News

The Dent County Commissioners met Thursday morning at the courthouse for their regular meeting. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Dennis Purcell said the south district received about 1 ½ inches of rain and crews were out checking roads in the Bunker and Montuak areas for washouts and downed limbs as well as other roads in the disrtrict. He said a crew would take a backhoe to Dent County Road 6080 to clean out the debris that gets trapped under the Green-Hagler Bridge. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson said his crews would also be out checking roads and possibly sweeping the chip and seal roads. Larson did report that he and Commissioner Purcell attended the IDA Board meeting Wednesday night. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles attended the Meramec Regional Emergency Planning Committee meeting Thursday night. Skiles reported all the commissioners would be attending a meeting in Plato Monday with State Representative Jason Smith to discuss reauthorizing the Secure Rural Schools Act. Because of the meeting in Plato, there will be no commissioner meeting Monday. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said absentee voting would continue in her office until April 6^th. The Last day to mail out an absentee ballot will be Wednesday, April 1^st and her office will be open April 4^th from 8:00 in the morning until noon for absentee voting. Liz Gruendel from Healthy Dent County called the commission to ask about installing the Health Dent County fish symbol on the courthouse lawn. The commission would like more information before making a decision. The commission then approved donating their MRPC member service hours to Kim Kimnitzer to use for a grant application for the Masters Piece Clinic of Hope in Salem. The county had a total of 18 hours remaining that would need to be used by June 30^th. Tom Haines from the National Forest Service wanted to the let the commission know of a meeting in Viburnum on April 7^th from 5:00 to 8:00 to discuss roads in the Mark Twain National Forest. This is just a discussion and there will be a number of meetings to get people’s opinions on the matter. At 10:00, the commission opened bids for a 2015 Ford Utility Police Interceptor. There was only one bid received and that come from Republic Ford and Lincoln from Republic, Missouri. Two financing bids were received on the police vehicle: one from the Bank of Salem and the other from US Bank. No decision was made at this time. At the last meeting, Deputy Wayne Becker reported the county received preliminary approval on $44,340.03 in SCCG grant money. Also Deputy Joe Cochran brought in a request on a second vehicle to bid out. It was a used 2013 demo vehicle with all the equipment, ready to go. The commissioners agreed to seek bids on the vehicle and financing and they will be due by 9:00 AM Thursday, April 2^nd. Those bids will be opened at 9:30 that day. The next meeting of the commissioner will be next Thursday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

Come to the Bonebrake Center of Nature and History on Monday, March 30^th at 6:30 p.m. to experience views of the solar system and the galaxy. Joe Shuster and friends will be on site using powerful telescopes to show the mountains, plains, and craters on the Moon. They will point out the planets Mars and Venus in the western sky at the beginning of the event. Later, Jupiter will be visible, and they will show cloud bands on the biggest planet in our solar system. Participants will also be able to view four of Jupiter's moons, and late in the event watch the shadow of one of the moons drift along Jupiter's clouds. There should be a chance to take a close look at some interesting double stars, too. With some luck, there might be a meteor or a satellite, too. So bundle up, and come enjoy the views through the telescopes and experience a tour of the sky. All are welcome to bring personal binoculars or telescopes as well. This program is appropriate for the whole family and will be mostly outdoors, so come prepared for the night air. There will be access to the house and light refreshments.  The suggested donation is $1.00 per person or $5.00 for the whole family. Phone reservations are requested but not required. Please call the Bonebrake Center 729-3400 or e-mail bonebrakecenter@embarqmail.com and leave a message for more information or to register. If it appears the night sky will be too cloudy, the program will be postponed. Registrants may call 247-0279 Monday afternoon if there is a question about possible cancellation.  The Bonebrake Center is located at 601 North Hickory Street in Salem, at the corner of North Hickory Street and East Rolla Road.

Sports [TOP]

Errors continue to plague the Salem Baseball Tigers as they lost to Houston Thursday, 10-6 and all ten runs were unearned due to errors. Kobe Mead and Corey Ramsey each went 2-4 in the game for Salem who falls to 0-2 on the year. They will face Cuba tonight at 6:30 and Licking tomorrow at 1:00 at the Houston Tournament.

The Salem Golf match at Mountain View-Liberty yesterday was postponed due to wet grounds. The next match for the Salem Golf Team will be Tuesday and it will be the Salem Open starting at 4:00.

The Salem Open track meet yesterday was postponed due to the weather. The track teams will be at Cuba on Tuesday at 3:30.

The City of Salem baseball, softball and T-Ball sign-ups will be today  and again next Thursday and Friday, April 2nd and 3rd from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. A signup will also be held Saturday morning April 4th from 9:00 to noon. All the signups will be held in the lobby of the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. Children ages 4 through 13 as of August 1st are eligible to play and the cost is $20 per child. For more information, call 729-6290.

Giancarlo Stanton homered off Adam Wainwright and knocked in two runs as the Miami Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 in Grapefruit League action. Jason Heyward hit a solo home run off Alvarez, and Matt Holliday also drove in a run for St. Louis. Wainwright allowed four runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings. The Cardinals will play the Nationals today.

Ryan Jackson hit a two-run single as the Kansas City Royals topped the Seattle Mariners 3-0 in spring training action on Thursday. Jarrod Dyson drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and starter Jeremy Guthrie surrendered just two hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings. Greg Holland, Jason Frasor, Kelvin Herrera and Ryan Madson combined to pitch 3 1/3 perfect innings of relief for the Royals. The Royals will play Seattle again today.

The St. Louis Blues will play the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday night at the Scottrade Center at 7:00. You can hear the pre-game show on KSMO Radio starting at 6:30. The Blues now trail Nashville by one point for 1st place in the Central Division in the NHL. The Blues have played one less game than Nashville.

Obituaries   [TOP]