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Hazen athletes hold car wash. (See pictures on p. 6.)
Volume 120 Number 31 - USPS 225-680
Community Calendar of Events
Serving all of Prairie County and the Grand Prairie
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Old Interstate I-40 bridge faces demolitions
Friday August 6 Pasta and Meatball Supper Slovak Parish Hall 4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Monday August 9 Arkansas Blood Institute Blood Drive Hazen First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Tuesday August 10 Quorum Court Meeting 6:00 Annex Building in Des Arc Thursday August 12 DeValls Bluff City Council Meeting 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. City Hall Hazen School District Open Houses Starting at 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Monday August 16 Hazen School District starts back to school! Thursday August 19 Hazen City Council meeting 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Hazen City Hall Tuesday August 24 Hazen High School Alumni meeting 6:00 p.m. Thursday August 26 Commodities distribution Hazen First United Methodist Church 10:00 a.m. - noon Community events brought to you by Hazen Chamber of Commerce
Going...going...gone... The above picture shows the east land side end of the old I-40 bridge as it falls. The same fate met the other side on Friday. (Pictures taken by Jacob Bradow.) You may have heard down, and sometimes loud “booms” on stopped, the new Thursday and Friday bridge project turned mornings at 6:30, the time needed to thinking that they may complete the work into have been thunder- four and a half years. claps, but you would be On Thursday, July 29, mistaken. On those the east end of the two days, the landside bridge was blown up ends of the old followed by the west Interstate 40 bridge end on the next day. were destroyed, leaving The girders will be only the steel girders removed by a huge that cross the White crane, and afterwards River and their con- the concrete pillars crete supports stand- still standing in the ing. river will be destroyed According to Stewart and the pieces will be Richardson, who has dredged out and been part of the project removed from the site. since its beginning in The new bridge can April, 2017, the com- accommodate three pletion of the new lanes of traffic in both bridge and the destruc- directions. tion of the old bridge These pictures show was supposed to be a the demolition of the two and a half year east end of the strucproject. But river flood- ture from beginning to waters which slowed the end.
DA School hires additional intervention staff By Lisa Mills At the July 29th school board meeting, additional staff was hired to assist students who may need help to catch up from learning loss due to Covid. Judy Denton and Diane Tipton will be available two days a week as High School Interventionists. Jenna Edwards will be available full time as an Elementary Aide. The additional staff will have a two year contract to be paid from “Covid American Rescue Plan” funds. The district received $907,000 to be used by December, 2024, and can be used for student health and safe
learning environment, support staff, and to address learning loss. Tabetha Baxter was hired as a full time Special Education Aide and bus driver to “Sunshine School”. Deborah Grady was hired as High School Kitchen Manager and Baylee Andrews was hired as Elementary Kitchen Manager. High School cafeteria workers hired were Mary Ann Hood and Paula Mullet. Elementary cafeteria workers hired were Krystal Wyatt and Erica Ramey. A new classified salary plan was approved. This will place employees on a salary instead of
hourly pay, and the salary schedule will top out at 15 years. Per state mandate, a board resolution was approved for step increases of 5%. Changes were approved to the 2021-2022 Certified and Classified personnel policies with no major changes. Gorge Kennedy was removed as Disbursing Officer for school accounts, and Marc Sherrill was approved as Disbursing Officer. The board approved Dr. Sherrill’s recommendation to pay $2,000 per semester for a “Covid Contact Person.” This person will be be contacted by any student or staff who tests positive
for Covid and then will proceed to contact everyone who was exposed. The $4,000 will be paid from the Covid American Rescue Plan funds. Elementary Principal Cheryl Holland and High School Principal Michael Strothers presented tests results for 2020-2021. Both reported that they did expect lower scores due to Covid, as did other schools, but were very happy that the scores were as high as they were. Results shown for the 17 districts (of all sizes) in the Wilbur D. Mills Co-op placed Des Arc with the highest performance. The 8th
Grade was ranked 5th, and the 10th Grade was ranked 6th in the state for Math. The 7th and 8th Grades were ranked 10th in the state in Reading. Present at the meeting were Superintendent Marc Sherrell, Board Members Johnny Reidhar, Sylvester Holloway, Stewart Morton, Charlie Brown, Jordan Smith and Drew Widenar, High School Principal Michael Strothers, Elementary Principal Cheryl Holland and District Treasurer Natasha Richards. Thanks to Cheryl Holland for providing delicious snacks for everyone.
Hazen Senior Center reopens August 3rd The Hazen Senior Citizen Center will be open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon beginning in August. Lunch
will be served at the Center from 11:00 a.m.12:00 noon. Seniors are invited to come in for games and lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays!
Local students graduate and the Please call F&M Bank (255-3042) or The Grand Prairie Herald (255-4538) to list events.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has announced its spring 2021 graduates. Local students who graduated from UA Little Rock during the spring semester include: Tonya Anderson of DeValls Bluff, AR,
Bachelor of Social Work in Social Work Michael Goldfarb of Hazen, AR, Master of Science in Business Information Systems Nearly 1,260 degrees were awarded for the spring 2021 semester.
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