News

The Dent County Commissioners held their regular meeting at the Dent County Courthouse Monday morning. At the meeting, Commissioner Bobby Simpson reported that material would be hauled to and spread on Dent County Road 637 and the rest of the District 1 road crew would be checking road signs through out the district. Simpson said that Monday's rain would allow routine grading to begin today. Commissioner J.J. Tune reported that the District 2 road crew is also checking road signs and catching up on routine maintenance. Dent County Clerk Janet Inman wanted to remind everyone that absentee voting would be lasting through Monday, November 6th. The next meeting of the Commissioners will be Thursday morning at 9:00 and the meeting is open to the public.

The City of Salem Board of Aldermen held their regular meeting at the city hall council chambers Monday evening. At the meeting, the board discussed the water problem that the Dent County Fall Festival Board has been encumbered with since because of a leak on their property that used over a million gallons of water. The bills will total about $12,000 once the bill from October goes out at the start of the next month. Alderman Jim McDaniels asked Water and Sewer Superintendetnt Jack Emery if he could calculate exactly what the cost was to the city for the water lost due to the leak. Emery said he could get a ballpark figure by the next meeting. The board moved to postpone any action on this until the next meeting in November. The board then voted on investigating a draft of the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan for the City of Salem. This issue was brought up at the last meeting by Alderman Bill Riley. It was defeated by a 3-1 vote with only Alderman Jim Jackson voting in favor of the measure. Prior to the regular Board of Aldermen meeting, the Salem Planning and Zoning Board met and discussed the closing of the dead end portion of Beezley Street wet of Phillips Avenue. They recommended allowingthe closing with restriction and the granmting of easements to the city for utilities. The board decided to re-address this issue at the December 4th board meeting after the city construction work in that area is completed so that no restrictions have to be made on the property. Alderman Bill Riley asked about the gate at the city park and Mayor Gary Brown said that it should be ready late this week or early next week. Alderman Jim McDaniels commenteed on the success of the community wide yard sale and the impact it had on local businesses at which time the City of Salem Ecomonic Development Director Sharon Tubbs said that next year the community wide yard sales will be held on the first Saturday in May and October. McDaniels also suggested that the installation of the roof at the police station be psotponed until next spring. The board agreed after Mayor Brown said that with the new front entry portion that the budget is way understated on supplies and labor. He said that bids could be let out in the spring for labor and materials and then work could start in the next budget year. McDaniels also asked about extending the city limits and City Attorney Mark Weaver suggested that if the city wants to do that, they should do a Municipal Initiated Annexation that will lead to a vote of the people it would affect. Mayor Brown said that Sunday he would be heading to the Community Betterment Awards banquet. H also said that MoDOT will doing some traffic surveys in the area and will eb working on the bridge on Highway 32-72 East by MFA between 2007 and 2012. He said that DNR found tat oxygen levels were down in Spring Creek, but not from pollution and the creek is OK. Tubbs then reported that the Enhanced Enterprise Zone application has been approved and they are waiting on the formal annoucement. The board approved Bill #3086 to rename Alberta Drive in the Monegan Heights Subdivision to Red Bud Lane, but they voted down Bill #3087 that would have allowed Corporate Cost Solutions, Inc. to come in and analyze the city's payroll, personnel records and insurance policies in order to find out if the city is paying too much in worker's compensation. The company would have been paid 50% of the savings while the city would have received credits for the overage. After appoving the bills, the board went into closed session.

The 2006 Football Homecoming Queen was crowned Friday night at the Salem and Mountain View-Liberty football game along with her court. The 2006 Homecoming Queen crowned was Andrea Ray, the daughter of James and Theresa Ray. The 2006 Homecoming Court consisted of seniors Jessica Braman, the daughter of Skip and Sun Braman; Erin Hamby,the daughter of Robin Hamby and Velma Johnson; sophomore Hannah Kettner, the daughter of David and Tana Kettner; and junior Megan Johnson, the daughter of Mike and Mitzi Johnson.

The Salem Lady Volleyball Tigers will face Houston tonight at the Salem High School Gym in SCA play. The JV action will start at 6:00 with the varsity contest to follow.

Sports   [TOP]

Game 5 of the National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals has been postponed due to rain. The game will be made up on tonight at Busch Stadium, beginning at 7:15 p.m. with the starting pitchers expected to remain the same. The Mets will send Tom Glavine to the hill against St. Louis' Jeff Weaver. This is the second postponement in the series. The start of the series was pushed back one day because of rain in New York. That eliminated the traditional travel day as the series shifted sites. This rainout will also eliminate a travel day with Game 6 taking place at Shea Stadium on Wednesday. The series is tied a two games apiece. You can hear the game on KSMO starting at 6:55 with the Dugout Show.

A Chicago newspaper reported on Monday that the Cubs and Lou Piniella have agreed on a three-year contract worth an estimated $9 million. The Cubs have scheduled a news conference for today to apparently make the announcement.

The St. Louis Blues will host Phoenix tonight. The Blues have won two games in a row.

NHL Scores:
NY Rangers 4, New Jersey 2
Nashville 2, NY Islanders 1
Chicago 5, Colorado 3
Vancouver 2, Edmonton 1
Detroit 3, Los Angeles 1
Carolina 5, Tampa Bay 1

Monday Night Football Score:
Chicago 24, Arizona 23

Obituaries   [TOP]

Funeral services for Norma Ruth Limbaugh of Viburnum, age 81, will be held Wednesday at 1:00 at the Wilson Funeral Home in Fredericktown, Missouri. Visitation will be held today from 6:00 to 8:00 at the Viburnum Freewill Baptist Church in Viburnum, and on Wednesday from 11:00 until service time at the Wilson Funeral Home in Fredericktown. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society. All arrangements are under the direction of the Wilson Mortuary in Salem.

Funeral arrangements for John V. Howie of Knowville, TN, age 68, are incomplete at this time, but are under the direction of the Wilson Mortuary of Salem.

Weather  [TOP]

Today..Cloudy with some thick fog this morning, high around 70.
Tonight..Partly cloudy, low of 58.
Wednesday..Partly sunny, high of 79.
Wednesday night..Cloudy with a 60% chance for showers and thunderstorms, low around 40.
Thursday..Partly cloudy, high of 56.
Thursday night..Partly cloudy, low of 38.