BETTERMENT AWARD JUDGES TOURING CITIES

Several communities in Southeast Missouri can expect visits soon from a team making selections for the Missouri Community Betterment Awards.

Judges and escorts will tour the cities next week, hoping to spend an hour in each city or neighborhood looking at the quality of its community betterment efforts in the past year. Awards will be announced during an annual meeting Oct. 29-31 in Columbia, Mo.

Southeast Missouri communities that entered the competition are East Prairie, New Madrid, Charleston, Dexter, Malden, Perryville and Sikeston.

Each community competes in a category or neighborhood classification. The Missouri Community Betterment program is administered through the state's Department of Economic Development and offers recognition for development and accomplishments.

Judges will be evaluating the communities on their community betterment organization, community involvement, communication, leadership development, goals and planning, and their accomplishments.

Sherry Straube of Caruthersville, Mo., and Brent Robinson of Kennett, Mo., will both serve as judges. The judges do not visit communities in their part of the state but instead visit another area. Two judges are assigned to each category of entries.

More than 83 communities and neighborhoods were entered in the Missouri Community Betterment Award competition for 2000.

For information about the program, call (573) 751-4572.