Stories from Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Earl Lewis Spillman Sr., 58, passed away May 3, 2010, in Ocala, Fla. Born July 22, 1951, in Nevada, Mo., he moved to Marion County in 1985 from New Albany, Ind. The owner/operator of a retail business, he loved to fish and enjoy the outdoors. Earl is survived by his wife, Terry Faye Spillman; five sons, Earl L. ...

Cloris A. Jackson, a longtime resident of Springfield, Mo., passed away from natural causes on Tuesday, April 27, 2010, at 3 a.m., Cloris was born in Balco, Okla., to George Ludwig and Valera Carter Beymer. She married Robert Emmit Jackson in 1938 and to this union two children were born, a daughter, Connie, and a son, Robert...

William Barger was scheduled to appear in the Vernon County courtroom of Circuit Judge James R. Bickel on Tuesday, May 4, but only his attorney, Jeffrey Martin of the Harrisonville public defender's office, stood before the judge. Barger did not appear because Bickel had granted the request for change of venue Martin had filed on his behalf. ...

The Nevada Police Department received a grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation's Highway Safety Division for participation in the "You Drink and Drive, You Lose" campaign, an effort to cut down on driving while impaired. Enforcement efforts will be increased May 5-9 and will focus on reducing deaths and serious injuries caused by impaired drivers...

Paula Gray, nutrition education assistant with the Vernon County Extension Center, will be testing pressure canner gauges in the office and answering canning questions on Wednesday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The office is located on the ground floor of the Vernon County Courthouse. ...

The Nevada E.C. Barton's closed today for the last time and will remain closed the rest of the week. When the store opens Monday, May 10, a new name, Meek's Lumber, will be on the sign. A letter was sent out from E.C. Barton president Niel Crowson, April 30, to customers in the southwest Missouri locations affected by the closing...

For the last two or three days several volunteers have been working diligently to complete a project taken on by the St. Paul Lutheran Church and the Nevada chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The home of Danny and Candy Creech was on the verge of being condemned because of exterior water damage when the groups decided to pool their resources and help out the couple...

Same thing, different day. For the second time in as many days, the Nevada Tigers found themselves in a tight battle on the diamond at Lyons Stadium before a big inning for the opposition in which Nevada simply couldn't find that final out took the wind out of the sails...

This is the third in a series of columns with information taken from the McGennis Youth Center 2009 Annual Report which was presented at the annual Mary A. McGennis Agricultural Park and Youth Center board meeting. This is also last in the series, and future columns will include other subjects. There is additional information in the report that will not be included in these columns...

Since Nevada voters first approved a 1/2 cent transportation sales tax in 1996, the city has been spending $400,000 and since 2007, $500,000 each year to improve the 79 miles of city streets. The tax, last passed by Nevada voters in 2006, will sunset in 2011, bringing large scale street improvements to a halt...