Monticello Live

Possum Valley Fun Day.

Fun, food, and entertainment.

Fish plates, auction, bouncy house and much more.

Saturday, October 26, at Possum Valley, on Highway 172.

Possum Valley Fun Day.

Fun, food, and entertainment.

Fish plates, auction, bouncy house and much more.

Saturday, October 26, at Possum Valley, on Highway 172.

A.J. Huffman, a SEAARK employee had the opportunity to meet John Godwin, during his visit to the local boat manufacturer in Monticello.

A.J. is also responsible for most of the graphics on MonticelloLive and can get your advertising and promotional messages in front of 15,000 readers daily.

Opening arguments began at 1 pm, Tuesday, in the case of Jonathan Woods, who is facing a possible death sentence, for the kidnapping and capital murder of Samantha Poole, in March of 2014. (more…)

The capital murder and kidnapping case from the March 14, 2014 shooting death of a Warren woman outside of a Monticello grocery store is underway at the Drew County Courthouse. (more…)

Friday morning, the Arkansas State Police learned the a Virginia murder suspect was believed to be in  southeast Arkansas.   Here is the report from ASP’s Bill Sadler.

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More details about the drowning death of a 6 year-old Wilmar boy in Lake Monticello, Wednesdayhave become available. (more…)

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Anonymous supporters offered the Monticello School District the chance to have Hyatt Field dried out by having a helicopter hover over the muddy playing surface, Friday afternoon, at no expense to the district. (more…)

After the collapse of the building on the east side of  the square’s south side, a temporary repair was noticed that had recently been applied to the building on the west end of that same row of building.

The tape appears to be Duct Tape, a product that is usually made of aluminum, and used in the air conditioning and refrigeration industry, and not the standard grade of “duck tape.”

But it is still a shining example of a potential problem.

Click on the “cloverleaf” on the bottom of the video screen, to enlarge it to full screen view.

Drew County, Monticello, AR Fair Parade, 2009 from MonticelloLive on Vimeo.

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Two representatives with Murray and Company provided preliminary sketches of the phase modernization plan. The Board voted to begin work on Phase I, the allied health building, shown in red in the photo.

The Drew Memorial Hospital Board voted to move ahead with the first phase of the master site plan to modernize the hospital during its regular meeting Wednesday, July 22. Murray and Company will draw up the plans for the new allied health building.

The master site plan consists of six phases, which include new construction, renovations and remodeling to modernize the hospital’s facilities. The Board voted to approach the phase modernization project by starting with Phase I, construction of the allied health building. (more…)

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Monticello Police Dept. Lt. Steven Stain led a class of law enforcement officers and visitors who work in related fields in proper procedures for the use of the police dept.’s new Taser units.

Class topics included safety, effects, dept. policies, documentation, and removal of darts. 

Under the topic of “effects” all MPD officers present lined up to have the taser used on them.  This was done so that each individual officer would be able to use proper discretion in decisions about when to use the new taser unit.

Greg Johnson, shown above, was one of the first to take his turn.

Carlos Garcia, who used the unit on Johnson, was next in line.

The taser shoots two small darts into the person being restrained, followed by sending 500,000 volts of electricity into them. 

The muscles between the two darts are the only muscles that are directly affected, but that effect is enough to bring anyone to the ground, and eliminate any physical confrontation.

A total of 25 men including Monticello Police, some Drew County Sheriff’s deputies, a DTF agent, a SouthEast Emergency Services employee, and myself, felt the “knock-down” of the taser.

Mark Grant, who carried the new unit later that night, is shown here, being assisted to the ground by nearby officers.  

When the taser’s darts hit it’s target, the shock immediatlely begins, and the person is unable to control their actions, so the mat was used as a safety factor, with other officers being stationed close to prevent the upcoming fall to the ground.

More photos and information are in the following article.

Monticello Police Chief Robert Rosegrant also took part in the class, including receiving the effects of the taser.

Like the rest of the officers, Chief Rosegrant also went down quickly.

The X-26 model, shown here, is issued by Taser International, and is the model that was chosen by Monticello police.

Monticello School’s resource office, George Strain is shown here, taking his turn.

