75¢
St. Rose Catholic Church celebrates Mardi Gras. (See pictures on p. 6.)
Volume 123 Number 5 - USPS 225-680
Community Calendar of Events Tuesday February 6 Prairie County Master Gardeners’ meeting Noon PC Fairgrounds Thursday February 8 DeValls Bluff City Council Meeting 6:00 p.m. Monday February 12 Biscoe EHC meeting Biscoe Baptist Church 10:30 a.m. Blood Drive Hazen Methodist Church 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Hazen School Board meeting 6:00 p.m. Tuesday February 13 Caregiver Support Group Hazen Senior Center 10:00 a.m. Hazen PTO Meeting Planning a BBQ Fundraiser 5:30 p.m. High School
Serving all of Prairie County and the Grand Prairie
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
“Christmas Ladies” address Carlisle beautification By Debbye Harrison The Carlisle City Council met January 26. The meeting room was filled with citizens and discussion centered on the leaf and limb pickup. David Walters reported that the state had changed its restrictions concerning disposal of leaves and limbs collected as city waste. The state will now allow a city to burn on property that it owns. Therefore, leaf and limb pick-up will resume in February at the current rate of $4 which was established in 2012. However, the rate will be raised at the next meeting. The city would like to contract this job to a qualified bidder. The bid will be let in the future and could raise the monthly rate to as much as $10 per month or more. Regardless of who is doing the job, the cost will increase. All goods and services have made increases in 12 years, the Council explained. The Christmas Ladies (Debbie Madar and Barbara Phillips) made an appeal to the Council concerning city beautification. “Deb and I saw a need to improve the appearance of our downtown area of Carlisle at Christmas time. Our goal was to make our city look great and bring the community together. This year, several in our town got involved by decorating their homes and businesses for Christmas. We had lots of out-oftown people come to Carlisle to see our town lit up. I’m sure that it brought some revenue to our city. Right now there is nothing appealing or inviting to our town. We have leaves and limbs piled up on the side of the streets, which we hope that issue will be taken care of very soon.
There are abandoned houses and buildings falling in all over town, tall grass and weeds growing, and yards piled up with junk and debris. Doesn’t the city have an ordinance about
not broke, as rumors have spread. He went on to say we have over $269,000 in the General Fund, $165,000 in water and sewer, and $80,000 in street funds. The city has to spend
other than Greg Renner, who has been over that department for years. He has a green thumb and a calling for making things bloom and grow. Even if he could only work a couple hours a
Barbara Phillips and Debbie Madar address the Carlisle Council. keeping our properties cleaned up and grass mowed? We used to have American flags lining our downtown streets… that is no longer true. Trash cans are placed out on the curbs for trash pick-up on Tuesdays, but a lot of times trash doesn’t get picked up as scheduled and our overflowing trash cans sit by the curb for days. The beautiful blooming plants downtown made our town look very nice. There have been lots of compliments from our hometown people and visitors to our town on how the plants added an inviting touch to our city. Our town is going downhill fast. If we don’t step up now and look around, and take action immediately, our town is going to fall by the wayside. We were told the Beautification Program (beautiful blooming plants and ferns in crates) was being discontinued because it cost too much money to operate and the city couldn’t afford it. The mayor pointed out last month to the council that the city is
Wednesday February 14 Valentine’s Day
money to make it grow and that includes making our town inviting to people searching for a place to live or a business to relocate here. We need to bring back the Beautification Program. I don’t know of another person capable of making our city look beautiful with all the blooming plants
day, by only taking care of the plants under the direction of the Mayor, that would be great.” Following Mrs. Phillips’ talk, discussion was held with contributions from Nancy Kittler, a Master Gardener, and several in the room. The Mayor did not believe Mr. Renner would be able to work due to
health problems. There was general agreement that his knowledge and training would be invaluable in the success of the continuation of this program. Farris McClain has officially retired. A formal recognition will be given later. Resolution 352 based on Ordinance 246 will allow the property at 219 W. 5th Street to be demolished. Sherri Rollins, shelter volunteer, and Melissa Williams, Animal Control Officer, brought good news to the Council. The Last Hope Shelter of Boston will build a new animal shelter at Carlisle that will have heat and air at no cost to the city. This non-profit has been a supporter of the Carlisle Shelter for several years. The group has been to Carlisle to survey the area and begin making plans so that building can begin soon. All members were present with Kevin Kegley present via social media.
The Des Arc Eagle Eyes team members are: (front row L to R) Emersyn Estes, Lilly Bethell, Canon Bell, Ruby Kearby, Zachary Payne, Harper Meek, Lily Edwards, Phoebe Branham, Mollee Branham, Ashlynn Collins; and (back row L to R) Jett Walicki, Annaston Pate, Chloe Nichols, Case Bell, Noah Hudson, Knox Eans, Max Severns, Sara Brown, Rossie Buckner, Brayden Sanderson, Talyn Johnston, and Coach Francine Dickson.
These archers won top honors for their individual scores: Phoebe Branham 2nd place, Talyn Johnston 3rd, and Lilly Bethell 5th out of 47 middle school girls.
Thursday February 15 Hazen City Council Meeting 6:00 p.m. City Hall
Des Arc Eagle Eyes strike again... The Des Arc Eagle Eye Archery Team traveled to Stuttgart on Jan. 6, 2024 and participated in the Ricebird Hit Or Miss State Qualifying Tournament. The team brought home a 2nd place win and had several archers with top individual scores!
Community events brought to you by Hazen Chamber of Commerce and the
GFL donates to literacy...
Please call F&M Bank (255-3042) or The Grand Prairie Herald (255-4538) to list events.
Green for Life (GFL) located just north of Hazen gave a generous donation of $2500 to the Margaret Fisher Literacy Challenge which benefits the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Every year, retired teachers Vicki Skarda (pictured left) and Monica Lisko (pictured right) collect money for this worthy project which gives free books to children from birth to age five. Each child receives free books every month for those five years. “Reading at an early age is very important for children,” Skarda said. Sherry Free, the clerk for GFL is pictured with Skarda and Lisko. Jermaine Thomas if GFL’s manager.
60°
61°
68°
63°
55°
47°
56°
52°
47°
39°
7%
8%
45%
42%
35%