News – Tuesday, April 7th, 2026

The Salem Memorial Hospital Board of Directors has called a special, executive session meeting this afternoon in the Doctor’s Library at the hospital. This meeting will not be open to the public. The minutes will likely be reviewed and approved during the open session of their regularly scheduled board meeting on the evening of April 25th, at 7:00, which is open to the public.

The Dent County Commission held its meeting Monday morning at the courthouse. First District Commissioner Keith Green reported that crew members are planning to grade county roads 5510 and 6500. Crew members will also be maintaining the backhoe. District Two Commissioner Jimmy Williams reported that crew members are planning to grade county roads 4290 and 4437. Crew members will also be hauling rock and grading the conservation area’s County Road 2530. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley reported that payroll will be approved. No excuse absentee voting continues at the courthouse today from 8:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon. Tomorrow, voters will have to go to their individual polling locations, and those locations will be open from 6:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening. If unsure of your voting location, call the Dent County Clerk’s office at 573-729-4144. If your polling location is the Green Forest R-II School Gym, it will not be an active polling site for this election. When voting, please remember to bring your photo ID. Curley reported that estimations for voter turnout for the April Municipal Election are between 10 – 13%. The next meeting of the commission will be Thursday morning at 9:00 in the courthouse, and the meeting is open to the public.  

According to a press release from the office of Christopher R. Pieper, a law firm in Missouri, the Salem Bowling Center has filed a Sunshine Law Lawsuit against the City of Salem on April 3rd, in the Circuit Court of Dent County. The petition alleges the city and three of its officials, including City Clerk Tammy Koller, City Administrator Sally Burbridge, and Mayor Greg Parker, knowingly and purposefully violated Missouri’s Sunshine Law by charging unauthorized fees and failing to produce records responsive to six public records requests related to the city’s utility billing practices. The records requests were part of Salem Bowling Center’s efforts to investigate alleged improper utility billing practices by the city, the subject of which has a pending investigation by the Missouri State Auditor. The petition further alleges the city’s Sunshine Law violations were deliberate in order to prevent the Salem Bowling Center from prosecuting its utility billing appeal by unlawfully preventing access to public records, and that the city responded to each records request with delay, incomplete production, and procedural non-compliance — repeatedly failing to provide the detailed explanations for delay required by law, refusing to produce records in the requested format, and assessing fees the Sunshine Law does not permit. Furthermore, the petition alleges the city sat on its own internal technical reports for months before disclosing them to the Bowling Center on the same day it denied the utility billing appeals, a move the petition characterizes as a deliberate effort to deny the Bowling Center any meaningful opportunity to respond. The seven-count petition seeks civil penalties of up to $5,000 per Sunshine Law violation, injunctive relief requiring the city to produce withheld records and refund unauthorized fees, and an award of attorneys’ fees and costs as authorized by Section 610.027, RSMo. The petition names the city, city clerk, city administrator, and mayor jointly and severally liable for the alleged violations. At the time of this publication, the City of Salem has not responded to a request for comment.