The 500,000 volts are more than anyone there could take, and remain standing.

MonticelloLive.com’s Joe Burgess, who was recently elected to serve as constable of Marion Township, closed out the class.

Burgess describes the taser’s shock as, “the most pain I’ve ever felt in five seconds.  You can’t move or do anything, except fall down, right were you are.”

A total of 25 men in law enforcement and related fields left Friday’s class with a greater respect for the tool that will provide them with a safer working environment, by reducing the risk to officers and citizens when the threat of physical confrontations can be replaced by simply using this new tool that should virtually eliminate having to fight with suspects.

As of Friday night, the tasers were in use, on the streets of Monticello.

With today being Father’s Day, Mr. Pete Rowe has been chosen the the One Monticello Life for this week.

Mr. Pete is the father of 3 adult children; Vernon who works in the environmental field and lives in Pittsburgh, TX; Norman, who lives in Cabot, Retired from the Air Force after 20 years, and is employed in the computer field; and Sue, who lives here in Monticello, and is a former factory and health-care worker. 

 Pete Rowe was employed by Arkla gas, beginning as a serviceman, with meter reading responsibilities, and retiring 32 years later as district manager for the Dumas district.

He originally started with Arkla after working for the McGehee water dept for 3 years.

Mr. Pete was born and raised in McGehee, where he remained until 1976.

Mr. Rowe was in the 11th grade at McGehee, when he left school to join navy in 1944.  He completed his educaiton after returning from military service.

He served in the U.S. Navy with 2 years active duty, where he served aboard the U.S.S Seagull, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After his active duty, he served 18 more years in the Navy reserve. 

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MonticelloLive recently received a news tip about an investigation taking place in regards to unaccounted for money in the Monticello District Court.

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This photo shows Monticello people eating a Monticello meal at Ray’s, who is having Monticello’s LA Graphics install a new lighted sign for them.

LA Graphics advertises with MonticelloLive, who took this picture on the way to Monticello Exxon.

That’s 5 levels of “Shopping Monticello First.”

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Joe Burgess is seeking the position of Constable of Marion Township (Monticello and the surrounding area) currently held by Raymond Chisom.

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A Dumas man lost his life and a Monticello woman has been transported to Little Rock, as a result of a collision just north of the Drew-Lincoln county line this morning.

As a courtesy, MonticelloLive wants to let readers know in advance that photos of the vehicles are shown on the attached link.

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Joe Williams, Jr. was born and raised in Monticello, and graduated from Monticello High School in 1982.  He attended and graduated from UAM with a B.A. in computer science.

Joe has spent the last 4 years employed as receiving manager for School Apperal’s Star City facility, but is best know from the more than 20 years he spent at Burlington Industries, here in Monticello.

He started working at Burlington in 1982, but was told by the personnel manager that if he was going to quit school, that he wasn’t going to get hired, but that he should get promoted after he graduated.  Joe took the challenge, completed his education, and began his way up the Burlington ladder of supervision.

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This map showing the probably effected area if there were to be a break in the dam at the end of Lake Monticello, was a part of the focus of the meeting held to revise the Emergency Action Plan for use in the event of such an emergency.

Most city and county officials were present for the meeting, where Steven Faulkner, Monticello’s Fire Chief, was appointed Emergency Action Plan Coordinator.

Doug Knight was born in Springhill, LA, but his family moved to Drew County when he was 2 years old.  Doug grew up in the Plantersville area, and graduated from Drew Central High School.

Doug continued his education by taking industrial electricity classes at Pines vo-tech in Pine Bluff.

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Around 1 a.m., Sunday morning, law enforcement officers on patrol on Old Warren Road, noticed a downed power pole near the running track just east of Monticello High School.

Upon entering the school’s parking lot, a wrecked GMC truck was found (see photo).

The student in question was taken to the County Detention Facility for a BAC test.

Witnesses at the scene indicated that he had been drinking, and was attempting to enter the school’s “safe prom”, which is being provided to prevent drinking and driving.

The truck left the scene of the wreck, and was parked near the area where last week’s “DWI Wreck Re-enactment” was held.

The student’s mom told MonticelloLive, “the last thing we told him before he left was don’t be drinking and driving.”

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