Other Days: March 11, 2026

10 YEARS  AGOMARCH  9,  2016The first-ever Historic Hwy. 35 Junk Hunt held last Thursday through Saturday was deemed a huge success. Vendors and local businesses up and down the 120-mile stretch of Hwy. 35 from Benton to Dermott through Cleveland County reported brisk sales.Response to the event was so overwhelming that plans are already in the works for a fall version of the junk hunt that will incorporate both Hwy. 63 and Hwy. 79 through Cleveland County, as well as Hwy. 8.County general has started 2016 with back-to-back months of being in the black, a first for Cleveland County Treasurer Jack Hopson. Hopson said the balance in the county general budget has never finished in the black for the first two months of any of the previous years he has been in office. Traditionally, county general runs a negative balance until the end of the year when much of the county's tax money actually comes in.The Cleveland County Quorum Court approved a resolution appointing Sheriff Jack Rodgers to a new four-county board that will investigate the feasibility of building a regional jail that would serve Cleveland, Bradley, Drew and Lincoln counties. None of the counties putting representatives on the committee have formally endorsed the regional jail concept.Mayor Vernon Dollar informed the Rison City Council that the city has received a $3,700 grant to help temporarily fund a second officer for the Rison Police Department. In other business, councilman Rodney Reed said the stray dog problem in Rison was becoming "epidemic." Mayor Dollar said the police department is starting to take a much more aggressive approach to the stray dog issue by fining pet owners who allow their dogs to roam free. There was also discussion of possibly hiring another contract "dog catcher." The city once had such an arrangement, but Dollar said that individual is no longer in business.20  YEARS...