Stories from Friday, December 30, 2016

Sarah Rains, environmental engineer at 3M Nevada, updated the Local Emergency Planning Committee on the closure of 3M's land fill Wednesday. "Its not easy, its difficult, it's a long process and there are a lot of requirements to meet along the way and a lot of monitoring requirements as well," Rains said...

While the actual month and day have passed, before 2016 bows out, there is still time to mark an anniversary. The Northeast Vernon County R-1 School District is twenty years-old. It was created when the Schell City R-1 School District -- the blue and white Bears -- annexed the Walker R-4 School District -- the blue and gold Pirates -- and together formed a new district, the NEVC gray and black Knights...

Most years January brings a break in the big news stories, but in 2016 the major stories of 2015 continued, with a couple of surprises thrown into the mix as well. The month opened with the Nevada City Council wrangling with taxi issues, when MNOD Taxi refused to sign the contract with the city to operate its public transportation system, leaving many people without transportation...

The Nevada Lady Tigers sixth-grade basketball team had a whirlwind couple of weeks on the court, sweeping back-to-back tournaments. The sixth-grade Lady Tigers first tournament championship came Dec. 11 at the Dirt Dawg Tournament played in Nevada, as they won all three of their contests...

The future of Nevada R-5 athletics further brightened with the recent announcement that Nevada High School and middle school will be joining the Big 8 Conference at the start of the 2018-19 school year. Currently, Nevada High School is in year three of its affiliation with the West Central Conference, which includes three Kansas City-area schools as well as Clinton, Warrensburg and Sedalia Smith-Cotton...

February provided a new opportunity for 27 Vernon County 4-H members ---- building and programming robots. Those members, ages 6 to 14, gathered at Nevada Public Library's Next Level maker space in order to work though a step-by-step curriculum, teaching the 4-H'ers to build a Lego WeDo, and an EV3 robot as well as how to program them...

Not one but two cakes -- one vanilla, one chocolate -- are waiting to be cut by Neal Gerster at his retirement reception, Wednesday at the courthouse. As the cakes say, "20 years serving Vernon County" and "Happy Retirement, Neal." (Photo by Johannes Brann/Daily Mail)...

Hazel Joan Shelton, 81, Nevada, died on Wednesday, Dec. 28, at Moore-Few Care Center in Nevada. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Nevada. Interment will follow in Click Cemetery, Nevada. The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. on Monday evening at the funeral home...

Melba Florence Bley Cousins, 79, left her earthly body behind in Big Cabin, Okla., on Dec. 26, joining her savior, Jesus Christ, in heaven after a lifetime of faithful service. Memorial services for Melba will be held on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 2 p.m. at the United Methodist Church at 378 Oak Street, Big Cabin, Okla. Cremation arrangements are being made with Stephens-Key Funeral and Cremation Care...