March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

The UA Cossatot Employee Safety and Wellness Committee would like to remind everyone that March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

“Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men and women combined in the United States.”~fightcolorectalcancer.org 

·         During the next year, one in twenty people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer, bringing an estimated 147,950 new cases in 2020. 

·         Proper screening could prevent sixty percent of colorectal cancer deaths. 

·         While data indicates that new colorectal cancers in those over age 50 have fallen consistently since 1985, rates of colorectal cancer for those under age 50 have risen, especially for rectal cancer. 

Helpful information can be found at https://fightcolorectalcancer.org/colorectal-cancer/facts-stats/ 

Attached is a fact sheet from the American Cancer Society, which lists common risk factors for colon cancer: 

·         Heredity – Up to 30% of people with colorectal cancer have a family history of the disease.

·         Personal history of colorectal polyps, previously treated colorectal cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease.

·         Personal history of radiation to the abdomen (belly) or pelvic area to treat a prior cancer.

·         Type 2 diabetes.

·         Obesity.

·         Physical inactivity.

·         Diets high in red or processed meat and/or diets low in calcium, fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain fiber.

·         Smoking.

·         Alcohol use.

Facts about colon cancer & rectal cancer | Fight CRC

Need more information about colorectal cancer to share with your family, friends, or community? Know the facts and tell someone you care about. Colorectal cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death among men and women combined in the United States. There will be an estimated 147,950 new cases of colorectal cancer in 2020.

2020 Spring Officers are Elected to Serve in Collegiate FFA

UA Cossatot’s Collegiate FFA organization announces the spring 2020 FFA officers. These officers will serve for a term of one semester and be active leaders in UA Cossatot’s FFA.

The officers include President Codie Jamison, Vice President John Hardin, Secretary Kinley Wright, Treasurer Lindy Price, and Reporter Kelsey Russell.

(L-R): John Hardin, Will McAlister, Lindy Price, Brennen Seymour, Kinley Wright, Kirsten Nicholas, Kelsey Russell, and Codie Jamison

Scholarship recipients not pictured: Dusty Kesterson and Courtney Vaught

UA Cossatot’s FFA student organization gives students who are interested in agriculture the chance to learn about opportunities in this field while also learning skills in leadership, communication, and networking. Building friendships and scholarship opportunities are other benefits of being in UA Cossatot’s Collegiate FFA as well.

(L-R): John Hardin, Lindy Price, Codie Jamison, Kinley Wright, Kelsey Russell

This spring, UA Cossatot’s FFA will be hosting the annual plant sale in the greenhouse on the De Queen campus. The plant sale provides an affordable resource for local producers to acquire a variety of plants for their spring gardens. Students learn to grow and care for the plants, and they also obtain valuable customer service skills while interacting with the public during the sale.

For additional information about UA Cossatot’s Collegiate FFA, please contact Kelli Harris at 870-584-1218.

Congratulations to UA Cossatot Lady Colts Basketball Player, Makenzie Cardenas

Weekly Update from State Representative DeAnn Vaught

By law, Fiscal Sessions can only last 30 days (45 days with a ¾ vote to extend), so members work weeks in advance drafting appropriation measures in order to ensure our sessions are brief.

That preparation begins in budget hearings. Beginning Wednesday, March 4, 2020, the Joint Budget Committee will hold a series of meetings designed to begin the process of outlining a budget for the next fiscal year. The Fiscal Session begins Wednesday, April 8, 2020, at 12:00 noon.

Budget hearings will begin with the Department of Finance and Administration presenting its annual forecast and recommendations for a balanced budget by the Governor.

Over the course of the next several days, the committee will hear budget requests for Higher Education Institutions, Department of Education, the Department of Human Services, Department of Health, Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety, commonly referred to as the “Big 6”.

In the following weeks, members will review budgets for all state boards, commissions, and agencies.

Seven months into this fiscal year, general revenue is now $149.7 million or 4.4% above this time last year. The most recent general revenue report showed net available revenue is above forecast by $94.2 million or 2.7 percent. This report and revenue forecast from economists will help us guide our decision making process in the months ahead.

Although legislation during the Regular Sessions typically attracts more attention, it is important to remember the impact our budget making process has on our day to day lives.

The decisions we will be making show the priorities we make as a state. Appropriations fund everything from classrooms to health care.

Members can begin filing appropriation bills and identical resolutions on Monday, March 9, 2020. As a reminder, the legislature cannot take up any non-appropriation bills during the Fiscal Session unless 2/3 of the body votes in favor of a resolution.

You can watch the meetings live at www.arkansashouse.org.

