Local News – Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018
The Salem Board of Aldermen met Tuesday night at the city hall council chambers with Alderman Shelton attending via video. After approval of the consent agenda, City Administrator Ray Walden reported that the city has removed the recycling bins that were located at the Salem Upper Elementary School since the City residents now have curbside recycling service. The city is still looking for a local source to continue the recycling program for county residents. Walden noted that future utility bills will list the recycling dates for the east and west side. Walden reported that he would like to include any CDL license requirement into the appropriate job descriptions and not have it included in the differential pay schedule. He will bring proposed position descriptions at a future meeting. The next alderman meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 16 and city offices will be closed because of the MLK holiday. Walden recommended and the board approved moving the February 5th Alderman meeting to the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. This meeting will immediately follow a public meeting that is being held with the Drury Visioning project. The board approved Bill No. 3356, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to executive a memorandum of agreement between the city and the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. They also approved Bill No. 3357, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement between the city and the Salem High School 2018 Project Graduation. The board also approved a payment of $5,000 to the Chamber. The board then adjourned.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports that there were seven fatalities during the New Year’s holiday counting period from 6:00 Friday evening, December 29th until 11:59 Monday night, January 1st. Troopers investigated 229 traffic crashes, which included 77 injuries and five of the seven fatalities. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and Sullivan Police Department each investigated one traffic crash fatality during the counting period. In addition, troopers made 129 arrests for driving while intoxicated and 49 drug arrests during the 2018 New Year counting period. There were no boating crashes or drownings during the 2018 New Year’s holiday counting period. There were no fatalities in the Troop I area. Last year over the New Year’s holiday counting period, Missouri law enforcement agencies reported 539 traffic crashes, which injured 302 people. There were eight fatalities during the 2017 New Year’s holiday counting period. In addition, troopers made 103 arrests for driving while intoxicated and 67 drug arrests. There were no boating incidents or drownings during the 2017 New Year’s holiday counting period.
If you have a need for infant and toddler size gloves, mittens, hats, and children’s blankets during this bitterly cold weather, feel free to stop by the Dent County Health Center at the corner of Franklin and McArthur. The health center will have available a “Warming Tree” loaded with those items in their foyer and they are free to those who need them to stay warm. The tree will stay up through February. If you would like to help restock the items people have already taken from the tree, you can donate gloves, mittens, all sizes of hats and children’s blankets to the “Warming Tree.” For more information about the “Warming Tree” or about donating items to the “Warming Tree” at the Dent County Health Center, feel free to call them at 729-3106 or stop by Dent County Health Center at 601 S. McArthur.
Healthy Dent County is unrolling its first ever Dent County Youth Community Calendar. This calendar will consist of events and programs that are designed for children 18 years of age and younger in the Salem area. There will be a physical calendar released to the community and the schools every four months. In addition there will also be an online calendar. The online calendar will be continually be updated as events and programs get added throughout the year. All you have to do is visit this website: dentcountyyouthcalendar.org. If you would like more information about adding events and/or programs to the Dent County Youth Community Calendar, please contact Kelsey Schatz at kelsey@salemcommunitycenter.org or call 729-8163.