Year in review: First half of 2017 marked by damaging flash floods
WESTSIDE — Looking back over the past year, it is amazing to see all that has happened in our west-side communities. The following represent a few of the major stories for the first six months of 2017. See the Jan. 3, 2018, issue for major stories in the second six months of 2017.
Jan. 4
Gravette starts the new year with one more eating place than it had in 2016. Mandy Culp, owner and manager of the Simple Simon’s Pizza at 602 First Ave. S.W., opened her Gravette location on Thursday, Dec. 20. She also owns Simple Simon’s restaurants in Granby and Neosho, Mo.
Jan. 11
Seven acres of land along the Flint Creek in Springtown have been donated to the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust to preserve them from future development and to ensure that a portion of the Flint Creek remains protected, according to a Jan. 3 post on the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust website. “Thanks to a generous donation from conservation-minded landowner, Mr. John Wasson, seven acres of pristine habitat along Flint Creek in Springtown, Arkansas, have been protected forever as our newest Preserve. The property and surrounding parcels have belonged in Mr. Wasson’s family for generations. He recalls learning to swim in the cool deep pools and jumping from limestone outcroppings that border the stream,” the website states.
Jan. 18
Gentry School Board, at its regular meeting on Jan. 9, approved a preliminary construction budget for a building to house a diesel mechanic lab and career education classrooms at the high school and considered rising costs for the building of a new classroom facility at the
intermediate school. Also approved was preliminary work to seek a second lien issue in the amount of $3 million to help fund the construction projects.
Jan. 25
Work has started to build a new diesel mechanic lab and career classroom facility at Gentry High School Conversion Charter. The site on the north side of the high school property was scraped and red dirt was brought in to prepare a pad for the new building. The facility will house classroom space for career-oriented training such as the school district’s current certified nurse aide and patient care assistant program and will have a two-bay work area for hands-on training in the diesel mechanic program.
Feb. 1
Representatives of Crews and Associates attended the January meeting of the Gravette city council and gave a presentation on the proposed sales tax bonds. They presented documents outlining a breakdown of projects and costs to be financed by the bonds and explained that Farmers and Merchants Bank of Stuttgart is trustee for the bonds.
Feb. 8
When Walmart opened its Neighborhood Market in January 2015, dignitaries and residents of Decatur turned out to support the new business. Less than a year later, the store, along with its sister stores in Gravette and Gentry, were closed with little explanation. But now Decatur residents have reason to celebrate again with the announcement of a new retail grocery store coming to town. During a joint gathering of city council, planning and zoning, chamber and historical society members, Mayor Bob Tharp announced the sale of the old Walmart Neighborhood Market building to the Goodlettsville, Tenn.,-based Dollar General Corporation.
Feb. 15
The school board, on Monday, accepted the recommendation of its screening committee and unanimously appointed Terrie Metz to take over as superintendent of Gentry Public Schools for the 2017-18 school year, which begins July 1.
Feb. 22
During its Feb. 13 meeting at city hall, the Decatur City Council approved the renovation of the community room, the main entrance and city offices at the Decatur Municipal Building.
Once again, the Gravette historical museum has a new curator. Randi Van Noy took over the position earlier this month after the former curator resigned to pursue other interests.
March 1
The 12th annual A&O Honor Flight is set to depart from XNA at 7 a.m. April 19. … Seventy-nine veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam from Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma are scheduled to make this year’s flight. They will be accompanied by 81 guardians, volunteers and staff to help meet each veteran’s needs.
March 8
Terrie Metz, who will take over the reins as Gentry’s superintendent in July when Randy Barrett retires, presented Barrett with a Capitol Citation from Mark Martin, Arkansas Secretary of State. The citation was for 25 years of distinguished service at the head of the Gentry School District. Barrett passed the honors along to the school staff and board members, saying, if he provided distinguished service in the district, it was because of the many teachers, staff and board members who served with him over the past 25 years.
