Around Southeast Missouri 1/23/07

City requests more input on skate park issue

Parents and children attended a Cassville city council meeting last week following up on an August presentation to the council for a skate park. Jim Morris of Monett, Mo., who has helped build other skateboarding ramps for parks, also attended the meeting at the request of those lobbying for a local skate park. He told the aldermen that he would be willing to build ramps without charging for labor if the city would buy the materials. "A very small skate park package would cost around $24,000," said Kenny Schieler, who oversees the city's park system.

-- Cassville Democrat

Exeter school board puts bond issue on ballot

The Exeter School Board voted on Jan. 10 to place a $1 million general obligation bond issue on the April ballot that would finance a portion of a district-wide building project. In October, Exeter hired Brandon Dake of Dake Wells Architecture to develop a master plan for a district building project. Dake worked with a committee of teachers, faculty members, administrators, students and parents to develop a building plan for additional classrooms, a larger cafeteria space and a multipurpose addition. The planning committee developed two design options, which were then combined into the master building plan that was presented to the board Wednesday.

-- Cassville Democrat

Myers details biodiesel expansion for BRPC

Dexter's biodiesel plant will soon have company in the Bootheel area. Former state Rep. Peter Myers told the Bootheel regional Planning Commission of progress at the Great River Soy Processing Cooperative in Lilbourn at Thursday's meeting at the commission headquarters in Dexter. "We will be getting a module like the one at Global Fuels delivered in mid-March," Myers said, "only larger." Myers, a consultant for the co-op, added the plant should be ready to produce an estimated 5 million gallons of biodiesel a year when completed in mid-April. Myers said the 5-million-gallon Lilbourn plant has an estimated cost of $4.7 million, to be borne partly by investors and partly through loans.

-- Dexter Daily Statesman

Shriners plan to raise club's local profile

Saline County Shriners intend to raise their profile through fund-raising for the Shriners Hospitals, club members said. In the late 1980s, the local Shriners organization was phased out. In September, Russ Cooksey, president, wrote to the Potentate in Kansas City to get their membership back. "We call it Saline County Shrine Club," Cooksey said of the revamped club. "We have around 30 members right now and we are going to keep growing." The local Shriners have several fund-raisers planned to help Shriners hospitals.

-- Marshall Democrat-News