Local News

It’s been just five months since the lives of Justin Hatchett and his family took a dramatic turn. Following a farming accident on June 18, the Washington County teen has been on a long road to recovery. The prayers from friends, family, and even strangers have no doubt played a huge part in his recovery.

Local businessman and school board member Pat Clements was found not guilty of violating Washington County's social host ordinance, which prohibits adults from hosting parties or providing alcohol to minors.

It took a Washington County jury about 10 minutes to return with a verdict of not guilty and clear Clements in the case charging him with providing alcohol to minors at a party that took place on June 6 of this year.

The verdict was returned at approximately 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. See a complete story in next week's Springfield Sun.

You can smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em at the Springfield Police Department, but you’ll have to take ‘em outside.

At a meeting held on Nov. 10, the Springfield City Council approved a motion to make the Springfield Police Department a smoke-free building.

Previously, employees who smoked were allowed to use a small kitchen as a smoking area. Now, no one is permitted to light up inside.

Democrats outweigh Republicans by more than 2 to 1 in Washington County, but you couldn’t tell it by looking at the totals from last week’s election.

Locally, four partisan races were on the ballot, and three of those four were won by Republicans, despite the number of Democrats registered to vote. According to Washington County Clerk Glenn Black, there are 5,569 Democrats registered in the county, while only 2,252 Republicans are registered. An additional 246 voters were classified as “other.”