Scroll Down for Sports, Weather and Obituaries! For State-Wide News, go to the MissouriNet! To read previous editions of Your World Today please visit our Archives Page.

The Dent County Commissioners met for their regular meeting at the Dent County Courthouse Thursday morning. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Dennis Purcell reported that grading would be done on Dent County Roads 5610, 5620 and 5680 and brush would be cut on Dent County Road 5400. A crew would also be doing ditch work and working on the back slopes of Dent County Road 6435. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson reported that grading would be done on Dent County Road 5240, 5245 and 5250 and brush would be cut on Dent County Road 2510. Commissioners Purcell and Larson both wanted to thank MODOT for lending the county their asphalt machine to repair chip and seal on Dent County Roads 3210 and 4210 and also wanted to thank Bill Baird of MODOT for helping crewmembers use the machine. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles and Commissioner Larson attended an Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District Council meeting on Tuesday in St. James. There it was reported that 94,000 pounds of electronics have been recycled so far this year throughout the district and there will be an electronics collection in Salem on Saturday, October 15^th. There is also $250,000 available in grant money for waste reduction and recycling efforts and anyone interested in a grant needs to have their request in by noon on September 2^nd.  For more information on grant requests call 573-265-2993 and ask for Tammy or Lucky. The council approved a request from DNR to provide $5,000 of funding to help rebuild playground equipment for Joplin schools. Commissioner Skiles then attended a meeting in Houston on Wednesday concerning Clean Line Energy. They reported that construction of a power line that will carry electricity from wind energy from Southwest Kansas to Southeast Missouri is expected to start in 2014. Preliminary work is being done now on trying to establish where to place the power line, and Commissioner Skiles wanted to point out that any land needed for the construction would be acquired through easements from the landowners. Public meetings concerning the power line will be held starting at the end of this year or the beginning of 2012. Dent County Emergency Management Director Brad Nash stopped by the meeting to inform the Commission that Brenda Gerlach of SEMA conducted the annual review of the counties Emergency Operation Plan and will be making a few changes concerning functional assistance and sheltering of citizens with special needs. Nash said that once all changes have been made he will bring it to the Commission to review and sign off on. The Commission reported that the CART Fund, which pays fuel tax and vehicle sales tax is up $2,377 from this time last year and they also approved the budgeted quarterly transfer of $9,750 from General Revenue to the Assessment Operation Fund. At the previous meeting Deputy Wayne Becker brought in the award of Contract for the Multi-Jurisdictional Cyber Crime Grant Program for Commissioner Skiles to sign.  The sheriff’s department was awarded $44,186 to fund the South Central Missouri Computer Crime Task Force.  The courthouse will be closed Monday in observance of Independence Day, therefore the Commission will meet again next Thursday at 9:00 and that meeting is open to the public. 

The Salem Board of Aldermen held a special meeting Thursday morning at the City Hall Council Chambers. The board approved the liquor license for Cozumel, and also gave probationary approval for Bigos provided that City Clerk received an e-mail from the state that the license had been mailed. If she did not receive the e-mail, no license was to be issued until she received the information. The board also approved the trailer court license for the Park Street Trailer Court before the bills were approved. The board then discussed the 2011-2012 budget that included $10,444,597 in proposed revenues and $10,400,362 in proposed expenses. Included in the budget was a new budget for a city administrator for $73,025 and the elimination of funds for the public works director. The budget included a number of capital improvements including the proposed purchase of a four-post lift for the maintenance department for $6,000, a new security system for $5,000 and Code Book Codification for $15,000 that are non-departmental, three tasers for the police department for $2,500, street paving for $150,000 and a new spreader box for $9,500 from the special street fund, a new light tower and generator for the electric department for $10,000, new runway lighting for the airport for $196,500 that is being funded by a grant, and two new tornado warning sirens for $24,000. The budget also includes a transfer of $200,000 into the electric reserve fund in case of an emergency from the electric fund. There was $35,000 removed from the budget for a sludge shelter as Engineer Bill Huffman will revisit that item to see what can be done. Alderman Randell saluted Public Works Director Bill Huffman, Mayor Brown, City Clerk Mary Happel and the finance committee for putting together a very workable budget as did Alderman Kenneth Nash. The board then approved the budget by a vote of 4-0.

Small communities on the Current River in Southern Missouri have pooled their resources and developed a regional tourism project that is promising to have a significant impact on tourism to the Current River region. Salem has joined six rural communities, ‘The Current River Country’, and is cooperating to market tourism.  Tourist business in Dent County will be featured on the Salem portion of the site.  The marketing plan is designed to send potential visitors to www.seecurrentriver.com, a comprehensive website with a regional event calendar, an informative blog, and a complete listing of hotels, restaurants, recreational activities, campgrounds, atm locations, grocery stores and more. The website includes community pages for West Plains, Salem, Eminence, Van Buren, Doniphan, and Poplar Bluff.  In addition to individual community videos, a 30 second commercial was produced and is being aired for the summer season in the St Louis, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, and Jonesboro markets.  The Chamber of Commerce applied to the Dent County Lodging Tax Board for resources to cover the cost of the site for the Salem area. 

Sports [TOP]

Lance Berkman hit two home runs, one from each side of the plate, and had three RBI as St. Louis took down Baltimore, 9-6, to complete a three-game interleague series sweep. Jaime Garcia (7-3) earned the win despite allowing five runs on 10 hits and a walk through 5 1/3 innings. Jon Jay added three hits, including a three-run homer, in the Cardinals' fourth win in seven games. Fernando Salas tossed a scoreless ninth to earn his 13th save of the year. The Cardinals begin a three game series in Tampa Bay tonight starting at 5:35 on KSMO Radio.

The Kansas City Royals had the day off and will face the Colorado Rockies this weekend.

The NBA joined the NFL and entered a lockout after another round of meetings with players failed to produce a new collective bargaining agreement. Issues the league and its players are having include disagreements over the salary cap, revenue sharing and guaranteed contracts. Talks between the league and players broke up on Thursday afternoon, hours before the current labor deal expired at midnight. The work stoppage began at 12:01 a.m. (et) on Friday and will last "until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached with the National Basketball Players Association," according to a release from the NBA.

Hours earlier, players association president Derek Fisher spoke to reporters and delivered the grim message everyone expected: that the NBA was planning to begin its first lockout since the 1998-99 season was shortened to 50 games because of labor strife.

Football camp will start Monday, July 11^th at Salem High School. Camp for grades 7 – 9 will be held July 11^th through July 15^th from 9:00 am to 11:15 am and will meet in the high school weight room each morning. Camp for Grades 10 – 12 will be held July 11^th through July 22^nd from 5:20 pm – 8:30 pm. Cost for each is $25.

Obituaries   [TOP]