Archive for 2021

The City of Salem and the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce will be holding another Business Christmas Window Decorating Contest with the winner being announced on the afternoon of December 13th. This is your chance to unleash your holiday decorating spirit to capture the grand prize of $250.00! The theme this year is “A Storybook Christmas.” To be a part of the contest you MUST call or e-mail the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce to be included on the judging form before Monday, December 8th. You should also indicate if your window will just be painted, will be lit with decorations, or will be a combination of both. All window decorations MUST be completed by the afternoon of December 10th as the judging will take place from December 10th through December 13th with the winner awarded the $250 check at 4:00 December 13th. The contest is open to all Salem businesses. For more information, call Tabitha at the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce at 729-6900 or e-mail her chamber@salemmo.com.

The Dent County Sheriff’s office has released several reports. On Sunday, November 21st, a deputy conducted a traffic stop on County Road 4170. As a result of the stop a 29-year-old Salem woman was arrested for driving while being intoxicated, driving while having her license suspended and two counts of Violation of an Adult Order of Protection. She was transported to the Dent County Jail, where she was issued a summons and incarcerated. That same day a deputy conducted a traffic stop on 5th Street. During the stop a 37-year-old Salem man was arrested for having an active warrant from Phelps County. A 29-year-old Salem woman was also arrested for the possession of a controlled substance. Both were transported to the Dent County Jail where the man was incarcerated on the warrant and the woman was placed on a 24-hour hold pending the application of a warrant. Finally, on Sunday the 27th, a deputy conducted a traffic stop on Route P. During the stop, a 22-year-old man from Jadwin was arrested for driving while having his license suspended, a 2nd Offense. He was transported to the Dent County Jail where he was fingerprinted, issued a summons, and released. If you have any information regarding an ongoing investigation, please contact the Dent County Sheriff’s Office at 729-3241.

The Salem Police Department issued a report on an accident with injuries. On the afternoon of Tuesday, November 23rd at 3:57, a white 2009 Chevrolet Traverse driven by Raylynn Nicholson of Salem, was stopped at the intersection of Highway 72 & Highway 32. The Chevrolet made a left turn onto Highway 32 eastbound and failed to yield to a tan 2002 Dodge Caravan driven by Cynthia Cannon of Salem. The Dodge collided into the driver’s side door of the Chevrolet. The driver and a front seat passenger of the Dodge were transported to the hospital by ambulance. Nicholson was transported to the hospital by a personal vehicle. The Chevrolet sustained moderate damage and the Dodge sustained extensive damage. They were both removed from the scene by Whitaker’s Towing.

The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas Parade of Lights will be held this Saturday at 5:30 in the evening. The parade will start at Franklin and Grand streets, head east on Franklin to MacArthur before traveling north to 4th Street, then progressing east to the courthouse square. The theme of the parade is “A Storybook Christmas.” The 2021 Grand Marshall is Jann Craig, and Sinks Pharmacy is our parade winner’s sponsor. They will be providing the commercial and non-commercial first place awards as well as horsemanship prize money. Get your entry in TODAY by stopping by the chamber office in the Crossroads Shopping Center located at 1136 South Main Street, by calling 729-6900 or by e-mailing chamber@salemmo.com. If you can’t make it to the parade, KSMO Media will be streaming the parade “live” on ksmoradio.com, on the KSMO Stream Facebook page, or on the KSMO YouTube Channel.

At their regular meeting Monday, the Dent County Commission was introduced to Kevin Crider with the University of Missouri Extension. Crider’s position is part of a three-year program between the Extension and Missouri Department of Conservation and is considered an outreach educator to help landowners minimize feral hog damage to their lands. Crider worked with the Missouri Conservation Department on trapping feral hogs before taking this position with the extension. He will be working with private landowners in Shannon, Dent, Reynolds and Crawford counties and may also offer assistance outside those counties if needed. Originally from Birch Tree in Shannon County, Crider worked at the Rocky Mountain State Park and as an officer with the Colorado Highway Patrol before recently moving back to the Ozarks. He also said a new feral hog trapper started Monday for the Missouri Department of Conservation and his name is Liam Ring. To get in touch with Crider, please call the Dent County Extension Office at 729-3196. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray reported materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 5170 and 6400 while only grading would be done on county roads 5450 and 6090. Mobray said brush would also be cut on county road 5170. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson indicated materials would be added and grading done on county road 3330 while only grading would be done on county roads 3340, 3350, 4400, 4403, 4480 and 5260. He stated materials would also be added to county road 2640 as a new driveway pipe was being installed on that road for a landowner. Larson reported brush would be cut on Dent County Road 4030 and the road crews would be replacing two stop signs. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles stated that all the commissioners and the county clerk attended the Missouri Association of Counties annual meeting as well as the CCAM annual meeting last Monday. Skiles said he and Commissioner Larson would be attending the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District Annual meeting in St. James today. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said she would be attending a South Central County Clerk’s Regional Meeting today at West Plains. She reported she is working on the 2022 county budget and that she balanced with the treasurer on all monthly accounts for October. Curley also gave the CART Fund receipt report for the treasurer who was not in attendance. She presented the revenues received from the state in November were $60,352.27 which is $4,976.46 more than the $55,375.81 received in 2020. Year-to-date, the CART fund is up over $53,000 which is about an 8.7% increase. The commissioners decided the budget hearing for the 2021 budget would be Thursday, January 27th at 10:00 at the courthouse and the proposed budget will be available in the county clerk’s office by January 18th. Bonnie Prigge and Anne Freand from the MRPC along were in attendance while MoDOT Engineer Preston Kramer was on speakerphone to discuss with the commission the road priorities for Dent County for 2022. Removed from the previous list were the improvements made to the shoulders of Highway 68 and the replacement of the bridge on Route FF over Norman Creek. After discussing all the needy improvements, the commission made the need for the bridge on Route TT over Crooked Creek near Sligo their #1 priority followed by the Bridge on Highway 32 over Huzzah in Boss. The 3rd priority was the addition of shoulders on Route B as that road is used by city trucks and county trucks to get gravel from the quarry and it is extremely narrow. The 4th priority was the intersection of Roosevelt and Highway 19 where the site distance is limited. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Monday, December 6th at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting will be open to the public.

Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation shows that young hunters ages six through fifteen harvested 3,477 deer during Missouri’s late youth portion of the 2021 deer hunting season, November 26th through the 28th. Of the 3,477 deer harvested, 1,470 were antlered bucks, 383 were button bucks, and 1,624 were does. Top counties for the late youth portion were Osage with 86 deer harvested, Franklin with 82, and Miller with 68. Top counties in our area were, Dent County with 61 deer harvested, Texas had 64 deer harvested, Phelps County youth checked 38 deer, Shannon County saw 22 taken, followed by Iron County with 11. Last year’s harvest total for the late youth portion was 3,967 with 1,467 being antlered bucks, 524 button bucks, and 1,976 does. Archery deer season continues through January 15th. The antlerless portion of firearms deer season runs December. 4th through the 12th, followed by the alternative methods portion December 25th through January 4th. Find more information on deer hunting from MDC’s 2021 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where permits are sold, and online at mdc.mo.gov.