News

Monday’s regularly scheduled session of the finance committee of the Nevada Regional Medical Center board was postponed a day to make room for a special closed meeting of the NRMC board of directors. In part, this meeting has to do with the process stated in a new city ordinance passed on July 18...

After a career spanning more than four decades, Doug Gammon of Gammon Glass is retiring at the end of the year. “I used to do this down in my basement,” Gammon said. “I’d be down there two o’clock, two thirty, three o’clock in the morning.” After graduating high school, Gammon moved to Kansas City where he worked for Hallmark Cards for a short time before he was offered a job by a family acquaintance at Hopcraft Stained Glass...

The petition audit of Vernon County Ambulance District is moving to the next phase. “Today marked the end of week five for us in the state audit,” director Leland Splitter said. “Rick and Phillip have been pretty easy and good to work with. Rick had told Denise … today is probably our last day here.”...

By Johannes Brann jbrann.ndm@gmail.com Thursday’s meeting of the Bronaugh R-7 board included reports in person from the Booster Club and students, as well as reviewing bids and a progress report on the bathrooms. Secretary of the Bronaugh Athletics Booster Club, Tonya Cliffman, described the group’s work for the past two years. ...

On July 17, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens signed an executive order directing the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to begin work creating a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Missouri is the only state whose legislature has failed to create such a monitoring program...

At its Wednesday evening meeting, the Northeast Vernon County R-1 school board heard a parent request formation of a junior high volleyball team, heard from the school’s first ever gold medal winner in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America national competition, considered bids, set the district’s tax levy hearing and continued discussion on air conditioning the high school gym...

The Nevada R-5 Board of Education voted 7-0, to increase breakfast and lunch prices by 10 cents for students during the coming school year. This is the sixth consecutive year meal prices have been increased. R-5 Superintendent Tyson Beshore told the board the increase brings the district to within 3 cents of being at the level they are supposed to be...

While much of the attention on the Nevada city council meetings of July 11 and 18 has focused on the smoking ordinance, another city statute was quietly adopted. This second ordinance has to do with Nevada Regional Medical Center. Specifically, the ordinance amends Section 2 of the city charter with regard to hospital management contracts...

The Nevada Police Department is warning residents to be on the lookout for counterfeit cash which has been showing up in the area recently. This funny money isn’t poorly made stuff though, it is made for use in movies and on stage and looks and feels very real...

Did dinosaurs once roam where now stands the little town of Cartilage Creek? That’s the question that draws our hero to this Arizona hotspot where he encounters the loyalty and duplicity, generosity and greed, kindness and cruelty, competence and corruption of the inhabitants of this small desert town. ...

Six months is all someone needs to see the impact of agriculture on Vernon County. Stay long enough for either the planting season or harvest, and you will come to realize the scope of agriculture throughout the county. According to the Missouri Department of Agriculture, in 2016, producers and their supporters in Vernon County generated $951.9 million dollars in sales and generated $55 million in tax revenue...

Her name is Jennifer Rinker. She was born and raised in Nevada to a mom and dad who battled their own demons with substance abuse. “I was a needle user [of methamphetamines] for just about 20 years,” said Rinker. Thinking across the years and all who used drugs alongside her, she shakes her head. Many of them are now dead...

Several people showed up for the Nevada City Council meeting Tuesday to show support and express concerns about a proposed smoking ordinance under consideration. Representatives from local vape stores were seeking an exemption for their stores because sampling of their products is a large part of the service they offer and a ban on indoor use would negatively affect those businesses...

On June 18, charges were filed against 18-year-old Eric J. Lane of Nevada for statutory rape and sodomy charges stemming from his alleged sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. Lane is charged with two counts of first-degree statutory rape and single counts of first-degree statutory sodomy and possession of child pornography...

A 19-year-old Harwood man is charged with having sex with a 12-year-old girl. Jared P. Hilvert faces three counts of first-degree statutory rape and a single count of distributing a controlled substance to a minor. Hilvert was arrested on the sex charge when a Vernon County deputy, on patrol, allegedly caught him in the act of having sex with the girl in a car parked on S. ...

A Nevada couple has been arraigned in Vernon County circuit court on sexual abuse charges involving three alleged child victims. Tiffany J. Blauvelt, 24, and Aaron R. Blauvelt, 28, appeared before Presiding Judge David Munton July 11 and pleaded not guilty...

On July 11, in Vernon County circuit court, a 30-year-old Walker man was arraigned on charges of sodomy and child molestation with two girls. Brandon S. Hart, appearing before Presiding Circuit Judge David Munton, pleaded not guilty to a single count of first-degree sodomy and four counts of first-degree child molestation with respect to one girl and two counts of third-degree child molestation with respect to a second girl...

4-H alumni honored Vernon County’s oldest clubs and outstanding leaders from the late 1990s at the annual reunion Saturday in the Home Ec. building at the Vernon County Fairgrounds. “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, My heart to greater loyalty, My hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world,” rang out in unison as the assembled 4-H alumni and members recited the 4-H pledge...

Hume R-8 school district is taking the first steps towards a one-to-one allocation of computers to high school students. Principal Scott Morrison said he is evaluating two brands of Chromebook computers and plans to buy 30-32 of them. Chromebooks operate on Google web-based programs...

Six years ago, Morgan Ernsbarger and Sarah Byers restarted an old tradition — Hearts and Hands. “It was actually a thing a long time ago,” Ernsbarger said. “Morgan wanted to restart it so she talked to Sarah and they started to make it a thing again. People love it.”...

If needed, the Vernon County Board of Equalization is convened once a year. In 2017, the first hearing was conducted on Tuesday, July 11, with the final one scheduled for Monday, July 17. Before detailing the process, Vernon County assessor, Cherie Roberts, first wanted to make three points...