March 15
Hugs were exchanged and tears flowed when a Decatur woman met for the first time her long-lost sister at Arkansas Regional Airport on March 2. Old letters and suspicions led to an online search and DNA testing to bring together the two sisters. For Dawn Johnson, a longtime Decatur resident, the last 50 years have been happy ones. Like most people in this small rural town of 1,700, Johnson grew up with two very loving parents, a brother and cousins, unaware that a deep-rooted family secret was waiting to reveal itself.
March 22
Cars were lined up out into the road to get into the Wild Wilderness Safari on Thursday afternoon, and everywhere adults and children were enjoying the animals and their time in the animal park. Either no one knew or no one cared about the most recent complaint filed against the popular attraction in Gentry. The Animal Welfare Institute, a Washington, D.C., organization which was instrumental in the passage of the Animal Welfare Act in 1966 and which opposes confined farming operations like the many poultry growing operations in northwest Arkansas, released a complaint and press release on March 14.
March 29
A house at 503 Atlanta St. S.E. in Gravette suffered extensive damage last Wednesday morning when a dump truck loaded with 17 tons of gravel left the roadway and crashed into the front of the home.
After 28 years of public service to three police agencies, Chief Terry Luker is trading in his pistol for a hay rake when he transitions from public service into private life as he retires from the Decatur Police Department May 1.
April 5
For Meals on Wheels driver David Evans and his assistant, Paul Space, serving seniors in Gentry doesn’t always end with delivering a hot meal to the door. One stop last week prompted them to break in the door and come to the aid of two meal recipients.
April 12
Gentry’s city council, on April 3, approved the purchase of an 11.5-acre tract of land within the city from Tier One Investments LLC. The city intends to use the land as a park, and plans discussed for the tract include the possibility of soccer fields.
Police were called to Maytag Laundry at 313 W. Main Street in Gentry on April 5 when a large tree fell on a patron’s car while she was doing her laundry.
April 19
Once again the put, put, put of old hit-and-miss engines could be heard, saws buzzed as logs were reduced to timbers and planed to finished lumber, and the clanking of hammers on red-hot iron turned shapeless metal into works of art and useful tools. Tractors, with their unique engine sounds, could be heard each day. … The show, held at the Tired Iron club’s own showgrounds on the southwest edge of Gentry last weekend, April 14-16, was the 25th such annual spring show.
April 26
For one Decatur child and his family, the dream of seeing Disney World became a reality on April 20. From Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, young Remington Anderson (3), his father Eric, mother Tina, and four brothers and sisters set out on a journey to meet Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in person. This journey was made possible through the efforts of students, faculty and staff of Mary Mae Jones Elementary in Bentonville and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
May 3
After receiving more than 7 inches of rain Saturday in the most recent storms, and that after the ground was already saturated from rains earlier in the week, many areas were flooded and many roads impassable on Saturday. In the Gentry area on Saturday, traffic was being turned back north of Gentry on Arkansas Highway 59 and east of Gentry on Highways 12 and 264. Roads in low-lying areas along the creeks were marked with police tape as closed and impassable until the water subsided.
May 10
The roar of engines and the smell of exhaust filling the air in Decatur marked the beginning of the eighth annual Wyatt Hopkins Memorial Poker Run on May 6. Near 8:30 a.m., bikes of all makes and models, one from as far away as St. Cloud, Minn., gathered at the Decatur Fire Department main station to kick off this year’s poker run. In all, 75 bikes and trikes participated in the event … to raise money for the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in memory of Wyatt Hopkins, the son of firefighter Brent Hopkins and wife Sara.
May 17
For 126 seniors at Gravette High School, Saturday was a day to celebrate a milestone in their hard work as they walked across the stage in Lion Stadium and received their diplomas, handshakes and congratulations as high school graduates.
