Archive for 2023

The Phelps County Sheriff’s Department has formally charged 19-year old Samuel Ralph James Karlinski of St. James, with second-degree murder and armed criminal action felonies for the Monday, February 6th shooting death of his father at a residence near St. James. According to the Phelps County Sheriff’s Office, they received a 911 call at Monday morning at 8:51 about a shooting at a residence near St. James. Upon arriving at the scene, deputies found Ralph Leon Karlinski Jr. was dead from apparent gunshot wounds. According to court documents, the person who contacted the police reported that Samuel Karlinski had shot his father three times with a .22-caliber pistol. After a subsequent investigation by the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department, Samuel Karlinski was arrested and taken to the Phelps County Jail and held without bond. Samuel Karlinski in the probable cause statement indicated he shot his father twice in the chest and once in the head in self-defense, but during the investigation, Samuel Karlinski showed no signs of injuries.

The City of Salem Utility Committee met Wednesday night at the Salem Community Center@The Armory. City Administrator Sally Burbridge explained to the committee and crowd about the city budget and the 34 funds the city has. She said many of the funds are encumbered such as the Cemetery Endowment Fund and the Landfill Fund that can only be used for explicit purposes, not general purposes. Funds in those accounts cannot be used by the city for any reason except for the purpose they were initially set up for. So when people see the balance sheet the city has to publish every six-months in the newspaper, people think they have funds available at their disposal which simply is not true. She went on to say each city utility has three funds: one for operations, one for the replacement of vehicles and equipment, and the third for infrastructure upgrades or replacements. From there she discussed why the city is looking to pass a 1% General Revenue Sales tax in April. The General Revenue Fund is responsible for the Salem Police Department with 39% of its funds going there, with 25% allocated for administration and another 24% for public works. Ten percent of the General Revenue Funds are transferred to other funds like Fireworks, Cemetery, Economic Development and more. Currently, the 1% sales tax in the city does not generate enough money to totally provide for those funds, so the General Revenue Fund gets transfers from the Electric, Water and Sewer funds to keep it in the black. Burbridge said the last two years, the city has used their ARPA Funds of $500,000 each year to pay the shortfall in General Revenue, but those monies are now gone. The current fiscal year budget shows the general revenue fund without transfers on June 30th could end up 1.4 million dollars in the red. Even with transfers in from the other departments, the city will still end up about $491,000 short which could mean the trimming back or elimination of some services. Should the public pass the sales tax, revenues would increase by almost $1.25 million dollars that would take the pressure off having to make the transfers and help to stabilize the utility funds by being able to bolster their reserves. She also said there will be a sewer bond question in April on whether the city should issue revenue bonds to finance 4.6 million dollars for federally mandated improvements to the sewer system that would have to paid for directly by sewer system rates. If the measure passes, the city may be able to reduce the amount financed to $1.8 million by using a State Revolving Fund grant and CDBG grant. Either way, sewer rates will go up, but if the issue doesn’t pass, residents may be paying $14 to $15 more per month versus $3 to $6 by passing the bond issue. The election will be on April 4th. After reviewing the city financials, Burbridge talked about the Exceleron Pre-Pay System and it is not working yet. They can’t get the accounts to reconcile correctly. Burbridge talked about payment assistance programs with the use of the pre-pay system as Exceleron says they have a solution, but the city hasn’t seen that yet. The committee opted not to recommend using the Moneygram Service to pay on the pre-pay service as it could end up costing the city money. The committee agreed to keep the Winter Weather Rule in effect where if the temperature falls below 32 degrees as predicted by the National Weather Service in Springfield, disconnects will not be done. This rule would NOT apply to pre-pay customers once it goes on line and there was some discussion on that by the committee with no definitive answer being derived. The committee made no decision on allowing accounts currently on a payback contract with the city to switch to pre-pay when it become available, and the committee would need more clarification on automatically converting accounts to prepay after a specified number of disconnects. They will look for legal guidance on that before making any final decision. Public Works Director Mark Nash gave his report on the electric line loss to the committee but said he didn’t believe the figures were accurate and wanted to check them again before giving actual numbers. He said he would be checking out the numbers on the electric again and then do some hard investigating if the results don’t change much. He did say the water loss figures went from 38% to 8.32% in the city with the new leak detector the city has. Anything under ten percent loss from water lines is excellent. Committee member John Hambacker talked about meter size fees and how, in some cases, multiple units are on the same meter where the city loses out on the meter fees. A motion was made for the staff to report on looking into meter charges based on the size of the meter and any associated fees for discussion at the next meeting. The meeting was then adjourned.

During the week of January 21st to January 27th, there was a total of 113 calls to the Salem Police Department for service. Police officers conducted 11 traffic stops for various traffic violations with two resulting in a summons or arrest. There were no traffic accident investigations, but there were three informational reports. From the calls for service and traffic stops, a numer of reports were generated. On Sunday, January 22nd, at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon, officers contacted a male subject who had warrants out of the City of Salem for not appearing in court on the charge of property damage. As a result 62-year-old Calvin Fears of Salem, was arrested and incarcerated at the Dent County Jail. That same night at approximately 11:30, officers were dispatched to the areas of Second and Hickory Streets for a report of burglary. It was reported the residents were away from home when someone broke in and stole approximately $2,200 worth of items from the home. This incident is still under investigation as some of the items have been located. Then on Monday, January 23rd, near 3:00 in the afternoon, officers contacted a woman who had warrants out of the City of Salem for not appearing in court on the charge of shoplifting. As a result 26-year old Tamera Halbrook of Salem, was arrested and incarcerated at the Dent County Jail. On Thursday afternoon, January 26th around 12:30, officers contacted a male subject who had active warrants out of Dent County for failing to appear on a driving while having their license suspended charge. As a result 72-year-old Emanuel Moore of Salem, was arrested and incarcerated at the Dent County Jail. That same night around 11:00, officers contacted a female subject during a burglary investigation who had active warrants for her arrest out of Dent County. As a result, 24-year old Phylicia Tinker of Salem, was arrested and incarcerated at the Dent County Jail. Please contact the Salem Police Department at (573) 729-4242 if you have any information regarding any ongoing investigation.

Project RISE is a program that will help teach individuals to reach financial independence through support and education. This program, sponsored by Healthy Dent County, will help families reach personal and financial goals through employment and career development, time management, goal setting, relationship building, money management and community involvement. The objectives of Project RISE are to increase support systems, resources and community connections as well as providing education that will allow families to develop tools that can improve their financial health and empowerment. While enrolled, families can earn gift cards and other financial incentives, plus meals and childcare are provided during the meetings. The program is 16 weeks long and only 4-7 families will be selected. Families will meet weekly during the evening hours to focus on succeeding in life. Ms. Lacey Walker, Administrative Professional with Healthy Dent County, will serve as the coordinator for this program. To make this project a success, Healthy Dent County will work with social service agencies, churches, health care and employment specialists and community leaders. The wealth of knowledge from these professionals will be invaluable to improving the lives of these families for generations to come.Applications are available at the Salem Community Center@The Armory office. For more information on Project RISE or to determine a family’s eligibility, please contact Lacey Walker at 729-8163 or e-mail her at lacey@salemcommunitycenter.org.

The City of Salem’s Utility Committee will hold a meeting this evening at 6:15 at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. Items on the agenda to be discussed include City Budget 101, Sales Tax Presentation, Utility Financials, a complete breakdown of the Exceleron Pre-Pay System, Updates on Water and Electric Loss, and Per Unit or Meter Size fees. The meeting of the City of Salem’s Utility Committee tonight is open to the public and was called by Committee Chair Kyle Williams.