On Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 1:31 p.m. the Knobel Fire Department was notified of a fire on the Black River train trestle north of County Road 228 by Union Pacific. The Corning and Peach Orchard Volunteer Fire Departments responded as well as and the Forestry department. Fire trucks were unable to get to the fire and Forestry brought in planes from Little Rock to battle the fire. The Clay County Sheriff Department arrived at the scene via boats.
LITTLE ROCK — Witnessing a total solar eclipse can be a once-ina-lifetime experience and on April 8, 2024, when the path of a total eclipse will touch 53 of Arkansas’ 75 counties, many in-state organizations are preparing to use the opportunity for tourism, marketing and education.
A farmer wishing to surprise his wife, decided while going home that he would appear before her dressed in a new suit of clothes just purchased. Stopping at a bridge he peeled off his old suit and had thrown it in the creek before he discovered that the bundle containing his new clothes had jarred out of the wagon. Although it was a cold night it was also a dark one, for which he was thankful. Upon reaching home the surprise to his wife was even more complete than he had arranged for.
The world is moving at an unprecedented pace. We are often blitzed with information from every direction by the world and our interactions. The internet has brought the world and its turmoil into our personal space on a 24/7 cycle. Our brains are overstimulated and often overloaded. Our ancestors’ lives though fraught with hardships did not have the stresses of lives in perpetual movement. One has to wonder if the incessant quest to be moving, having somewhere to go or do is an avoidance tactic or a way to hide from pain and disappointment. I often wonder how children with nonstop schedules of activities and events are coping. People need down-time, time for rest, reflection, and peace. Overstimulated brains process slower, and memory is one area where it is appears first. I’ve read that chronic stress damages the brain.
The Corning City Council met at City Hall at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 11 for its regular monthly meeting. Councilman Trent McKinney was absent. A public hearing was held at 5:30 p.m. prior to the regular meeting concerning the petition requested by Corning Publishing Company, Inc. for rezoning of agricultural land east of Hwy. 67 North and North of Bobcat Lane adjoining Corning Publishing Company at 810 North Missouri Avenue in Corning. The petition requested that the property be rezoned from agricultural to commercial. With no one attending the hearing that protested the rezoning the planning community moved the approval to the city council to make the decision on the rezoning. The council voted during the regular meeting to rezone the property to commercial status.
Clay County Chief Deputy Russ Latimer chose his career path early in life. “I started working at the Sheriff’s Department in the jail when I was 19 years old. When I graduated high school, I knew exactly where I wanted to be and that’s where I’ve been.” It’s that knowledge that one day he wants to be the Sheriff of Clay County that has encouraged Latimer to run for the office. “I just didn’t think that it would be this soon in my life. I understand that I’m younger than most people that ran for this position in the past, but I also think that with 15 years’ experience, I think it’s time.”
Park Elementary, Corning Middle School, and Corning High School Odyssey of the Mind Teams are headed to World Finals. The Arkansas Odyssey of the Mind State Tournament was held at Mayflower on Saturday, April 9th. Teams from around the state including Pocahontas, Greene County Tech, Brookland, Valley View, Trumann, Tuckerman, Marianna, Earle, Blytheville, Mount St. Mary’s, Springdale,
One of the important issues in the upcoming election, particularly to the Clay County Sheriff’s race is the Clay County Detention Center and its current closure. Both candidates running for sheriff, Ronnie Cole and Russ Latimer have stated they believe it’s imperative to the county and its residents to have an operating detention center. The county jail has been closed since Sept. 30, 2021. Since that time inmates have been transported to surrounding county jails. There has been some discussion about the state of the jail’s physical structure, but the primary reason for its closure as stated by Sheriff Terry Miller at a special Clay County Quorum Court meeting called on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. in the Eastern District Courthouse in Piggott was the skeleton crew of jailers. Miller stated to a crowded courtroom that his jail administrator called him that Thursday evening and said the night shift jailer did not come in or call to indicate he would not be working that evening. Miller said, “And it’s hard to find people that want to be jailers. I’ll just be honest and truthful. But anyway, that being said, we started calling the other jailers that we had available.” The sheriff said he had two other jailers, one in training, but not ready for the job as yet. It was reported that one had been drinking and he wasn’t fit to come to work. “I had to make a hard decision right there and then,” said Miller. “My jail administrator worked 24 hours that day in that jail. I made the decision to temporarily suspend operations of our jail and I moved our inmates to a safe location until I can get a full staff that can maintain the jail under safe operating conditions, we do not need to open it back up. We CAN not open it back up.” Miller stated he needed no less than eight jailers. At the time he had two male and three female jailers. In ad-dition to the lack of jailers, Miller also addressed the latest State Fire Marshal Report for the jail and provided a letter concerning the report signed by Lindsey Williams, Major, State Fire Marshal Commander. Some issues stated that require prompt attention were in general, the jail fire alarm system was not in proper operating condition, fire suppression for cooking appliances are required to have a Type I hood, deficiencies in the automatic fire sprinkler system. These deficiencies had to be corrected no later than Oct. 25, 2021.
The Lady Bobcats faced Harrisburg in a home game on Tuesday, April 5 on a beautiful spring afternoon. Corning fell behind early and couldn’t recover resulting in a 6-0 loss. Harrisburg took the lead on a single in the 1 inning when Hannah Mross singled on the first pitch of the at bat, scoring 1 run. The Lady Cats struggled to contain the high-powered Harrisburg offense, giving up 6 runs.
A squad of junior and senior high trap shooters from Corning competed in the 9th Annual Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation AYSSP Trap Tournament on Saturday, April 2 at the AGFF Shooting Sports Complex in Jacksonville, Arkansas.