Planning for the upcoming 15th Annual Loose Caboose Festival is underway. The Newton Chamber of Commerce held a volunteer information meeting on Feb. 22 at the Historic Newton Depot and is currently accepting volunteer applications who will help with the two-day event.
The Mississippi Department of Education released on Feb. 15 the high school graduation rates for the 2016-17 school year, which show that the state’s graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 83 percent. Mississippi’s rate is just one point shy of the national graduation rate of 84 percent.
The East Central Community College Financial Aid Office is offering free assistance with completing the FAFSA for students interested in attending college in fall 2018.
East Central Community College will officially dedicate Lucille Wood Court at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20, at the college’s new Tennis Complex on the campus in Decatur.
One of the eight courts at the new state-of-the-art complex is being named in recognition of Wood thanks to a gift to the college from members of her family.
It was a rough week for Union on the softball diamond as they lost three out of four games.
The Newton County Academy Generals lost three out of four contests last week and fell to 2-4 on the season.
The Generals lost twice to Wayne Academy, falling 4-3 and 14-3. Then on Saturday, the Generals lost 5-0 to Tri-County before beating River Oaks, La., 11-0.
Newton County had another up-and-down week on the baseball diamond as they opened the week with a pair of shutout wins. They closed the week with a pair of five-run losses.
The Newton County Lady Cougars won three out of four contests last week.
Newton County started the week out with a 17-0 blowout of Union on Tuesday and followed that up with a 13-3 run-rule victory over Northwest Rankin on Friday. On Saturday at Union, Newton County lost 9-6 to Taylorsville and beat Ethel 11-1.
After opening the season with two wins last week, the Union Yellowjackets dropped three out of four games last week.
The Yellowjackets dropped their first contest of the season on Tuesday in a 7-3 loss to Northeast Lauderdale. On Friday night, Union dropped an 8-2 decision to Newton County.
The Newton High School baseball team picked up their first win of the season last week in a 14-9 win over Leake County.
The Tigers also dropped a 14-1 decision to Sebastopol on Friday.
Against Leake County, the Tigers had eight hits and took advantage of 11 walks to take the win over the Gators.
