Region briefs 5/16

City of Miner owes large sum of money to feds

MINER, Mo. -- As if falling tax revenues aren't putting enough strain on the city of Miner budget, now city officials have received word from the Justice Department that the city owes $51,247.19.

"We need to figure out how we're going to pay them," said Mayor Frank Tatum during this week's meeting of the board of aldermen.

City officials said filing for the COPS funds continued to be processed after the city backed out of the COPS grant program resulting in an overdrawn account.

Bluff man turns down probation, gets 10 years

IRONTON, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff man who turned down an offer of probation on a drug possession charge is headed to prison.

After reviewing a presentence investigation, Circuit Judge J. Max Price sentenced Billy Lynn Blocker, 41, of Poplar Bluff to 10 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, said a court official.

Blocker was convicted in February of felony possession of diazepam by an Iron County jury on a change of venue from Wayne County. The charge stemmed from an Aug. 25, 1999, traffic stop north of Greenville, Mo., on U.S. 67.

Disaster-recovery center set up in Ellsinore

ELLSINORE, Mo. -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up a disaster-recovery center in Ellsinore.

The center was established for those affected by the April tornadoes and storms that prompted a federal disaster declaration on May 6. Another center has been set up in Marble Hill. The center will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 6 Mineral Drive at the Old Health Care Center.

Death sought for man in killing of his wife

SALEM, Mo. -- A notice to seek the death penalty was filed this week in Dent County Circuit Court against Ronald Joe Nunnery, 45, of Patterson, Mo., charged with killing his first wife. Nunnery is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife, Marcia Anne Nunnery in August 2000.

-- From Southeast Missouri News Service reports