Couty offices closed
The Jefferson County Courthouse and county offices will be closed today due to inclement weather. Emergency services will not be interrupted, according to a spokesman.
World Day of Prayer set at Stuttgart
Everyone is invited to World Day of Prayer at Grand Avenue Methodist Church at Stuttgart at noon Friday, March 4. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church is hosting the program prepared by the women of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the luncheon at 12:30 p.m., a spokesman said. The event is being held at Grand Avenue church due to renovations in progress at St. Alban’s.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Additional CWD not detected in Union County
After a hunter-harvested white-tailed deer in Union County tested positive for chronic wasting disease in December, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has confirmed that no additional sampled deer had been detected with the disease, according to a news release.
The infected deer was harvested in Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge during the permit-based annual modern gun deer hunt. A CWD sample was collected at the check station for that hunt. That sample tested positive for CWD and was confirmed by the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison. This was the first case of CWD in Union County.
As a result, staff from the AGFC, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture – Wildlife Services conducted a targeted sampling of 40 deer from Felsenthal and three deer from Beryl Anthony Lower Ouachita Wildlife Management Area. CWD was not detected in any of the samples, according to the release.
AGFC State Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Jenn Ballard says the agency will continue to be vigilant on not only a regional area, but statewide as well.
A list of CWD-testing facilities is available at www.agfc.com/cwd.