News

The 75th Annual Vernon County Youth Fair kicked off Monday evening with the opening of the Diner, non-livestock exhibits and conference judging beginning, and the Super Teen preliminary contest. The festivities will continue throughout the week, ending with the anticipated livestock sale on Saturday. ...

An El Dorado Springs resident is in custody after being placed on the Vernon County’s Most Wanted list. According to Vernon County Sheriff Jason Mosher, detectives located 21-year-old Chad Ellison and were able to take him into custody Monday morning in the 600 block of West Garfield Street in Nevada...

Over the Fourth of July weekend, many community members were puzzled when a post circulating on social media inaccurately stated there had been a COVID-19 related death in Vernon County. The Vernon County Health Department was quick to respond to this misinformation via their social media page...

The Vernon County Youth Fair Royalty competition held its annual judging at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 28, at the Vernon County Courthouse. The girls enjoyed visiting with each other while enjoying snacks and cookies. The contestants voted on whom they would like to see awarded Miss Congeniality during the event...

Vernon County Health Department has confirmed five new positive cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) bringing the county's total confirmed cases to 26. Two of these cases are asymptomatic and three are symptomatic. All cases are isolated at home. Four of today’s cases are household contacts to a previous known positive and one is related to an out-of-county outbreak. The families of these cases are quarantined at home per CDC guidelines...

The Nevada Regional Medical Center Board of Directors met via teleconference at noon, Tuesday. The main item on the agenda was the NRMC Budget for fiscal year 2021, which was unanimously passed by the board. The fiscal year 2021 NRMC budget is projected to generate a $1,447,225 operating income. The budget projects a $1,358,154 increase in cash not adjusting for potential CARES Act funding repayments...

Vernon County Health Department has confirmed another positive case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) bringing the total confirmed cases to 18. This case is symptomatic and is currently hospitalized. The family of this case is quarantined at home per CDC guidelines...

A documentary chronicling the upcoming 75th Vernon County Youth Fair is in the works. Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, however, the film will not be ready for release in time for the event. Bushwhacker Museum coordinator Will Tollerton is conducting the interviews, but will not put together the film itself. So far, Tollerton has completed eight interviews, and has lined up another dozen or so, to be finished by the end of the week...

Nevada Speedway is slated to pay tribute to former racer Karl Lin 'Screamin' Lehmann, 7 p.m. tonight, with the Street Stock Memorial Event. Lehmann, a well-known local mechanic and race car drive, tragically passed away on Christmas Day six months ago...

Nevada Regional Medical Center (NRMC) held its 17th Annual Caring with Pride Golf Classic fundraiser event — Friday at Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course. All proceeds from the event went to the hospital's recently established Emergency Response Fund — for employees to utilize during the COVID-19 pandemic...

The Vernon County Health Department has confirmed four additional positive cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) bringing the county's total positive cases to 17. The first three additional cases were announced on Wednesday and are not related to one another. They are asymptomatic and are isolated at home. The latest case was announced Thursday and is symptomatic and isolated at home...

Despite the many challenges created by the global pandemic, Nevada High School's summer school session has thus far gone off without a hitch. The 12-day, Monday through Friday session, runs June 15-30 — with 117 students enrolled. "Summer school has been off to a pretty good start," said Nevada High Principal Will Darter. “We’ve obviously been putting safety guidelines and practices in place. So, it’s kind of been new for everybody.”...

Local confirmed cases of COVID-19 are still relatively low, with 13 in Nevada. It seems the walls are closing in, however, as sharp increases have manifested in nearby areas. None more evident than Joplin and its surrounding area, as the city an hour south recorded the single largest coronavirus spike in the nation last week...

It was a grand day for Nevada High School freshmen student-athletes Case Sanderson and Kirstin Buck, as the duo were named 2020 recipients of the Kelly Bradham Memorial Newcomer Award. Created in November of 2001, and voted on by NHS coaches, the Kelly Bradham Newcomer Award is presented to a male and female student-athlete deemed the most significant contributor as a first-time varsity letter-winner...

With weekly COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) testing in Missouri increasing more than 220 percent from approximately 16,000 test encounters the week of April 20 to over 53,000 encounters the week of May 25, the state of Missouri fully reopened on Tuesday and entered Phase 2 of the Recovery Plan. Over the past two weeks, the state has averaged more than 10,000 tests per weekday...

The former '90s smash hit TV series Unsolved Mysteries is receiving a fresh reboot from Netflix, and will be available for streaming July 1. Included among the first batch of episodes is a 2004 cold case, in which a black man went missing after attending a house party in La Cygne, Kansas, Linn County, a town located 50 miles northwest of Nevada, and 30 miles straight north of Fort Scott...

Crawford County confirmed Covid-19 cases have swelled to 156, with a large percentage of new cases attributed to employees of SugarCreek (meat-packing) plant in Frontenac, five miles north of Pittsburg. Straddling the border, Frontenac is located roughly 40 miles southwest of Nevada...

The Nevada High School (R-5) junior/senior class prom has been officially canceled, prompting one mother to take action. Local community member April Hendren is spearheading an effort to organize a prom not affiliated with the R-5 district, beginning with Tuesday evening's meeting at Marmaduke Park, attended by approximately 55 parents of NHS students...

The Osage Prairie YMCA's Grab-and-Go meal program is flourishing under the guidance of Director Jeff Snyder. Serving free meals three days a week at seven different locations, Snyder said the numbers his staff and volunteers are serving per day has doubled to approximately 400 in recent weeks...

Nevada High School graduating senior Calli Beshore was recently named the regional recipient of the $1,000 FutureBuilders scholarship — awarded by the Education Foundation of the Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA). Under the guidelines of the scholarship program, a $1,000 scholarship is awarded to one student in each of the MSBA's 17 regions. ...

According to a release from the Nevada R-5 school district, "After careful consideration and much discussion, NHS has decided to cancel prom which was scheduled for June 26, 2020." The school's prom had been postponed due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic and rescheduled for june 26. ...

After nearly 27 years of service with the city, and 35 overall, Nevada Fire Department Chief William Thornton recently announced his retirement. A retirement party was held for Thornton at the fire station Friday afternoon. Among those honoring Thornton were state representative Patricia Pike, interim City Manager Mark Mitchell, and new Nevada Fire Chief Troy Denney...

Things couldn't have gone much better for the Kansas City Royals in Wednesday's 2020 Major League Baseball amateur draft. Selecting fourth overall in the first round, Kansas City nabbed hard-throwing Texas A&M southpaw Asa Lacy, considered by most the top pitching prospect in the draft...

The past five years have been a long, adversity-filled road for longtime community member Jamie Alexander and his family. Alexander, who has been a member of the Nevada High School and middle school football coaching staff at various junctures since the mid-90s, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2015. ...