May 2023

Corning 4H members continued work in the Corning Community Garden on Wednesday, April 26 planting tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapenos cucumbers and carrots alongside the garden’s caretakers. The garden contained 43 tomato plants when planting was done. The young 4Hers learned about gardening as they checked on the growth of the plants sown a couple weeks ago. During this study of gardening and plant growth they work on their project books along the way.

Each year, Clay County offers a 4-H Youth Leadership Citizenship Program for high school juniors in cooperation with local schools and sponsors. Madelynn Coleman was the recipient of the 2022 Clay County Youth Leadership Citizenship Team Scholarship. Madelyn was chosen as the outstanding youth leader from Corning and was awarded the $1,200 Joan Bauschlicher and Martin Ahrent Scholarship presented by Tim Bauschlicher and Mark Ahrent along with Clay County Extension Agent Stewart Runsick.

We are less than a week away from the 2023 Corning High School Graduation and I want to take this time to say a few words to our graduating seniors, their families and our community. As we educators prepare for graduation, we reflect on the previous years with fondness and hope that we have equipped our seniors for life after high school.

The U of A Extension Clay County Blackberry Variety Demonstration Vineyard located on Wooten Street has new signs for each blackberry variety including Arkansas varieties developed by the University of Arkansas and Dr. John Clark. Ryan Carter and Clay County Extension Agent Stewart Runsick planted the blackberry plants in two waves. They began last season. The newer plants will not produce this year but the older plants will produce some berries this year and many more next year.

The City of Corning has a lot of history under her belt having been in existence for 150 years and occasionally a relic of her past is discovered. Recently Ryan Carter was gifted an old 7 oz. soda bottle by a friend, Mindie Johnson Mitchell. The glass bottle was stamped the Corning Bottling Company, a business in Corning in the 1940s. In 1948, the Clay County Courier reported the Corning Bottling Plant had completed renovation of all equipment and was now operating on a full time basis in the new modern building on Second Street. The newspaper relayed to the community, “The Plant and property is owned by W. F. Mullins, who, with the new plant manager, L. P. King, has been overseeing the changeover and improvements for the past two months.” After the soda bottling operation was up and running full force that year, the company ran advertisements in the Courier, such as, “Look under your Pop-Kola bottle caps, there are numbers. Numbers 7 and 11 get a free bottle of Pop-Kola. Have fun, see who gets the low number. Corning Bottling Company.” By 1953, it appears the bottling company had closed as the Courier reported, “A new farm equipment dealership opened in Corning this week. It is the Clay County Equipment Company, Oliver farm equipment dealers, in the bottling plant building on West Second near Main Street. Owners of the firm, which also have a dealership at Knobel are Leo and Edward Sellmeyer, M. M. Huddleston and Lester Pugsley. Huddleston, manager of the local dealership, has moved with his family from Jonesboro.”

The Veteran of Foreign Wars Rapert-Poynor Post #8347 recently held elections for Post officers with the following members taking office on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Commander - George Lowe, Sr.