This Saturday will be the Community Wide Yard Sale in Salem as yard sales will be occurring all over town and out in the county. Maps for the location of local yard sales are available at the Salem Chamber of Commerce in the Crossroads. A central sale location will be held at the city administration building on Saturday. You can still reserve a space on the city parking lot at 4th and Iron Street for $8.00 per space by calling 729-4811. Those spaces are reserved on a first come, first serve basis. Don’t forget that the following two weeks in the City of Salem is the semi-annual GFL Residential Spring Clean-Up Weeks. This is for Salem residents only and is done on your normal trash day from May 6th through the 10th and again May 13th through the 17th Remember, tires, appliances, yard waste, car batteries, oil, chemicals, solvents and paint as well as non-compactable items like concrete, tree stumps, steel, etc. cannot be picked up. If anyone has questions about what can be or cannot be picked up, they are welcome to contact GFL at 1-800-926-3953 of 1-417-741-7714.

The Secure Rural Schools program is another way that the USDA Forest Service provides benefits to communities in and around the Forest. The program provides critical funding for schools, roads, and other municipal services to more than 700 counties across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Twenty-seven counties across Missouri received funding through the “Secure Rural Schools Act.” This comes from a portion of Forest Service funds generated through multi-use activities such as grazing, timber production, and special use permits being distributed back to the counties where these activities occur; and for Missouri, that translates to those that serve as the home of Mark Twain National Forest. This year’s programs payments, made up of funds from 2023, were distributed to states this April. The counties decide how they will utilize the payments, starting with what percentage they want for different categories, known as Title 1 for road and schools; Title 2 for projects on federal land; and Title 3 for county projects. Dent County got $150,403.00, Iron County gets $195,692.15, Reynolds County gets $190,129.19, Shannon County got $181,553.60, and $132,771.75 goes to Texas County. The 2023 program funds going to Missouri total over $2.6 million. Most of the funding by each county usually is selected to go to Title 1 funding, which does great work for the school systems and roadways in our forest communities. Although only a few Missouri counties have contributed to Title 2 funds over the past several years, a community-driven Resource Advisory Committee will meet later this year to discuss where to allocate those funds for projects on federal land. Some counties decide to utilize some of the money for Title 3 to increase their fire readiness; and the Forest Service is always excited to find ways to support and partner with counties and communities that are performing wildfire reduction activities. So, the next time you hear about a Title 1 school program or drive down a freshly paved road in a community near Mark Twain National Forest, you can think about how the Secure Rural Schools program benefits the communities that it serves.

A West Plains man was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday, April 29th, for illegally harvesting and stealing trees from Mark Twain National Forest. Justin Lee Massey was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to serve two years and six months in federal prison without parole. The court ordered the federal sentence to be served consecutively to the unrelated state criminal convictions for which Massey is currently incarcerated. The court also ordered Massey to pay $30,000 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service, and to forfeit to the government $30,000, which represents the proceeds of his theft. On July 19th, 2023, Massey pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government property. Massey admitted that he illegally cut down trees in Mark Twain National Forest, in the area of Howell County Road 5120 between December 15th, 2020, and January 20th, 2021. According to his plea agreement, Massey cut down at least 10 trees. The trees were removed from the area and taken to a local sawmill, where they were sold. Based on the value of the trees illegally harvested and stolen from Mark Twain National Forest and those trees damaged due to the illegal harvesting, the total restitution is $30,000. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the U.S. Forest Service.

This Saturday at the Ozark Natural and Cultural Resource Center on Highway 19 will be the final day for the exhibit called “Crossroads: Change in Rural America.” If you haven’t yet attended this incredible display, time is running out. The “Crossroads” exhibit is part of the “Museum on Main Street,” a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.