CHARLOTTE — Cord-Charlotte Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization is hosting its annual Fall Festival from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday.
Each teacher will set up a booth to raise money for the classroom.
Family fall photographs will be taken. Door prizes will be given away and games will be held. An art contest and poetry contest will be conducted.
The Cedar Ridge football program will sell concessions.
The Fall Festival pageant will be at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria. Pageant forms may be picked up in the CCES office or at A Formal Affair in Batesville.

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The Arkansas Society of Respiratory Care has announced that Janie Castro-Rios was awarded the 2011 Jay M. Williams Practitioner of the Year Award for the Northeast District of the association.
Castro-Rios is the respiratory care clinical education director for Arkansas State University in Mountain Home.
The Arkansas Society of Respiratory Care, a chartered affiliate of the American Association for Respiratory Care, was established in 1962 and today has more than 500 members.

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The Ozark Foothills Literacy Project has announced its AmeriCorps volunteers for 2011-12, Matthew Carpenter of Melbourne and Shelly Seymore of Batesville.
Carpenter and Seymore will tutor adult students who are learning to read or who are learning English, help recruit new students and volunteer tutors and help promote the Literacy Project in Independence, Sharp and Fulton counties.
After successfully completing a 900-hour term of service, Carpenter and Seymore will each receive an educational award of $2,775 to be used at a school of their choice.

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HARRISON — Recognized nationally by Forbes Traveler and AAA’s Southern Traveler, the roads in and around the Ozark Mountain destination of Harrison have brought people from hundreds of miles to see the changing of the leaves in the area.
Adjacent to the Buffalo River/National Park Region, Harrison serves as a year-round hub for motorcycle enthusiasts with roads recognized nationally as the best in mid-America by RoadRunner Magazine. The fall season with breathtaking colors creates a remarkable landscape during the peak time of the region.

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SOUTHSIDE —The Southside Fire Department continued to battle hot spots this morning after a fire destroyed the White River Country Club.
No one was inside the club at 39 Jones Drive and no injuries were reported when an officer with the Independence County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene at about 4:15 in response to an alarm. According to Fire Chief Jeremy Loggins the officer saw smoke and the building on fire.

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Early voting begins Tuesday for the upcoming statewide election on the highway bonds, but it won’t be in its usual place, officials announce.
“Due to growing limited space” at the Independence County Courthouse, early voting for the Nov. 8 special election will be held at the Old Independence Regional Museum this election located at the corner of Ninth and Vine streets in Batesville.

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LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Postal Service has scheduled public meetings to discuss its proposals to make changes in the way postal services are handled at Cord, Sage and Saffell, said Leisa Tolliver-Gay, USPS spokeswoman.
The meeting at Cord will begin at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 8 in the Cord Senior Citizens Building at 7925 Cord Road.
The meeting at Sage will begin at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 13 in Sage Baptist Church, Highway 69 13B, across from the post office.
And the meeting at Saffell will begin at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 22 in the Saffell Fire Department at 364 state Highway 25.

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A power outage at the White River Medical Center hospital building was fully restored by noon Thursday, according to WRMC public relations coordinator Sheila Mace.
A cause of the outage that occurred at 2 a.m. Thursday was not known, but emergency generator power and procedures by WRMC maintenance and Entergy Arkansas crews were implemented to avoid disruption in operations.
Mace said the hospital has a comprehensive contingency plan and conducts regular drills for emergencies, which includes power outages.

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ASH FLAT — Sharp County Sheriff Mark Counts said his department will be participating in the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day from 9 a.m. until noon Saturday in the front parking lot of the county courthouse in Ash Flat.
Anyone from anywhere can turn in unused, expired and unwanted medications to the Ash Flat site or at more than 100 other law enforcement agencies’ collection sites across the state, no questions asked. The service is free and anonymous.

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BLACK ROCK (AP) — Residents in Black Rock will get to hear plans for improving U.S. Highway 63 next week.
The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department will hold a public meeting from 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at Black Rock City Hall.
Officials say plans for the highway include replacing the bridge that stretches across the Black River with an adjacent span that will have four lanes.
The public may visit during the scheduled hours to view displays, ask questions and offer comments about the proposed changes.

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