan. 5, 2000
The Pea Ridge School Board approved the purchase of two state-of-theart scoreboards for each end of the basketball courts in the new high school. The cost of the scoreboards was $8,839.66.
Grandma’s Cupboard and Gifts offered “’Ole Homestyle Cooking” according to the sign at the old Mermaid Restaurant location on Pickens Road. Owner Ina Easterling offered breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a variety of homemade pies.
The year 1999 saw VAS (Volunteer Ambulance Service) answering 312 calls, surpassing the previous busiest year in 1993 with 306 calls. The VAS response area covered 125 square miles of northeast Benton County and averaged around 26-30 responders and drivers.
10 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 45 No. 53 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
Finances dominated the final City Council meeting of 2009 with council members approving a $3,824,429 budget for the end of the year, giving city employees a 3% cost-of-living raise and two motions concerning pay for council members which both ended in a tie.
The annual meeting of VAS Ambulance Service Corporation is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, in the Avoca Community Room which is adjacent to the Avoca Fire Department office. At that time, nominations will be taken from the floor for three positions on the board of directors. It will be the first annual meeting for the organization under its new name and bylaws. VAS, chartered in 1981 as Volunteer Ambulance Service, has held annual meetings in Garfield.
Scraping of snow plows can be heard throughout Pea Ridge, as city employees have been hard at work clearing streets in the town after a winter wonderland closed schools and businesses throughout northwest Arkansas. To prepare for a storm like the one Saturday night, according to Nathan See of the Pea Ridge Street Department, city employees put salt spreaders on the trucks and prepared the snow plows. At word of an approaching storm, they make sure everything is ready to go, including the trucks, chainsaws, plows, sanders, tractors and even the employees’ cell phones. City employees are at Mother Nature’s mercy, working on call even in the middle of the night.