Stories from Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The Big 8 Conference has named its best basketball players and Cassville has a player on the list. The Cassville girls basketball team landed Devyn Callahan on the 2015-2016 Big 8 All-Conference Honorable Mention squad this season. Cassville finished the year 13-12...

The head coach position for Exeter boys basketball has seen rapid turnover in recent seasons, and the district has now made a move in hopes of securing a long-term coach for the team. Hired to his first teaching job out of college, Zane Culp, an assistant coach in Neosho, was hired by the Exeter School Board on March 16...

The Purdy girls softball team is not messing around this season. The memory of watching Stockton upset the Lady Eagles in Purdy in last year's quarterfinal is still fresh on the minds of the coaches and players. Purdy went 23-4 last season, and 8-0 in Ozark 7 Conference play. The Black and Gold return eight starters from that team this year...

The Exeter school district took a ride on the coaching carousel last week, as Matt Tripp, former boys basketball coach, took another position in the district coaching his favorite sport -- baseball. Tripp succeeds Colt Higgs, who has moved to Joplin to support his wife's nursing career and resigned due to the long daily commute...

The Big 8 Conference released its all-conference teams, and Cassville's Collin Pearman was the only Wildcat to earn honors this season. Pearman collected an Honorable Mention spot for the Wildcats. Cassville finished the season 9-17. The complete all-conference list is as follows:...

The Barry County Commission is seeking to appoint a library trustee to the Barry-Lawrence Regional Library Board of Trustees from the Southern Part of Barry County. This is to fill the unexpired term for a vacancy created by the resignation of Christine Barnes, whose term expires June 30, 2018. ...

Special religious holidays are arriving this month, including Good Friday and Easter Sunday. First United Methodist Church will hold a service Friday night. Years ago, there were numerous Easter sunrise services throughout the area. Apparently, that became more of a task than many groups wanted to tackle...

The Cassvile Ministerial Alliance will hold its collaborative Good Friday service at 7 p.m. Friday, March 25, at the Cassville United Methodist Church.

The family and friends of Doug and Sue Louk of Cassville, would like to congratulate the couple on 60 years of marriage. Married on April 6, 1956. Happy Anniversary. Contributed photo

This week's pet of the week at the Haven of the Ozarks is Bullett (pronounced Boo-Lay).

Eight students from Cassville Middle School had the privilege of performing in the the Southwest District Junior High Honor Choir on Saturday, March 5 in Joplin.

Elissa Griffin, a senior at Cassville High School, was named February Student of the Month at Scott Regional Technology Center in Monett.

The Cassville High School and Middle School FBLA chapters joined together to host a March of Dimes change race to raise funds for the March of Dimes organization.

Brady Powers, of the Screeching Eagles 4-H Club in Purdy, was among 333 people attending the annual Missouri 4-H Teen Conference, March 12 and 13, at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Together with their parents, Katelynn Corinne Ohmes and Ethan Emery Couch are pleased to announce their upcoming marriage.

Richard Asbill, right, shares a laugh with Nicole Beebe, left, and Veronica Semmecke Friday during the Tour de Cass, held at the Cassville Golf Club.

A Cassville woman was injured Friday in a wreck at 11:20 a.m. on Highway 86, one mile east of Stark city in Newton County. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, Meagan Hoskins, 31, of Cassville, was driving a 2008 Toyota Tacoma pickup westbound when her vehicle ran off the right side of the roadway an overturned...

A Purdy man was injured in a wreck on Tuesday at 12:25 a.m. on Farm Road 2140, two miles south of Butterfield. According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol report, James Ray, 24, of Purdy, was driving a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix westbound when his vehicle ran off the roadway and overturned...

Along with responding to nearly 350 calls in 2015, the Purdy Fire Protection District in the past year has added multiple vehicles and are also working out of two stations, instead of just one. The district responded to a record number of calls for service last year, completing 349. This is up from a total of 276 calls in the year 2014...

In an age of the prolific use of mobile applications to help people do everything from keep track of fitness goals to keeping track of one's schedule, the Cassville school district has joined the masses and launched an app of its own. This month, the district launched a new, free mobile app that is now available on smart phones and tablets. The app offers one central place for students, staff, families and the community to stay on top of events and activities at the school district...

