News


Exploding tree This red oak tree exploded when it was struck by lightning Thursday night near the home of Les and Patrice Wells in the Spring Creek area between Gainesville and Isabella. Les Wells said pieces of the tree landed 100 feet away from the trunk, and another nearby tree was split by the powerful bolt.
Les and Patrice Wells were sitting in their hilltop home off County Road 829 during Thursday night’s thunderstorm when a bright flash and something that sounded like an explosion shook their house and made them jump. Friday morning, they discovered a large red oak tree that had been shattered by a...
Ozark County resident Sean Sweeney, pictured at left in his DR-107 airplane, hosted a practice-and-critiquing event for 20 International Aerobatic Club members May 12 at West Plains Regional Airport in Pomona in preparation for the 2018 competition circuit. Six pilots flew in from around Missouri...

Spellman Robertson
Ozark County residents soon may be seeing a new face behind the defense table in the courtroom. Spellman Robertson is now the assistant public defender assigned to Ozark County. Robertson, who lives in Ava and works out of the Ava branch of the Missouri Public Defenders office, officially began his...
Willis G. Hawkins, 57, of Caraway, Arkansas, was taken by a private vehicle to Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Arkansas, after sustaining moderate injuries when the tractor trailer he was driving overturned on J Highway around 3:50 p.m. Thursday, May 24. According to the Missouri...
Seven additional people have been charged with theft in connection with allegations that they stole merchandise from Theodosia’s Dollar General store with the aid of former Dollar General employee Kenneth Smith. In addition to the defendants identified here, other suspects are expected to be...

Photo courtesy Kris Luebbert
Wyatt Csiszer, left, son of Rosey Montague, and Alexus Owens, granddaughter of Kris Luebbert, all of Gainesville, enjoy a cool dip into start-of-summer fun at the home of Montague neighbor Judy Robins in Gainesville. The two schoolmates just finished fourth grade at Gainesville Elementary School.

Times photo / Norene Prososki A driver’s education class is being offered in Gainesville’s summer school program for the first time in several years. Participating students include, from right, Holley Stevens, Zach Botts, Andrew Botts and Wesley Stevens. District superintendent Jeff Hyatt, left, teaches the course. Hyatt told the Times he has been a driver’s ed driving instructor for 28 years. When the Times asked if he’d had any scary experiences in his nearly three decades of riding with student drivers, he quipped, “Nerves of steel!”
Summer school classes have begun around the county, and the Gainesville R-V District is especially proud of its increased attendance figures this year. In 2017, Gainesville High School’s summer school had an enrollment of 25 students. This summer, 72 students are enrolled in the high school program...

Ozark County Emergency Management Director Brett Meints said that this wall cloud, photographed Friday evening by Chris Mattson at Theodosia Marina, was accompanied by wind gusts as high as 40 to 60 miles per hour as it moved into Ozark County from the west.
Holiday weekend began with heavy rain, high water The Memorial Day holiday weekend got off to a rough start late Friday afternoon in Ozark County as thunderstorms dumped 2 to 4 inches of rain in about 90 minutes in some areas, sending creeks over low-water crossings and washing ruts in county...
Ozark County resident Sean Sweeney, pictured at left in his DR-107 airplane, hosted a practice-and-critiquing event for 20 International Aerobatic Club members May 12 at West Plains Regional Airport in Pomona in preparation for the 2018 competition circuit. Six pilots flew in from around Missouri...
To contact the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department or other emergency-responding agencies here, call 417-679-4633. In an emergency, dial 911. May 21(Continued from last week)8:03 a.m. – Medical: elderly woman is breathing but unresponsive. Thornfield VFD and Ozark County Ambulance responded. Mercy...

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Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

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