local restaurant
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Local restaurantTRANSCRIPT
By Molly M. [email protected]
A little over three months ago, JoAnn Taylor was up to her knees in river water.
This wouldn’t have been that shocking if she was in the river, but instead, the river had come to her at her restaurant, the One Stop in Georgetown.
The restaurant had been taken over by the river during a “100-year flood.”
“We brought a boat to come up to the restaurant that night and everything was covered in that silky mud,” Taylor recalls. “I told everyone then, ‘I’m moving.’”
But the town wouldn’t let her leave.
“The next morning, some people came and woke me up at 6 and said they were going to take the walls down," she said. "The Andrews, the Starks and the Stephens were all ready to help."
And help they did. With the efforts of the Georgetown community and the people of Kensett, the destination restau-rant has now been back in busi-ness for two weeks.
“We worked at least two-and-a-half months before we
could re-open,” Taylor said. She credits the help of the College Church of Christ of Searcy, a Baptist church in Kensett, friends at Harding University and people all around White County for getting her restaurant back to working shape.
“I was really shocked that they didn’t want me to leave," she said. "I cried a lot at that time, but now I’ve started smil-ing again.”
Taylor has been in Georgetown for 14 years. Her river-caught catfish, hush pup-pies and French fries attract folks from all corners of the state. While the size of her restaurant is small, it is always packed with customers ready to try the catfish, which is cooked by Roy Gray, who has been with Taylor since the first day of the restaurant’s opening.
“You don’t know how good a
friends you have until something like this happens," Taylor said. "It was really unbelievable what people were willing to do — and they are all customers."
There is still a little work left on the new place, she said. Sometime soon, she’s going to have to repaint the floors, but the customers don’t seem to mind how they are now.
“Everyone tells me they wanted to help because they just enjoy coming out here so much,” she said
“There’s always hope. There’s always people willing to help. This taught me that I really do have a lot of friends. And I think that by us opening back up, it encouraged other people to keep going as well.”
W E A T H E RToday: Partly sunny. Rain possible. Highs in the lower 90s. Tonight: Partly cloudy. Rain possible. Lows in the 70s. Northeast winds 5 mph.
Vol. 157, No. 201©2011 The Daily Citizen
“ ”A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation
is absolute freedom.Roald dahl
Novelist, 1916-1990
Contact us: 3000 E. Race, Searcy, AR 72143, (Phone) 501-268-8621, (Fax) 501-268-6277
Sunday, auguSt 21, 2011
The Georgetown One Stop was standing in three feet of water during the flood this spring. Local residents and churches helped rebuild the restaurant and it has been reopened for a couple of weeks. Molly M. Fleming/[email protected]
LOCAL, 2A OPINIONS, 4A LIFESTYLES, 5ACALENDAR/OBITUARIES, 6A SPORTS, 1B CLASSIFIEDS, 5B
I N D E X
CitizenDailyThe
LocaL bands getting ready for footbaLLBand directors at White County schools have been preparing their students for Friday nights. — Page 3a
Serving Searcy and White County, Ark., since 1854
bisons start to PrePare for saUAs preseason camp comes to an end, Harding turns its attention to Southern Arkansas. — Page 1b
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$125
LocaL catfish restaurant gets back to business
Rice crop forecast down locallyCouple
building green house
By Kyle [email protected]
Due to the rains and floods in the spring earlier this year, Arkansas’ and White County’s rice crop is down this year.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the 2011 total rice pro-duction for Arkansas is forecast at
79.5 million hundredweight (cwt), which is down 31 percent from last year’s 115.7 million cwt. If realized, the number would be Arkansas’ low-est since the 79.2 million cwt har-vested in 1997.
“There are several reasons rice production is down,” said Keith Martin, county extension agent. “First is that the plant price did not compare well to soybeans or corn, so a lot of farmers chose to switch. Also, it was wet early in the spring
and the floods kept rice farmers from planting on time. Most of the farmers switched to soybeans.”
Farmer Michael Taylor, who has 460 acres of planted rice east of Bald Knob, said he stuck with the rice because he uses a rotation pro-gram alternating between rice and soybeans.
“If you jump back and forth because of the market,” he said,
spring rains, floods hindered planting
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By Molly M. [email protected]
More than a year ago, Ruby Bates of Searcy was eating breakfast at McDonald’s when in walked Pangburn builder Robert Young.
Bates struck up a conver-sation with the builder and asked for his card. She and her husband Burt had been wanting to build a house for a while, but they hadn’t started on the project.
During the conversation with Young, Bates found that he was trained to build an eco-friendly home using insulated concrete forms. The Bateses made plans and, soon, building had begun on a home that was ahead of its time.
“My husband and I are growing older and we want-ed a house that wouldn’t have to be constantly worked on,” Bates said. “With this type of home, we can put cement siding on the outside and it will never have to be repainted.”
shs alum realizes
dream with vet hospitalBy Molly M. [email protected]
When Searcy High School alumna Natalie Cooper-Towns was growing up, she used to look at the old barn on her grandfather’s land and dream of the day she would build a veterinarian hospital in its place.
That day has finally come true.
With her husband Chad Towns, the two of them opened Honey Hill Animal Hospital on Honey Hill Road on Monday.
“It’s a blessing to be home again,” Cooper-Towns said. “It’s been about seven years since we’ve been in the area, so it’s nice to be back.”
Iconic restaurant recently re-opened
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house can sustain 200-mph winds
At the Georgetown One Stop, Roy Gray and JoAnn Taylor are back to business as usual after the restaurant was nearly destroyed by flood waters this spring. Molly M. Fleming/[email protected]
eco hoUse n Built using insulated con-crete formsn initial costs are higher than regular homen Saves money on utility bills state Projections
n 2011 total production is forecast at 79.5 million cwt, down 31 percent from last year’s 79.2 million.n if realized, it will be the lowest production since the 79.2 million cwt of 1997.n Producers expect to harvest 1.16 million acres of rice, down 35 per-cent from 2010.n if realized, this will be the small-est harvested area since 1989.
back to work What: one StopWhere: 209 Main Street, georgetownStatus: Now open after having nearly been destroyed by flood-ing earlier this year.
honey hiLL animaL hosPitaLn Co-owned and operated by Searcy graduaten Services small and large animals
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