Hutchens Construction recently made an ownership transition, as effective March 1, the company, which has been in Cassville for 55 years, became 100 percent employee-owned. The entirety of the ownership of the company was transferred to employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, otherwise known as an ESOP. An ESOP is a qualified retirement plan that buys, holds and sells company stock for the benefit of its employees, providing them ownership in the company at no cost to them...

Dates have been set for the remainder of the school year in the Purdy school district. At Superintendent Steven Chancellor's recommendation, the board set high school graduation for May 14. The second Saturday in May has historically been the district's commencement day...

Cherry Warren, Barry County presiding commissioner, reports that the county's emergency fund is better shape than it has been in several years. "The emergency fund is an expenditure in the budget," Warren said. "That's the surplus we set aside, kind of like a rainy day fund. If you have a shortfall in sales tax, you can go into the emergency fund to help balance your books. It's considered to be in better shape than in recent years, thanks to the 1/8-cent sales tax."...

A Joplin man who led Cassville police on a chase exceeding 120 miles per hour pleaded guilty to four charges recently in Barry County court. Judge Jack Goodman sentenced Kyle Stirewalt, 30, of Joplin, to five years of probation and required completion of the Jasper County CRISP program after Stirewalt pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm, resisting arrest by fleeing, second-degree burglary and theft...

An Exeter man was arrested on March 16 after allegedly stealing medications from a home in Exeter. Caleb Tate, 21, of Exeter, is charged with second-degree burglary, theft of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. According to a probable cause statement filed by Kevin Phillips, Barry County deputy, on March 15, Tate allegedly forcedly entered a home on Farm Road 1040 in Exeter through a bathroom window...

A bridge that allowed passage over Flat Creek along the popular Greenway Trail near the Cassville Aquatic Park was recently rebuilt by volunteers and city workers, nearly eight months after being destroyed by flooding in July 2015. According to Steve Walensky, Cassville public works director, no action could be taken to address the damaged bridge, along with many other areas in the parks which had been damaged, until funding was received from FEMA, which did not arrive until December 2015, when another flood hit. ...

An Exeter man is facing two felony charges relating to sexual contact with a person less than 14 years of age. Buck Nelson, 42, of Exeter, is charged with first-degree statutory sodomy and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. According to a probable cause statement filed by Chris Hutson, Barry County deputy, the incidents occurred between Jan. 1, 2014, and Oct. 1, 2015. The victim in the case is 13 years of age...

The Cassville school district food service staff recently participated in a webinar to review procedures and options on how to deal with unpaid student meal accounts. "Schools handle this issue in a variety of ways, and even from state-to-state, the regulations are different," said Richard Asbill, Cassville superintendent. "The information was pretty standard to the policies already in place by the USDA and the school lunch program both at the federal or state level."...

An Eagle Rock man is facing multiple charges related to sexual abuse of a minor after incidents took place on Saturday in a vehicle near his home on Highway M. Edward Resz, 51, of Eagle Rock, is charged with first-degree sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual abuse for alleged contact with multiple minors in the vehicle...

Beginning next fall, Eric Roller, a Barry County native, will assume the position of high school principal for the Southwest school district. Roller will be taking over Tosha Watson's position, who will replace Bob Walker as superintendent when Walker retires...

Cassville native Janet Kavandi is continuing to move up at NASA, as she has now been named director of the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland after a year as deputy director. A student at Cassville schools before moving and graduating from Carthage High School in 1977, Kavandi is the first female director of the Center, and its first director to have flown in space...

The Kid Kat Choir performed for guests at the Soroptimist Club of Barry County's St. Patrick's Day Potato Bake Thursday at the United Methodist Church.

A former Barry County jailer has pleaded guilty to delivering an illegal substance to inmates being held in the jail in August 2015. Judge Jack Goodman sentenced Matthew Hernandez, 24, of Butterfield, to five years of supervised probation for pleading guilty to smuggling marijuana to a pair of inmates in the jail...

One-by-one, the South Barry County District's ambulance fleet of six units are receiving updates to align them with Mercy standards and protocols, and make them ready for service to Barry County citizens. Mercy is in the process of adding equipment, Mercy decals, a radio system and black boxes to the ambulance units. The changes are being made following the district's contract switch from Cox to Mercy, which took effect March 9...