Home - Arkansas House of Representatives

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Miss UA Cossatot Scholarship Pageant is March 28

Irvan of Horatio Establishes Scholarship with UA Cossatot Foundation

Horatio resident, Gayla Irvan, donated to the UA Cossatot Foundation to establish the Alex Scholarship.
The scholarship is to honor the memory of her son, Alex Irvan. The Alex Scholarship is for UA Cossatot students accepted into the Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program. Eligible applicants will need to have a minimum GPA of 2.5 and have a financial need. The scholarship will award one applicant $500 for the academic year.
Irvan said, “I had a disabled child and I wanted to give to a college with an OTA program to help students who could work with people with disabilities and helping with other rehabilitation services.”
The UA Cossatot Foundation exists to create awareness of the need for scholarships while focusing efforts on raising resources to meet the need and furthering UA Cossatot’s institutional development.
UA Cossatot Foundation Director, Dustin Roberts said, “Mrs. Irvan has a big heart and a strong desire to help others succeed. This gift in memory of her son, Alex, is greatly appreciated and will help a deserving OTA student at UA Cossatot.”
For more information on how to support UA Cossatot Foundation, please contact Dustin Roberts at 870-584-1172 or droberts@cccua.edu

Lake Wind Advisory May Be Extended Through Wednesday

According to the National Weather Service in Shreveport…

...LAKE WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM TO 6 PM CST MONDAY...

* WHAT...Southwesterly winds this morning will begin to transition
to a westerly/northwesterly wind this afternoon as a cold front
passes through the area. Wind gusts between 20 to 30 mph are
expected through much of the day.

* WHERE...Portions of north central and northwest Louisiana,
southeast Oklahoma, south central and southwest Arkansas and
east and northeast Texas.

* WHEN...From 6 AM this morning to 6 PM CST this evening.

* IMPACT...Strong winds and rough waves on area lakes will create
hazardous conditions for small craft.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Boaters on area lakes should use extra caution since strong winds
and rough waves can overturn small craft.

Rummage Sale at UA Cossatot - Ashdown February 29th

Weekly Update from State Representative DeAnn Vaught

Early voting for the Arkansas Preferential Primary and Nonpartisan General Election began this week. It will continue up until the date of the election, Tuesday, March 3.

Although many of the headlines focus on the Presidential race, it’s important to remember the other significant elections on your March ballot including legislators and judges.

Non-partisan elections for judicial candidates and prosecutors are held at the same time as Democratic and Republican primaries. If no candidate wins a majority in the non-partisan races, the two candidates with the most votes participate in a runoff. If a runoff is required, it takes place on the same day as the general election for partisan races, and runoff candidates appear on the general election ballot.

Arkansas is one of thirteen states that choose their state supreme court justices in entirely nonpartisan elections and one of eighteen states that select judges through nonpartisan elections at all trial court levels.

The polls are open between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday. Early voting ends at 5:00 pm on the Monday before the election. The polls on Election Day will be open from 7:30 am until 7:30 pm. Once at the polls, you will be asked to show a photo ID issued by either the United States, the State of Arkansas, or an accredited postsecondary educational institution in the State of Arkansas.

In most counties, early voting is conducted at the county clerk’s office. In counties with off-site early voting (a location other than the county clerk’s office), local newspapers will publish the designated sites. You can also find your polling location and a sample ballot at www.voterview.org.

Remember, every vote counts!

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Results from Colts Classic FFA

The Colts Classic FFA competition at UA Cossatot - De Queen was last Friday.

Results from the contest are:

Ag Mechanics
1. Fouke
2. Acorn
3. Hackett

Electricity
1. Bradley
2. Harmony Grove
3. Hermitage

Farm Business Management
1. Taylor
2. Mount Ida
3. Lake Hamilton

Floriculture
1. Dover
2. Bradley
3. Hackett

Forestry
1. Harmony Grove
2. Taylor
3. Hermitage

Horse
1. Foreman
2. Rosebud
3. Mount Ida

Land Judging
1. Dierks
2. Taylor
3. Foreman

Milk Quality & Products
1. Ouachita
2. Taylor
3. Waldron

Nursery & Landscape
1. Dover
2. Mena
3. Bradley

Poultry
1. Murfreesboro
2. Siloam Springs
3. De Queen

Veterinary Science
1. Cedar Ridge
2. Siloam Springs
3. Genoa Central

Early Voting Underway

Early voting for March 3 Primary begins today

For the complete story visit:
https://www.dequeenbee.com/…/article_7bd3329c-5267-11ea-8b0…

dequeenbee.com | The primary source of local news for De Queen and Sevier County

While admittedly not the most exciting member of the De Queen/Sevier County Chamber of Commerce. CTS Services of Benton - with a location in Lockesburg - provides a service that while seemingly mundane to ordinary folks, is vital and sometimes critical to the business that they service.

