Stories from Wednesday, June 13, 2007

"Art By the Yard," the 11th annual Garden Tour, sponsored by the Mountain Home Arts Council and Beta Zeta Civic Club, will be held this Saturday, June 16. The tour is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will showcase several local gardens. Mountain Home Auto Ranch will have autos festooned with balloons parked at each garden...

Elmore Medical Center announced that on June 18 construction will begin on the project to expand Trinity Mountain Family Practice Clinic located at 465 McKenna Dr. The expansion project for the clinic is expected to take 200 days, and has a budget of $1,428,000 with construction costs at $1,043,000. ...

The large plume of dust rising from the desert just north of Mountain Home is the result of a training exercise being held this week --and for the next two weeks -- at the Idaho National Guard armory here. The Idaho Army National Guard is in the midst of a major reorganization, with a large number of units in armories around the state taking on new roles and new duties, and as a result, requiring new training...

Beautiful weather resulted in hundreds of people turning out to take advantage of the state's Free Fishing Day activities Saturday. C.J. Strike Reservoir was reported to be filled with anglers taking advantage of the opportunity to fish without having to have a license, and at Legacy Park in Mountain Home scores of young children, accompanied by their parents or grandparents, reeled in hundreds of the 500 "catchable" trout that had been stocked the night before in the park's pond...

Jim and Bess McCluer celebrated their 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary on June 11, 2007. Originally from Kansas and Texas, respectively, they traveled the world with the United States Air Force and settled in Mountain Home when Jim retired in 1979 after two tours stationed here. He then also later retired from the Idaho Department of Corrections...

The formal nuptials for Airman 1st Class Jessi Lyn Smith, daughter of Clara and Harry Smith of Hammett, and Senior Airman Matthew Sheridan Smith, son of Tracie and Ron Smith of Mountain Home, took place at the Hammett Community Church on May 26, 2007, with Pastor Ratzlaff officiating...

Tony VanMeer of Mountain Home, and Dawn Reed of Winthrop, Wash., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Treana Ann VanMeer, to Mathew Ryan McCune. the son of Mathew McCune and Diane McCune of Mountain Home. Treana is a 2007 graduate of Idaho State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She is currently employed at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls as a graduate nurse...

Darlene Wilson and Scott Stone, both of Mountain Home, have announced their engagement. Darlene is formerly from New Hampshire, and is employed with Marathon Cheese Corporation as a Quality Assurance Technician. Scott recently moved to Mountain Home from Tennessee, and is employed with Building Components of Idaho as a framer...

Rod Van Peursem of Mountain Home has announced the engagement of his daughter, Crystal Van Peursem to Nathan Stutzke. Crystal is a 1998 Mountain Home High School graduate and a graduate of Boise State University, with a degree in Biochemistry. She currently works for a biotech company in Denver, Colo...

Two members of the Mountain Home High School Rodeo team have qualified for the state finals this weekend. Team members participated in the final two rodeos May 27 and 28 in Caldwell, hoping to score enough points for the season to qualify for state...

A number of Mountain Home athletes earned All-Academic honors for their efforts in the classroom this past spring. In baseball, Chris Rau, Brock Morris, Tom Hennessey, Tyson Sessions, Robert Vanderpool, David Bitrick, Jonathan McCabe and Devan Wilkinson earned All-Academic All-Conference...

In a busy opening week of American Legion baseball, the Mountain Home Royals won five of six road games. Royals 8, 8 Kuna 3, 2 The Royals opened their season with a doubleheader sweep of the Kuna Diamondbacks last Tuesday at Kuna. The first game saw Mountain Home score once in the second and third, and Kuna scored twice in the second. The game stayed tied at 2-2 into extra innings before the Royals exploded for six runs in the top of the ninth...

Time is drawing closer and the committee is hard at work wrapping up the final details for this year's 2nd Annual Daniel Dopps Memorial PRCA Dodge Rodeo . The rodeo will be held June 22-23 at Optimist Park, beginning at 8 p.m. each night. Mayor Joe McNeal has signed a proclamation, making June 20-23 "Mountain Home Rodeo Days" and the committee hopes that all Mountain Home businesses will help highlight the event during that time...

Dear editor: I'd like to say "congratulations" to Mia Felton! Her letter to the editor has the potential to keep hardworking, capable parent volunteers from signing up as coaches. The very biased letter to the editor could potentially wipe out the many sports programs that are so vitally dependent upon these volunteers...

Dear editor: When I reviewed my tax assessment, I realized that my fee for the Western Elmore County Recreation District had been eliminated, thanks to the circuit breaker program, which assists lower-income individuals. I happen to believe that Mountain Home needs a recreation center. An indoor pool would be a welcome addition to the community, and the proposed recreational activities would give our young people a place to go for after-school programs or just to spend time...

Dear editor: While camped with our horses in an open primitive camp area, at the corner of Talley Creek & Fall Creek... I'd like to thank the young boys on their "off road racing motorcycles" for choosing to race up and down the entrance road to these camps, next to our camp...

Dear editor: I thought that Mike Bradbury was knowledgeable about the persons he belittles in his continual rants. I happen to know that Jack Streeter not only carries a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in his pocket with his Bible but orders and distributes hundreds of booklets to people that are willing to read it for themselves. ...

Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the latest in a long line of generals thrown under the wheels of the train wreck that is the War in Iraq. Bush's new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has decided not to renominate the Marine general who will complete his first tour as JCS chair in September. ...

An old fashioned western romantic elopement took place over Jack-a-lope Days in the quaint town of Douglas, Wyoming. The impetuous groom Jeremy Blackburn proposed to his true love Dacoda Cobb to have a secret wedding ceremony. The elopement was held at Washington Park on Friday June 1, 2007 at 2 pm. ...

District Court --- Marilyn Marie Flores, 27, pleaded guilty to a felony charge for theft by receiving/possessing stolen property. The charge was amended to a misdemeanor for petit theft and the disposition was withheld. Shelissia Marie Cornford, 28, was found guilty of a misdemeanor for theft by any common law larceny that was amended to a felony conviction for a lottery violation. ...

Adult arrests --- Antonio Cortez Ramos, 18 -- failure to purchase drivers license; providing false information to an officer. Selene Leon Barajas, 33 -- failure to purchase drivers license. Charles Wayne Burbery, 51 -- DUI; driving without privileges...