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Ozark County Sheriff’s deputies, volunteer firefighters and first responders and Missouri State Highway Patrol Water Division troopers descended on Norfork Lake at Udall Saturday evening to look for a West Plains fisherman who had launched his boat there Friday – and didn’t come back. Photo courtesy Todd Young
By water, land and air, in temperatures that sank into the single digits, a team of determined Ozark Countians and Missouri State Highway Patrol Water Division personnel searched Saturday, Sunday and Monday for Mike Meidell, 52, of West Plains, who launched his fishing boat Friday onto Norfork Lake...
The Ozark County Commissioners are considering implementing a 1 percent tax on metered domestic utilities including propane, electricity and – for those on municipal water systems rather than private wells – water. If enacted, the tax would add $1 for every $100 of propane, electricity metered...

Members of the Gainesville High School academic team Summit Conference champions for the sixth consecutive year, are, from left, (front) coach Michelle Pointer, Jaima DeVries, Aubrey Turingan, Abigail Milligan, Madison Trivitt; (back) Anastasia Goodson, Hunter Webb, Daniel Miller, Ben Pointer, assistant coach Sherry Uchtman. Not pictured: Hannah Carter.
The Gainesville High School Academic team won its sixth consecutive Summit Conference championship title Saturday, March. 2.   The team’s last two tournaments were canceled due to weather, so without those practice rounds, team adviser Michelle Pointer said she was “not exactly comfortable” going...

This is the carcass of a 10-year-old bull elk that was shot and left near the Log Yard area of Shannon County. An adult cow elk was also shot and left in the area, according to MDC. Anyone with information on this poaching case is asked to call 1-573-226-3616, ext. 226, or Operation Game Thief at 1-800-392-1111. MDC photo
The Missouri Department of Conservation continues to seek information in the case of two adult elk shot Friday, Feb. 8, near the Log Yard area of Shannon County. One of the elk was a 10-year-old bull that was brought to Missouri from Kentucky in 2011. The other was an adult cow that was born in...

Photo by Karla Smith Bryson and Auston Luna
The Dora Falcons defeated the Risco Tigers 74-37 in quarterfinals action at Van Buren Saturday, punching their ticket for the basketball program’s first-ever trip to the state final four. The long line of basketball fans waiting to watch the contest between the Falcons and the Tigers snaked past...

Russ Bushong
The drowning death last weekend of fisherman Mike Meidell, 52, of West Plains reminded some area residents of at least two previous tragedies that occurred when a solitary fisherman headed out in a boat on Norfork Lake – and didn’t come back. Russ Bushong Gainesville city council member Lana...

Times photo/Jessi Dreckman Ken Burnett, one of the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department dispatchers, manages informational and emergency calls, including all 911 calls in the county. In response to emergency calls, the dispatcher often “tones out” one or more of the county’s 14 volunteer fire departments, and those firefighters and first responders are frequently the first on scene, ahead of deputies and the Ozark County Ambulance. But many of those departments have fewer than 10 trained personnel on their rosters, and sometimes no one is available to respond. Most departments say more volunteers are urgently needed.
Editor’s note: Ozark County Times staff members Jessi Dreckman and Sue Ann Jones contacted all 14 volunteer fire departments that serve Ozark County to gather information about who they are, how they serve their communities and  what they need from the residents of their districts. This week’s...

Ozark County Sheriff’s deputies, volunteer firefighters and first responders and Missouri State Highway Patrol Water Division troopers descended on Norfork Lake at Udall Saturday evening to look for a West Plains fisherman who had launched his boat there Friday – and didn’t come back. Photo courtesy Todd Young
By water, land and air, in temperatures that sank into the single digits, a team of determined Ozark Countians and Missouri State Highway Patrol Water Division personnel searched Saturday, Sunday and Monday for Mike Meidell, 52, of West Plains, who launched his fishing boat Friday onto Norfork Lake...

Using a $10,000 donation from the Leroy and Ovia Marie McGinnis Fund in the Ozark Community Foundation with other grant funding that’s been applied for, Gainesville High School is “reutilizing” its current library into a learning lab / media center. This architectural rendering by Sapp Design shows how the traditional library space will be remodeled.
Gainesville R-V School District is not getting rid of its library, says superintendent Jeff Hyatt, responding to recent social media posts that made claims to the contrary. “We’re relocating and remodeling the current junior high / high school library to become a combination computer learning lab...

Bakersfield and Tecumseh VFDs responded to put out the fire of this 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 truck belonging to Bakersfield fire chief Greg Watts and wife Zaylor Feb. 20. The cause of the fire was electrical, a fire investigator found.
Bakersfield Volunteer Fire Department chief Greg Watts and wife Zaylor lost their 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 truck to a fire early Wednesday, Feb. 20. Zaylor told the Times she had started the truck around 7:30 that morning to let it warm up before going to the store with her daughters.  “I usually let it...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423