UA Cossatot Hosts the Ninth Annual Colts Classic

The ninth annual Colts Classic Career Development Event took place at UA Cossatot in De Queen on Friday, February 14, 2020, where over 700 high school students traveled to the college to compete in agricultural competitions. Thirty-four schools across Arkansas and one from Missouri participated in this event to promote the study of careers in agriculture.

At 8:30 A.M., schools began checking-in and then made way to the UA Cossatot Amphitheater. UA Cossatot Chancellor, Dr. Steve Cole, and UA Cossatot Agriculture Instructor, Kelli Harris, welcomed the students before they dispersed into different locations for the contests.

Students competed in many different contest areas, including agricultural mechanics, dairy foods, electricity, farm business management, floriculture, forestry, land, horse judging, poultry judging, vet science, and nursery and landscape.

The UA Cossatot Colts Classic is an annual event organized and hosted by the UA Cossatot Collegiate FFA and the students competing in the contests are high school FFA members. This event gives high school students the chance to learn about careers in agriculture and develop skills to be successful in these careers

Weekly Update from State Representative DeAnn Vaught

Suicide is a serious national public health issue that affects communities everywhere. When looking at the data on veteran suicide, however, we see that veterans are 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide than non-veterans. In 2017, Arkansas had the 9th worst veteran suicide rate in the country, with 20.8 suicides per 100,000 people.

There is currently an extensive study being conducted to address the issue of veteran suicide in Arkansas called the Arkansas Legislative Study on Veteran Affairs. The study came about as a result of the passage of Act 551, which requires the House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs and the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs to examine risk factors for suicide in veterans, options for preventing or reducing the occurrence of suicide among the veteran population, and mental health care available to veterans within the state.

Research shows that there is a lower increase in the suicide rate among veterans in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care than among veterans who are not in VHA care. The problem is that veterans are not automatically enrolled in VHA care, so it may be difficult to get those who are struggling the help they need. By connecting them with veterans’ healthcare services and other resources, legislators hope to see the number of veteran suicides decrease.

The committees have met in various locations across the state to study the issue. They will meet next at the Heritage Church in Van Buren on February 24 at 1:30pm.

During a joint committee meeting held in October in El Dorado, Mandy Thomas, Injury and Violence Prevention, Section Chief, Department of Health shared some interesting data on suicide prevention efforts in Arkansas. According to data collected from the period between January 1, 2019, and September 30, 2019, 23% of calls initiated to the Arkansas Lifeline Call Center by an Arkansas area code pressed #1 for the Veteran Crisis Line. The top five resources provided to callers include: Community Mental Health Centers, VA Crisis Line, AR Department of Veteran’s Affairs, National Domestic Abuse Hotline, and National Alcoholics Anonymous Hotline.

The Arkansas Lifeline Call Center, which is open through the Arkansas Department of Health, is open to use for anyone. The center answers calls made in Arkansas to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Veterans can access the Veteran Crisis Line by calling the national line at 1-800-273-8255 and pressing 1. Anyone can also text the crisis line by sending TALK to 741741, or chat online at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/ .

Lifeline Chat

Lifeline Chat is a service of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, connecting individuals with counselors for emotional support and other services via web chat. All chat centers in the Lifeline network are accredited by CONTACT USA. Lifeline Chat is available 24/7 across the U.S.

AMS Global & Norwegian Based Jets AS North American Training Seminar

Arkansas based AMS Global & Norwegian based Jets AS held their 1st Annual North American Training Seminar on the Campus of UA Cossatot in De Queen on February 12th & 13th of this year. Attendees were giving theoretical and hands on training on Vacuum Sanitation Technology during the event.

There were 27 total people attending the event from 10 States including Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, California, Arizona, New York & Michigan as well as attendees from 2 other countries including representatives from the Province of Quebec in Canada and Norway.

AMS Global Representative Clint Nelson indicated he is “Extremely Grateful” for the hospitality shown by UAC’s Dr. Steve Cole and Tammy Coleman for helping to make the event a success. The “UAC Facilities were outstanding and all attendees were very complimentary of them” said Nelson.

Norwegian based Jets AS is the world leader in pioneering eco-efficient technology with a distribution network that spans the globe. AMS Global, in De Queen, is the proud, land based, North American Distributor for Jets AS.

Create Bridges to Conduct Additional Surveys in Six Arkansas Counties

A pilot program focusing on rural economic development in six rural Arkansas counties is surveying employees to learn more about job training and experiences that can bolster businesses in the retail, tourism, entertainment and accommodations industries.

Create Bridges, a multi-state program to help communities strengthen their retail, tourism, accommodations, and entertainment sectors, which in turn provide jobs and business opportunities that can boost rural economies, is seeking survey participants. In Arkansas, the efforts are organized by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Community, Professional and Economic Development unit.

