Rose Bud gets approval for Summerfest

ROSE BUD — Rose Bud Mayor Shawn Gorham said the proposal he submitted to the Arkansas Department of Health for the town's Summerfest 2020 has been accepted and it will be held Jun. 18-20. 'We went above and beyond what they asked so I actually got approved for it in less than 24 hours,' Gotham said.

'We do it (Summerfest) two weeks before the Fourth of July, that way we don't compete with any other towns,' Gorham said. 'We're kind of like the first one in the state and we purposely do that so we don't compete with other towns.' This will be the third Summerfest for Rose Bud.

Gorham said every year they try to add more activities for their residents.

'This year it is going to feature a carnival with rides, games and the food that carnivals bring. We're going to incorporate a Friday night parade and concert in to it. We're going to have the car show on Saturday, Rambler Alumni Day for our school district and we'll consummate it with the best fireworks show in the state as soon as it gets dark Saturday night.'

Gorham said the three day event will include a lot of food and a lot of vendors.

'We attract people from the three counties around us, White Cleburne and Faulkner,' Gorham said.

'We got a lot of feedback from local residents that they were ready to get out and about. We submitted a plan based on restrictions (for COVID-19) and we are adhering to them. We are going to make sure our residents are safe.'

Gorham said he has talked to Pangburn Mayor Michael Marsh and the 'good people in Heber Springs' about Rose Bud getting approved and he gave them 'a little tutorial' about what they need to do to get approved for their 4th of July events.

The Rose Bud Class of 1975, consisting of five guys in the same class, will be the music entertainment for Rose Bud's Summerfest this year. 'You name it, they can play it,' Gorham said.

They've headlined our last two Summerfests and they draw a good local crown and they've got a good following.

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PANGBURN — Pangburn Mayor Michael Marsh said he is excited about the work the city is doing on it’s make-shift food pantry in a room at city hall. “In the month of April we got a $1,000 grant for the Arkansas Community Foundation for basically, a food pantry program and we purchased a thousand dollars worth of food and we handed out probably to about 35-40 families who were needing food,” Marsh said.

Fortunately, Marsh said, he has another grant from the Delta Dental Foundation for $2,500 which will be put towards their city food bank. “We are also soliciting donations of food and other things from the community and on top of that, yesterday I got 100 boxes of food from the Arkansas Foodbank Network and we will probably be distributing those food boxes out on Friday.”

According to Marsh, on May 27 they will receive another 100 boxes of food from the Arkansas Foodbank Network and we’ll have another food distribution in June. ‘We’re excited about our food assistance program and are really trying to help our citizens,” Marsh said, adding that he thinhs the need for food is greater now since the pandemic is here.”

Another avenue for helping people in Pangburn is through the schools, Marsh said. “I think it’s the right thing to do to help our citizens. We were fortunate enough to get these grants that we can help feed out citizens. We are going to hand out food but we are going to have food here at city hall if somebody comes by or calls for help.

They can call us at city hall at 501-728-4612 or we have a form outside city hall that they can fill out and put in our overnight dropbox if they need help.

We are going to get them some help someway, somehow.”

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MOUNTAIN VIEW — “After the annual Arkansas Folk Festival was postponed and eventually cancelled, we decided we had to get creative and try to honor the music that has become synonymous with Mountain View,” said Kevin Compton, chairman of Stone Bank, which is based in the Stone County seat.

“We have a relationship with Ozark Highlands Radio, which is produced by the Ozark Folk Center and airs on over 130 public and community radio stations all across the country,” Kirby Williams, Executive Vice President of Stone Bank said.

“We help sponsor their national broadcast and their weekly broadcast on KUAR, the Little Rock NPR affiliate,” Williams added.

Ozark Highland Radio is a weekly one-hour program featuring musical performances, past and present, as well as segments on the cultural history and tradition of the greater Ozarks region.

So, the idea for “Cabin Fever 2020” was born.

Working with Daren Dortin, executive producer of the radio program, a handful of area performers were chosen to perform.

The online concert is scheduled to stream online at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at www.cabinfever.stonebank. com. You can also follow Stone Bank on Facebook for the concert and for updates leading up to the event. The performance will also be archived on the Stone Bank YouTube Channel.

Performers will include Mountain View area musicians Grace Stormont, Love Holler, the Bow Tanglers, The Gravel Yard Bluegrass Band, Pam Setser, Ed Nicholson and Stan D’Aubin.

The evening will be hosted by Ozark Highland Radio’s on-air host Dave Smith.

Donations will be solicited for the Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center which promotes the Ozark Folk Center and its efforts to preserve the folk culture of the Ozarks. Donations may be made to by check to: Committee of 100, P.O.

Box 2111, Mountain View 72560.

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RUSSELLVILLE — The Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas have announced that three scholarships are available to

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to assist rural nurses with continuing education and training that supports the unique health needs of Arkansas farmers.

Agriculture is a diverse industry and occurs in some of the more remote parts of the country. The risks and occupational exposures associated with farming and ranching are often not familiar to health care workers in rural communities.

Nurses are the frontline of rural community health care which is why Farm Credit is offering three scholarships to nurses to receive training through the AgriSafe Nurse Scholar program.

The program consists of 18 hours of online, distance learning utilizing lectures, interactive question and answer sessions and group discussions. The course can be completed any time before Nov. 13 and covers a number of topics.

One nurse each from western Arkansas, central Arkansas and eastern Arkansas will be awarded a full scholarship for the AgriSafe Nurse Scholar program. It covers all costs with no additional expenses for the nurse or employer.

Scholarship recipients will be selected by the Agrisafe Nurse Scholarship program.

Interested nurses can find application instructions at arfarmcredit.com. Program details are also at learning.agrisafe.org.