Stories from Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Jenny Ford and Jacob Wright of Nevada, Mo., and older siblings, Tiesen Gregory, Toree Marie and Serenity Jade are proud to announce the birth of their daughter and baby sister, Lexi Grace Wright. Lexi was born at 12:30 p.m., Friday, May 13, 2011, at Nevada Regional Medical Center. She weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces, and measured 18 and 3/4 inches...

Earlier this year the state of Missouri told Vernon County Assessor Cherie Roberts that commercial real estate was being under assessed. At that time Roberts told the Nevada R-5 Board of Education, the state said that Vernon County commercial property was being assessed at 61 percent of what it should be assessed. Now, after three visits with the state employees who make that determination, that has been increased to over 80 percent...

Last week the Nevada City Council voted to hold a special election on Aug. 2 to renew the city's park and recreation sales tax when it expires in 2014 without restricting the money to capital improvements and without a sunset date, with the goal of freeing up money from the general fund to replace the city's Public Safety Building...

Editor's note: This is the fifth installment in a series of stories about the Nevada Police Department's Citizens' Police Academy. Everybody knows that all the Nevada Police Department does is just cruise around and write traffic tickets, right? Wrong! That's what we learned in the fifth week of the Citizens Police Academy held in the city council chambers on Wednesday...

The valedictorian for the Bronaugh High School Class of 2011, JeSarah Arens, thanks parents, faculty, staff and classmates for their hard work and diligence during the past 13 years. During her address to a packed Bronaugh High School gymnasium on Sunday, May 15, Arens said, "my class and I have been more like a family, and I know, the class of 2011 can make a difference in this world." The graduating class included 20 students, many of whom have plans to continue their educations and have, between them, accumulated more than $48,000 in scholarship money.. ...

Dozens turned out for a reception in honor of a showing of Al Fenske's photography Friday night, at The Art Shop at 104 E. Cherry St, Nevada Above, Fenske and Ladine Casey chat in front of a row of the photos. Most of the photos included in the show are landscapes -- some from U.S. ...

Registration is under way for the Nevada Public Library's summer reading program, to begin Wednesday, June 1, at the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center, at 1 p.m. Subsequent sessions will be held at 1 p.m., Tuesdays, at the community center...

The Nevada Tigers tennis season ended Saturday when Aaron Jenkins beat Grandview's Austin Saylor and Harrisonville's Aaron Sloan, to make it to the semi-finals in the Class 1, District 12 singles tennis tournament Saturday, before losing 6-1, 6-0 to Warrensburg's Nick Piontek. Jenkins then beat Tim Madison, Knob Noster, 6-4, 6-4, for third place...

Wynn Gymnasium in the Nevada High School will be host to a Nevada Tiger Basketball Camp for boys entering third through eighth grade on June 6-June 10. Each camper will receive a 2011 Nevada Tiger Basketball Camp t-shirt and prizes donated by professional or college teams...

The Nevada Rotary Club organized its first-ever Run Amuck 5K race on Saturday, May 7. Held at Marmaduke Park, the race attracted over 70 entrants and raised $3,000 for the Rotary Club's Scholarship Fund. In previous years, the club sponsored a golf tournament, but decreasing revenue led members of the club to look for another event that would be unique and raise enough funds to allow the Nevada Rotary to continue offering three $1,000 scholarships to area students each year. ...