News

City of Cassville names Donnie Privett as police chief
Butterfield native and Cassville graduate Donald Privett has landed his dream job. Appointed interim police chief on June 1, 2023 after the retirement of former Chief Dana Kammerlohr, Privett rose to the top of a field of more than a dozen candidates to be named Police Chief on Jan. 9.

One person found dead in Seligman house fire
A person died on Sunday in a house fire on Highway DD near Farm Road 2295, west of Seligman. According to the Seligman Fire Department, firefighters were dispatched at 10:51 a.m.
Barry County Soils and Crops focuses on cattle leasing
95th annual event set for Jan. 30 at First Christian Church The University of Missouri Extension of Barry County has announced the 95th Barry County Soil and Crops conference, set for Jan.
Contested elections at local 2 cities, 2 school districts in April
Voters will have their say in two cities and two school boards in the April 2 General Municipal Election, and two cities will have seats open due to resignations. Elections with challengers include the Cassville North Ward alderman seat, the city of Seligman East Ward alderman seat, the Southwest School Board and the Purdy School Board.
Barry County Sheriff’s Office calls for service and reports taken
The Barry County Sheriff's Office responded to 160 calls for service for the week of Dec. 18-24. The CAD events created by central dispatch are the Calls for Service Barry County Officers respond to every day, included in those calls are alarms, assaults, burglaries, domestic disturbances, DWI's, stealing, harassment, medical issues, paper service, prisoner transports, suspicious persons, traffic stops and warrant service. Reports are not generated on all the calls for service. The following reports were generated from the above 160 calls:
News briefs, Jan. 17
The Cassville Area Friends of the Library will hold its quarterly board meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. at the Cassville Branch Library.

Chief Millard Andrews’ retirement whistled
For more than 30 years, local businessman Millard Andrews has served as chief of the Cassville Volunteer Fire Protection District, an era that will come to a close in coming weeks. Chief Andrews announced his retirement at the October meeting of the District’s board, and at the board’s request, is remaining in his post until a replacement is selected, likely at the end of January.

Exeter Holiday Joy Food Drive exceeds goal again!
Exeter students, parents, teachers, staff and PTO worked together again this year to collect and distribute 23 food baskets and cases of water to local families in need of assistance during the 2023 holiday season. Exeter collected just over 2,000 non-perishable items last year to meet its goal, so this year it set 2,500 as the goal to collect. Participants brought in 2,874 items, thanks to classes competing to be the biggest “givers!” The winning class in the elementary was Mr. McNabb’s third-grade class, bringing in over 1,000 items. With only 13 students in the class, that was just over 97 items per student brought in, since that is the fairest way to calculate the donations based on class size. The eighth-grade class won the Middle/High School competition, bringing in 7 items per student in their class of 21 students, totaling 149 items donated. The students in those classes celebrated their big hearts on Dec. 21, 2023, with pizza parties courtesy of Pizza Hut of Cassville. Pizza Hut also recognized six of the top charitable students with certificates for Personal Pan pizzas.
4 injured in new year’s day crash
Four Purdy residents were injured on Jan. 1 in a wreck at 6:55 p.m.

Berry turning 70
Local resident Walter Berry turns 70 on Sunday. A celebration dinner will be held at Adelita’s in Cassville at 7:30 on Saturday for anyone wanting to help Berry and his family celebrate.


