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Filings for all board seats ended on Tuesday, January 20^th. Incumbent Sheila Kunkel filed for the lone seat on the Salem Memorial District Hospital Board. The Oak Hill R-1 School District has two three-year terms available with Jessica Terrill, Tom Rushing and John Wofford having filed. At Green Forest R-2, Mike Fianoi, Carrie Wilson and Dee Moser filed for two 3-year terms available. At Dent-Phelps R-3, incumbents Dan King and Dennis (Dee) Jessen filed for the two 3-year terms available. The Salem R-80 school board has three terms available, two 3-year terms and one 2-year term. Incumbents Chris Heaven and Bernie Sirois filed for one of the 3-year terms, as did Carrie Coffman-Snider. Incumbent Joe Howard filed for the 2-year term as did Clifton Parker. For the City of Salem, incumbent Jim Jackson filed for the East Ward Aldermanic position, as did Edgar Gray Sr. In the West Ward Aldermanic position Brad Nash, Michael E. Thompson and John R. Rostron have all filed.  Incumbent Bill Riley of the West Ward elected not to run for Alderman as he stated that he wanted to run for Mayor in 2010. The Municipal Election will be held on April 7^th.

The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce elected new board members at their January membership meeting. New board members include; George LaJoie from Air Evac was elected to the empty two year term, the three year terms were filled by Willie Strader from Dent County Farm Bureau, Juli Warren from Progressive Ozark Bank and Melanie Wisdom from the Salem R-80 School District.

Over 125 cattlemen and livestock producers gathered at Barnitz Farms, near Lake Spring, on Saturday to learn more about accessing, utilizing and storing distillers grains, an ethanol co-product high in protein, energy and phosphorus. Sponsored by the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, University of Missouri Extension and South Ozarks Premier Beef Marketers, LLC, the field day garnered interest from a large geographic region.  Producers came from counties as far away as Lawrence and Howell to Laclede and Osage to attend the educational event. In addition to attending future field days, livestock producers can learn more about corn co-products through a distillers grains guide produced by the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, Missouri Cattlemen's Association and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  To learn more about corn and related co-products, visit Missouri Corn Online at www.mocorn.org.  

The Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors will conduct their meeting tonight in the hospital library beginning at 6:00. After approval of the minutes from the December 11^th meeting, Hospital Administrator Dennis Pryor will discuss the auxiliary report, hospital activity calendar, legislative updates and the ER and Inpatient satisfaction survey results for December. Director of Nursing Carol Lacy will give the summary of operations and statistics reports for December along with the nursing services and ancillary service reports, followed by the Chief of Staff report. In old business, there will be a physician office building report, strategic planning update and discuss the election filings that end on Tuesday, January 20^th. In new business, the Board will address hospital purchases, a conflict of interest policy, safe deposit box access authorization, the Missouri minimum wage law and a Long Term Care discussion. The Board may then vote to go into Closed Session. The regular meeting of the Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors is open to the public.

The Salem Area Community Betterment Association “Gift of Time” Awards Banquet will be held on Thursday, February 19th at the Commons beginning at 6:30 pm. The Salem Area Community Betterment Association will host their annual volunteer recognition dinner, honoring citizens and organizations, who have significantly enhanced the quality of this community. The dinner will be catered by My Place Restaurant. Nominations are currently being sought for volunteers. Categories for nomination include arts and culture, community enhancement, education, historic preservation, humanitarianism, a youth category for an adult or adult organization, and a youth category for a youth or youth organization. Nomination forms are now available at the Salem Library, Salem TCRC and all the banks in town. Nominations must be submitted by 5:00 January 31st. You can send your nomination form to SACBA, P.O. Box 732, Salem, MO 65560. Tickets to the event are now available at the Salem TCRC, the Visitor’s Center and from individual Salem Area Community Betterment Association Board Members. The ticket price is $20. For more information contact the SACBA by calling 729-7194.

Sports [TOP]

The Winter Youth Basketball signups for boys and girls in the 1st through 6th grade will be held today and tomorrow from 4:00 to 6:00 at the Salem Freedom Activity Center. The cost is $15.00 per child. These will be the only signups for the basketball program. For more information, call 729-6290.

The Salem Boys Basketball Tigers will be back in action tonight as they will face Belle in the loser’s bracket of the St. James Tournament. Game time is 6:00 and you can hear the game on KSMO and ksmoradio.com beginning with Tiger Talk and Coach Phillip Karr at 5:50. Salem enters the game with a 6-9 record.

The duo of Matt Lawrence and DeMarre Carroll scored 19 points apiece to lead the Missouri Tigers to a 97-95 victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys in a Big 12 showdown at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Carroll collected nine rebounds as well in the win for Missouri (16-3, 3-1 Big 12), while J.T. Tiller tallied 15 points to go with seven boards. Keith Ramsey added 12 points for the Tigers, while Leo Lyons and Zaire Taylor chipped in 10 points each. Missouri will host Texas Tech Saturday at noon.

Chris Mason stopped 21 shots to record his second shutout of the season, leading St. Louis past Chicago, 2-0, at United Center. Jeff Woywitka and Keith Tkachuk added goals for the Blues (19-23-4), who hit the All-Star break having won three of four but in last place in the Central Division.

Kansas City Royals have signed pitcher Joel Peralta and catcher John Buck to one- year contracts.

With their new head coach in place, the St. Louis Rams have filled both their offensive and defensive coordinator positions by hiring Pat Shurmur and Ken Flajole, respectively. Both appointments were reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Wednesday and come just two days after the Rams introduced former New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as head coach. Shurmur takes over the offensive coordinator position after spending the last seven seasons as quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Flajole, meanwhile, has spent his previous six seasons with the Carolina Panthers, serving as their linebackers coach this past campaign. Flajole was also an assistant coach at the University of Missouri from 1989-93 and worked with current Eagles head coach Andy Reid, who later hired Spagnuolo in Philadelphia.

Obituaries   [TOP]

Funeral services for Betty Ritter of Bunker, age 77, will be held this morning at 11:00 at the United Baptist Tabernacle in Bunker. Interment will be in the Bunker City Cemetery. All the arrangements are under the direction of the McSpadden Funeral Home in Bunker.

Funeral services for Lewis “Joe” Lee Schonfield of Steelville, age 50, will be held this morning at 11:00 at the Britton-Bennett Funeral Home in Steelville. Interment will be in the Eaton-Hanson Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the family.

Funeral arrangements for William (Bill) Joseph Rostron Sr. of Salem, age 62, will be this afternoon at 1:00 at the Wilson Mortuary in Salem. Visitation will be from 11:00 until service time. Interment will be in the North Lawn Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to the American Legion Walker-Roney Post #99.

Funeral services for Velma I. Mitchell of Springfield, formerly of Salem, age 86, will be held Saturday at 11:00 at the Wilson Mortuary Chapel in Salem. Visitation will be Friday from 6:00 TO 7:30. Interment will be in the Cedar Grove Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Salem R-80 Library. 

Funeral services for Martin Engelmeyer of St. James, age 82, will be held Saturday at 11:00 at the St. Anthony Catholic Church in St. James. Visitation will be Friday from 6:00 to 8:00 at the James & Gahr Mortuary in St. James. Interment will be in the St. James Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to the Golden Age Center.