POPLAR BLUFF COUNCIL HEARS VIEWS FROM SOS, VET WALL GROUPS

POPLAR BLUFF -- A representative of the Main Street Neighborhood Association came to the Poplar Bluff City Council meeting Tuesday with a top ten hit list, but it had nothing to do with music.

Ed Cannon, spokesman for the group which was originally organized under the name Save Our Streets and still calls itself SOS informally, gave the council a list of 10 properties in the Main Street area of highest concern to homeowners there. Cannon also praised the efforts of the Code Enforcement Department and asked the city to consider adding another person to that department.

"The city cannot afford decreasing property values, when there are new, expensive homes being built outside the city limits. That's slow economic strangulation," Cannon said.

"Code Enforcement needs more help, and we need teeth in the enforcement," he said.

Cannon mentioned two demolition projects going on on Main Street that had been delayed somewhat because the person taking the houses down had been hospitalized -- a delay SOS finds unacceptable.

The group recently drew up articles of incorporation, Cannon said, and can now have a bank account and apply for grants. Cannon said the SOS group also is on record as supporting the new international building code ordinance that the council plans to consider this fall.

Memorial wall discussed

Dennis Wisdom, chairman of the group to develop the Veterans' Memorial Wall at the Black River Coliseum, asked the council for its help in working with both the city and Butler County in getting pledged concrete work completed before the Nov. 11 dedication of the memorial.

"We've bought the granite," Wisdom said, "we've got names engraved, we've taken a lot of money from a lot of people who want to see something done. We're running out of time."

City Manager Tom Lawson said he and Street superintendent Gene Brannum would meet with the veterans' memorial group and try to come up with schedule and work with Butler County, which has also committed to work at the site.

"The problem is," Lawson said, "right now they're trying to complete some city projects that are very important at this time of the year. They have been wanting to get concrete work completed; I did not know there was a holdup."