April 2023

The Corning Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire call at 3:26 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25 at 105 North Missouri Avenue, also known as Hwy 67 North. When fire fighters arrived two shops and an RV were engulfed. Fire Chief Danny Curtis reported the fire started in the RV and spread to the shops owned by the Huffman family, particularly a diesel repair shop operated by Bear Huffman. Curtis stated the blaze burned some vehicles, tires and melted the siding off of the Manatt residence next to the shops. During the fire, small explosions from inside the shops could be heard.

The Corning School Board met in a special meeting on Monday, April 24, 2023 with all members present. The board approved the 2023-2024 Classified Salary Schedule followed by the approval of the employments of Tara Hovis as District Treasurer and Charity Parks as District Bookkeeper/Superintendent’s Secretary effective July 1, 2023 and the employment of Abigail Horton, custodian effective April 17, 2023.

Last month, Makayla Ward, a 2021 Corning graduate, was selected out of over 200 applicants to interview for two of Southern Illinois University’s top scholarships. Two years to the day that she signed to play basketball for the Lady Pioneers of Crowley’s Ridge College, she went in for a financial aid appointment at SIU on April 21 and was surprised in front of a room full of students and parents with the Provost Scholarship, the top scholarship for a transfer student that is worth over $30,000. It is awarded over two years, four fall/spring semesters. Each year the scholarship will pay the assessed tuition and mandatory fees at SIU Carbondale.

An artist in northeast Arkansas with Corning ties recently demonstrated his artistic talent in the form of a tribute mural to the legendary singer-songwriter Johnny Cash in Jonesboro. Artist Braden Walls said the idea for the Johnny Cash tribute mural came about a couple months ago when Ted Herget and Chris Gamble reached out to him about doing something creative on the back of their new building called Uptown across from Kroger. Walls said, “When we met up to talk about ideas there were a few things tossed around that in some way represent Arkansas and somehow we ended up on Johnny Cash.” He had actually been asked to paint a Johnny Cash mural by a few other places over the years but the projects never crystalized. “So I was immediately on board with the idea and started sketching up some stuff. After a few weeks and a few different renditions, I finally figured it out, sent them the proof, and they approved,” he explained. He got to work a couple weeks later after some bad weather passed through the area. “I couldn’t be more happy with it and all the love I’ve received is overwhelming.” The mural project took Walls four days and around 30 hours of work to complete.

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