Friday night storms cause damage; injuries avoided
Friday night’s storm activity resulted in multiple reports of damage and power outages in Mountain Home and throughout the Twin Lakes Area, but no injuries have been reported. In Mountain Home, Hiram Shaddox Geriatric Health and Rehabilitation had to be evacuated after the roof collapsed.
Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass says luckily, the residents and staff of Hiram Shaddox were able to avoid injuries after the collapse.
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As of Friday night’s reports, Baxter Regional Medical Center did experience a power outage, but it avoided structural damage and injuries. BRMC Marketing Director Tobias Pugsley says the hospital took in some of the Hiram Shaddox patients after the storms hit.
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Baxter and surrounding counties were placed under a tornado warning approximately 8:30 Friday night. Rotating winds were detected by radar in Gassville resulting in multiple power outages.
Most of the damage reports were from the north side of Mountain Home and in Henderson and Gamaliel. The Willowbrook Senior Complex and Meadow Springs Apartments both had reports of structural damage, and several trees and power lines were down as a result of the storms.
At their peaks, Entergy and North Arkansas Electric Cooperative each reported over 1,100 customers were without power. Earlier Saturday morning, NAEC was still looking to restore power to over 800 customers, but all power has since been restored. As of today, Entergy still has one customer in Marion County without power.
Mountain Home School District Superintendent Dr. Jake Long says the junior high campus was opened as a shelter for anyone who may have been displaced from the storms.
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Dr. Long says at early assessment, the Mountain Home School District avoided structural damage.
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Bomb squad wins in Midwest regional competition
The FIRST Robitics team, Bomb Squad, has won the Midwest Regional in Chicago after three days of competition against 53 other teams from eight states, as well as Turkey and China.
After the last qualification match Saturday, the team was able to lock in the number one seed by getting four ranking points. The team had eight wins and two losses during qualification matches.
Team captain and Mountain Home High School senior Bailey Ross says it was an exciting day for the Bomb Squad and at times nerve-racking.
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During the alliance selection, the Bomb Squad chose team 2451 PWNAGE, who according to faculty sponsor Jackie Basinger, had an “awesomely fast switch bot.” When another draft called the Serpentine came back around, the Bomb Squad was able to snatch up team 6823 Wildcats, a steal the team never thought would still be available.
Going into the quarterfinals, the Bomb Squad members locked in their strategy. In a huge upset, they lost the first quarterfinal match against the eighth seeded alliance, due to extremely heavy defense on 2451. In the next match, they quickly turned it around and breezed through semi-finals and climbed all the way up to finals. In finals, they play three skillful teams, 578 R Cubed from New York, 1706 Ratchet Rockers and 5822 Wolfbyte.
In the first match, it was a constant scale battle, and the Bomb Squad was unable to pull out a win. They rallied the next match with scale domination and were able to tie it 1 to 1. The next match, they nailed their alliance’s autonomous mode and quickly went to work owning their own scale and the other team’s switch. They were able to successfully get to the bar and face the boss. At the end of the match, the preview score showed the Bomb Squad’s alliance with 305 points and their opponents with 315. After review, the final score of 344 to 315 was announced, and the Bomb Squad was the champion. Ross says the last match was definitely the most intense portion of the competition for the Bomb Squad.
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The team will compete against 400 teams next week, April 18-22, at the World Championship in Houston, and Ross says everyone on the squad is looking forward to going to Texas.
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The Bomb Squad journey can be followed by watching it live on the website frcteam16.org
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City officials seeking transparency as OMART’s mission evolves
Those driving by the Ozark Mountain Alcohol Residential Treatment facility in Gassville, and the sign identifying it, would not notice the changes occurring over the past year. But a different traffic pattern around the OMART facility caught the attention of the alert Gassville Police Chief Tim Mayfield leading him to make an inquiry at the facility earlier this year only to be turned away.
Internally, the operation of OMART quietly evolved over the past year. It was a process Gassville city officials say had been too quiet. Externally, city officials were noticing changes.
In a meeting with members of the media this week, Gassville Mayor Jeff Braim says the actions by the OMART employee with Chief Mayfield led them to seek transparency regarding the facility’s operation. Their quest led to a meeting earlier this year with local and state law enforcement, as well as state legislators.
Through the process, they learned the facility founded as a drug or alcohol rehabilitation center with a primary focus on substance abuse treatment is now exclusively a transitional housing center for parolees.
Board chairman Heith Hogan told the media representatives OMART has been partially engaged in transitional housing with Arkansas Community Correction for about 10 years, accommodating as many as 16 men in the agency’s back wing, with a mobile home used for female residents. Today, the facility is licensed to house about 50 medium level male offenders. Residents generally are allowed to stay up to 60 days and wear ankle monitors. In some cases, stays are extended an additional 30 days.
Hogan says the move to a complete transitional housing facility began in 2017 as OMART continued to see declining state revenue, with funding for drug and alcohol treatment being moved to other locations across Arkansas.
It was noted the transitional housing operation in Gassville for prison parolees with an ACC approved parole plan should not be confused with failed efforts to operate a facility in Cotter that temporarily housed prison inmates. The 10 inmates at the Cotter facility were in a six-month program designed to help them prepare for parole status.
The Gassville facility operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with eight employees and a five-member board. Mayor Braim noted the City of Gassville does not receive any compensation from OMART.
Hogan says because of the partial operation for transitional housing, OMART was grandfathered in as an exclusive temporary home for parolees, with no notifications required. However, he acknowledged in the meeting the process could have been handled better.
For further clarification, Mayor Braim repeated his request at the meeting for the sign identifying OMART to be amended to accurately reflect the changes that have occurred in the past year.
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Marion County man recommended for pardon
A Marion County man, Randy Croney of Oakland, is among those Governor Asa Hutchinson announced Friday he intends to grant a pardon to.
Croney was convicted in 2001 in Baxter County of a felony fleeing charge, as well as a misdemeanor charge of battery.
The notice to grant a pardon to Croney is issued based on the date of his conviction, the fact all terms of his sentence have been completed and there have been no further criminal-law violations. The judge in the case has raised objections to Croney’s request.
Those applicants intended for pardons have completed all jail time, fulfilled all parole and probationary requirements and paid all fines related to their sentences. There is a 30-day waiting period to receive public feedback on the notices before final action is taken.
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Arkansas inmate from Stone County found dead in cell in apparent suicide
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ An inmate was found dead in his cell at an east Arkansas prison in what officials say is an apparent suicide.
The Arkansas Department of Correction says Robert Ivy was found hanging in his single-man cell where he was alone on Wednesday night at the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys. Correctional officers and medical staff transported the 37-year-old inmate to the infirmary for emergency medical treatment and he was pronounced dead.
Ivy was serving a five-year sentence out of Stone County for possession of a controlled substance.
Arkansas State Police is conducting an investigation into Ivy’s death, while the Department of Correction will conduct an internal investigation.
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