News
Nancy Walker says she’s grateful to Jimmy Fortner, owner of the old Senior Citizen Center on Third Street, for giving her and the other Ozark County Toy Drive volunteers access to the building well ahead of the Dec. 16 event so they have plenty of time for setup. If this year’s event follows past years’ experiences, more than 400 area children will find gifts under their Christmas tree that came through the efforts and donations of area residents who support the annual toy drive – an Ozark County tradition for decades. Times photo/Jessi Dreckman.
Volunteers throughout the county are working hard to get things ready for area residents who look forward to celebrating Christmas, Ozark County style.
Bakersfield: ‘Home Town Christmas’
The county’s first Christmas season event happens Saturday in Bakersfield, where Santa will be chatting up the...
Wren and Ini Russenholt
An Ozark County couple will be featured in an upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel’s “Homestead Rescue” show. The Ozark County-filmed episode of the show, which pairs survival expert Marty Raney, his daughter Misty, a farmer, and his son Matt, a hunter and fisherman, with struggling...
Dora Volunteer Fire Department responded to the 3 a.m. call Thursday morning to fight a raging fire that destroyed Radu and Anna Slaviks’ eight-bedroom house on County Road 356. Caney Mountain and Eastern Douglas VFDs responded in mutual aid. Although firefighters worked through the night, DVFD chief Monte Shipley said the house was “too far gone” when firefighters arrived. It’s thought the fire started in the chimney. Photo courtesy Dora Volunteer Fire Dept.
Radu Slavik credits 2 1/2-year-old Raven with saving her family – Radu and his wife, Anna, and three other sleeping children – in the early hours of Thanksgiving morning when a fast-burning fire destroyed their Dora-area home. The couple also have three other children who were away from home that...
Elmer “Curly” and Betty Roberson of Theodosia will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary Dec. 11, 2017, during a Thanksgiving gathering with their family. Elmer grew up in Bible Grove, Illinois, and met his future wife when she was 13 and served him a chocolate milkshake while working at the...
More than 100 people in January attended a preview of newly acquired Bryant Creek State Park a few miles north of Rockbridge in Douglas County. The participants divided into different groups, including this one, that explored some of the park’s 2,917 acres. The park was closed and development plans were postponed indefinitely after the inauguration of Eric Greitens as governor. Now a public meeting is set for Dec. 5 in Ava to discuss the future of Bryant Creek State Park as well as two other parks that were announced in the closing days of former governor Jay Nixon’s administration.
A public meeting to discuss the future of Bryant Creek State Park, on N Highway in Douglas County just north of Rockbridge, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, in the Ava Community Center, 108 NE Second Ave. in Ava.
Other public meetings will be held regarding two other state parks that...
Ozark County Ambulance District board president Raymond Peter, far right, with district treasurer Jerri Sue Crawford and paramedic and operations manager David James (standing) signed papers Tuesday with Lyle Prior of Municipal Development & Funding (seated), finalizing financing to build a new ambulance district base to replace the current building, which was condemned after hazardous mold was detected in late 2015.
Members of the Ozark County Ambulance District signed paperwork Tuesday, agreeing to a $300,000 loan that will finance the construction of a new ambulance base on the same site as the district’s current building, which was condemned after hazardous mold was detected there in late 2015.
Board...
Ozark County has been awarded $3,086 in federal funds to supplement emergency food and shelter programs here. The funds have come through the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board program.
A local board consisting...
Dora VFD chief Monte Shipley hugs Mary Lou Hambelton at a surprise retirement party. Hambelton has served as the Dora VFD treasurer for 30 years and was active in starting the department in the mid-1980s.
The Dora Volunteer Fire Department members surprised Mary Lou Hambelton with a retirement party earlier this month. Hambelton has served as Dora VFD board treasurer the past 30 years. She and her late husband, Gerald, were founding members of the department when it began in early 1986, and they...
Former Gainesville resident Vanessa Yarber of Lebanon, shown here with her husband Derek and children, from left, Raegan, Koby and Kyler, was the winner of the $100 prize awarded in a random drawing of those who submitted recipes for this year’s Ozark County Cookin’. Vanessa shared a recipe for carmelitas that appears on page 36 of this year’s cookbook – a treat so delicious she says you’ll want to make a double batch!
Ozark County Cookin’ , the Ozark County Times’annual cookbook, was published last week, and by Monday, nearly all vendors’ supplies of the popular free publication had been depleted. We’ll restock as we deliver this week’s Times today, but it’s expected that all remaining copies will soon be gone....
Tina Poe’s kindergarten students at Gainesville Elementary were all dressed up last week for an early celebration of Thanksgiving. Front row, from left: Hunter Barnett, Akaysha McFall, Lillian Beasley, Levi Simmons. Middle: Corbin Collins, Jake Hogan, Grace Welch, Ella Morris, Ainsley Luna. Back:...