By Andrea Bruner Assistant Managing Editor

Remember Menard’s Grocery, Ben Franklin Store or the Batesville News Review? Then you may be interested in a collection of photos from yesteryear that will soon be on display to the public.
Main Street Arkansas will present “Main Street Batesville in Black and White,” with old photos depicting different scenes from Batesville’s downtown.
The photo exhibit will arrive Tuesday at the Comfort Suites and will travel throughout the Batesville community for a year, according to Caroline Millar, assistant director of Main Street Arkansas.

Verena Herrin wanted a way to remember her mother, so she made a teddy bear from an old quilt. After Herrin’s husband, Thomas, of 37 years died in January 2008, she made a memory bear from one of his flannel shirts.
Now, she’s become the first volunteer in the Arkansas Department of Health Hospice’s Memory Bear Program.
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“I like to sew,” said Herrin, who has made everything from Halloween costumes, dolls and toys to the occasional curtains, pillows and purses. Herrin also enjoys cross-stitching and quilting but said she’s never learned to crochet or knit.

It’s been two years since the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce board decided it would work without public dollars. Now, it’s changed its mind.
Tuesday night, Crystal Johnson, chamber president and CEO, came before the Batesville City Council to request a “re-instatement of funds the city once gave to the chamber.”
The amount requested is $10,000.
“We have a plan, the chamber is moving forward,” Johnson said, noting some of the chamber’s major events are the annual Christmas parade and White River Water Carnival.

For the first time, Independence County will have two “drive-by shootings” to deliver free vaccinations for the seasonal flu.
As in years past, there will be a clinic at the fairgrounds, but this year — on the same day and at the same time — there will also be a clinic at the southern end of the county. Both will be drive-through, and the fairgrounds site will have portable toilets, courtesy of A-1 Septic Tank.
“We hope to set records” as far as the number of people getting vaccinated, said Jim Reynolds, site manager with the Department of Health.