For 27 Decatur High School seniors, the long road from childhood into adolescence arrived at a fork, one road leading into the vocational field, the other to a college education and a lifetime career in a professional field. Decatur High School held its annual commencement exercises May 14 at Peterson Gym. More than 100 families, friends, faculty and honored guests were on hand to share these seniors’ transition from school children into the world of adulthood.
May 24
Judy Winslett, the assistant superintendent of the Gentry School District, submitted her letter of resignation on May 15 and, after June 30, will be working full-time as an assistant professor in the graduate education program at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, where she will teach classes in education and in school counseling. Winslett said she was torn between continuing her work in the Gentry School District and expanding her work as an assistant professor at the JBU graduate school to help train educators and counselors in working with children and families. After prayerful consideration, Winslett said she believes she was led to accept the full-time post at JBU.
For 101 Gentry High School seniors, Sunday’s graduation ceremonies in the Bill George Arena at John Brown University in Siloam Springs marked the end of their high school years and the beginning of college or a career in the workforce or military.
May 31
It was a sad day in Decatur when the townspeople received news of the passing of one of its beloved citizens. Charles David Linam, who served as Decatur mayor from 2011-14, died at 2:47 p.m., May 25, after suffering a massive heart attack while engaging in one of his favorite pastimes, fishing. He was 75.
June 7
To quote Yogi Berra’s famous phrase, Sunday was “like déjà vu all over again.” Heavy rains fell in the Gentry area and the water rose, covering streets and flooding yards and the city park. It was a reminder of the late April flooding in the city, though the shorter duration of the heavy rains allowed the water to drain away more quickly. Just over three inches (3.17 inches) of rain fell at nearby Smith Field in Siloam Springs on Sunday, and most of that came in a brief period of time — shortly after noon — and too fast for the storm drains and ditches to handle the water. As a result, portions of Main Street were flooded, as well as numerous yards along the street. Collins Avenue, just north of Main Street was again under water, with a car stalled out in the water. Portions of Pioneer Lane, Dawn Hill Road and Dawn Hill Road East were also turned into rivers of water.
As the sun rose over the hills of Decatur on Saturday, June 3, more than 100 area residents stood outside the new Dollar General PlusPlus on Main Street waiting for the store’s grand opening at 7 a.m. The line, which formed sometime after 6 a.m, stretched from the edge of the building to the stop sign on Maple Avenue and continued to grow.
June 14
Taylor’s Orchard in Gentry opened Friday and some of the earliest varieties of peaches are ready for picking or for purchase at the orchard’s fruit stand. Customers may buy peaches and nectarines by the bucket or the flat at the fruit stand, or they may go out into the orchard and pick their own. Everything, it seems, blossomed early this year and some late cold weather threatened the peach and nectarine crops. But, even though he may not have as much fruit on the trees as in some years, Bill Taylor, the orchard’s owner and caretaker, does have fruit, was selling buckets of peaches from his cooler and had numerous visitors out in the orchard picking peaches on Friday morning.
June 21
Garrett Gittlein grew up farming his family’s land in western Kansas, and for the past nine years, he has been growing his own family farm in western Benton County. Gittlein, 32, with his wife, Amanda, 31, and sons Mason, 6, and Colson, 3, were recognized June 13 as the 2017 Farm Family of the Year for Benton County.
June 28
Gravette city council members, in their regular meeting June 22, voted to approve contracts with BiLD Architects for improvements at Pop Allum Park and improvements in the Hiwasse community. Both projects will be paid for with bond money approved by voters in the March 2016 capital improvements fund bond measure. The $27,750 contract for parking improvements and soccer fields at Pop Allum Park includes a $21,000 architectural contract, a $4,750 contract for surveying and a $2,000 contract for geotechnical services. The work to be done includes 1) asphalt improvements to the north parking lot, 2) three soccer fields on the south side of the park, 3) ADA compliant sidewalks connecting the parking area to the soccer fields with the main northsouth sidewalks for future connection to the city trail system and 4) master planning of a future baseball field north of the proposed soccer fields.