Region digest 06/18/03

Union Pacific donates historic railroad depot

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Union Pacific Railroad has donated the old Missouri-Pacific Depot building and the historic steps leading from the building to Main Street to a Poplar Bluff organization that plans to renovate it and put it to use.

Dennis Glaze, chairman of the Committee to Save and Restore the Historic Train Depot, showed the Poplar Bluff City Council Monday the 15-page donation agreement between the committee and UP making the donation official. The donation marks the end of two years of negotiations with Union Pacific.

Glaze said he is now seeking grants to renovate the building.

PB fire department gets homeland security grant

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- With a unanimous vote, the Poplar Bluff City Council made it possible for the city to be one of 29 in the state capable of responding to a biological or chemical attack.

Poplar Bluff fire chief Randy Hastings applied through the State Emergency Management Agency and learned a few days ago that SEMA approved his application, pending the council's formal acceptance on Monday.

The city will receive $85,000 a year for the next three years in federal money that requires no local match. The money will be used to buy equipment which SEMA has designated and Hastings said the fire department would routinely use.

Acceptance also qualifies the fire department for another $100,000 with no local match to expand emergency protection to the surrounding area.

-- From wire reports