The program was established in October 2018 in two regions in Arkansas. The 3Cs Region includes Howard, Little River and Sevier counties, while the Ozark Foothills Region is made up of Fulton, Izard and Sharp counties.

In 2019, Create Bridges held forums in several counties throughout the state to gather information about community assets in the retail, tourism, entertainment and accommodations industries. They also interviewed business owners to learn about the opportunities, benefits and challenges of operating a business in rural Arkansas.

Now, the project is focusing on gathering employee insight, asking survey participants about their current skills, areas in which they want to improve, and training available to them. The survey also asks about the types of benefits employees appreciate in their jobs, such as flexible scheduling, training opportunities, childcare assistance and insurance. Finally, the survey asked participants about the factors affecting their ability to work, including limited transportation options, housing availability, and child or elder care access.

Employees in the six program counties can access the survey at http://bit.ly/CBEmployeeSurvey. The survey is anonymous and takes about 15 minutes to complete. Results will be used to create strategies to support these businesses including workforce training.

Julianne Dunn, economic development instructor for the Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service, encouraged employees to participate in the program.

“The employee perspective will be invaluable to identifying training and policy opportunities to promote the flourishing of these types of businesses,” Dunn said.

Talk Business & Politics - Daily Business & Political News for Arkansas

Talk Business & Politics is a news website that covers business, politics and culture across all the Arkansas regions. You can also sign up for daily e-mail news delivered every morning to your inbox.

Create Bridges — an acronym for Celebrating Retail, Accommodations, Tourism, and Entertainment by Building Rural Innovations and Developing Growth Economies — has already held community forums and a retail academy for regional leaders.

Nashville Gardening and Farmers Market Happenings

Nashville WRA 5K Training Clinic Orientation on February 18th

Truck Driving Training Program Offered This Spring at UA Cossatot

UA Cossatot is offering a Truck Driving Training Program this spring at its Nashville Campus for individuals seeking a career as a professional truck driver. The training program is provided through the college’s Continuing Education department and is available in March, April, and May.

The UA Cossatot Truck Driver Training Program is an intensive one hundred and sixty-hour training program with a proven record of providing quality, in-depth truck driver training that will have students on the road in four fast-paced weeks.

The training program includes a combination of up-to-date classroom, field, and on the road training. The total cost to sign up for the course is $3,695, which includes books needed for the training. Financial assistance may be available for students interested in being in the program.

Classes will take place Monday through Thursday on March 2-26, April 6-30, and May 4-28. The instructor, Phillip Jones, will teach the course from 6:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. each day.

The Truck Driving Training Program at UA Cossatot will be offered three times this spring semester. The deadline days to register for one of the three options is February 24, March 30, and April 27.

Truck drivers, on average, make $39,070 a year in Arkansas. In only four weeks, students in this program at UA Cossatot can expect to be prepared to enter a career where there is a bright job outlook.

The college is also offering a Truck Driver Refresher Program designed to reacquaint individuals who haven’t worked in the trucking industry for a long period of time with the opportunity to get refreshed. In this

program, the student will learn skills to obtain his/her CDL license and re-enter the trucking industry as a professional commercial truck driver.

The course is also available to those who would like to improve on their existing skills, such as backing, shifting, or driving. The course is customizable to each student’s needs and may include classroom, range, and road time.

Persons entering this course must have his/her permit or a valid CDL. The program includes forty hours of training and costs $900, which includes the CDL Skills Test.

To learn more about the Truck Driving Training Program, the Truck Driver Refresher Program, or to enroll in either program, please call UA Cossatot’s Continuing Education department at 870-584-1178

National Weather Service Potential Rainfall for Arkansas for Early Week

The National Weather Service predicts a wet start to the week!

Census 2020 Helps Build Arkansas

Want more money for Roads, Libraries, Schools, Employment, Healthcare, etc? Make sure to #BECOUNTED You can fill out the 10 minute questionnaire by phone, mail, or internet.
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¿Quiere más dinero para carreteras, bibliotecas, escuelas, empleo, atención médica, etc.? Asegúrese de ser contado #BECOUNTED. Puede llenar el cuestionario de 10 minutos por teléfono, correo o por internet.

The 2020 Census is coming! March 12-April 30, 2020. Get involved and help make sure we count EVERYONE living in Sevier County. The 10 minute questionnaire will impact the next 10 years! The 2020 Census is IMPORTANT, SAFE and Easy!
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¡Se acerca el Censo 2020! Del 12 de marzo al 30 de abril de 2020. Participe y ayude a asegurarse de contar a TODOS los que viven en el Condado de Sevier. ¡El cuestionario de 10 minutos tendrá un impacto en los próximos 10 años! ¡El Censo 2020 es IMPORTANTE, SEGURO y Fácil!