Local News – Thursday, January 18th, 2024

The Salem Park and Recreation Board met Wednesday evening at the Salem Community Center@The Armory. After the agenda was approved, the board began a discussion on creating a “smoke free” community ordinance that would affect all city parks, city buildings as well as enclosed areas such as pavilions, playgrounds, recreational areas and common areas like parking lots. It would also cover special events such as parades where local sidewalks and driveways could also be affected. Madison Flores from the Salem R-80 High School spoke on the dangers of second hand smoke using statistics from the EPA and other agencies, and also related a personal experience where after participating in a sporting event, the second hand smoke she was exposed to was so bad she suffered tightness in her chest and had to use an inhaler. Also speaking to the board was James Combs from the Northwood R-4 JAG program who also talked about second hand smoke as well as the dangers of vaping and how dangerous the second hand emissions can be to children. City Administrator Sally Burbridge said the ordinance presented was based on a model ordinance provided by the Dent County Health Center, but the private property and business restrictions were removed as Burbridge said local businesses have done a very good job of self-regulating smoking with most of them eliminating smoking or vaping within their place of business without government intervention. The board discussed a number of possible scenarios and if an instance should escalate, the ordinance gives enforcement privileges to an event manager, code enforcement officer, city administrator or city police. It was also asked if the Park Board was voting to recommend the entire ordinance presented to aldermen which goes beyond the park board‘s responsibility. In actuality, they were only voting to recommend the city parks and playgrounds be smoke free to the aldermen, but they could use that to take the ordinance a step further to include the city buildings and other common areas if they so desire. The Park Board approved recommending the ordinance. The Park Board also approved amending the budget to add an additional $7,689 to allow the purchase of a 2022 Ford F-250 single cab long bed with a 48-month, 125,000 mile warranty from 44 Motorsports in Rolla. The money will come from the fund balance from the previous year in the Park and Recreation Fund of over $500,000. The truck will be used to pick up trash, move equipment and also hold the large water tank for the watering of the new trees. The new truck will replace the old Dodge truck. Park and Recreation Director Melissa Dubois gave her report and said for the year 2023, a total of 1,201 athlete participated in city league youth sports programs. The 2023-24 basketball program has 174 participants up from the 149 from last year. She also stated signups for the popular “Skills and Drills” football program are scheduled to end Friday. Those who want to sign up can go to the Salem Park and Recreation Facebook Page. She said with schools being out, fliers have not been able to get distributed as scheduled. The program will be held February 5th, 6th and 8th and will be run in collaboration with the 5th and 6th grade coaches. Soccer Registration will be held starting January 25th and the cost per athlete will be $35. She also discussed much needed work on the tennis courts. She met with Pro Track and Tennis who provided an option cost of $75,000 to remove the old paint and color coat the three courts, plus another $8,000 to fix large cracks, or instead the city could pay an additional $71,000 to repair all the cracks. Dubois also recommended that when the courts are done, they should also be striped for Pickleball. She said she would like to table the five-year plan that was to be discussed so that more information on the tennis courts could be collected. The board agreed to table discussing the plan. There was a discussion on continuing the “Light Up the Park” Christmas light display as only around ten businesses participated this year. Much of the suspected decline in business participation was due to vandalism and theft. It was decided to continue the program to see if it makes a rebound next Christmas. After reviewing the financials, the meeting was then adjourned.

Missouri’s 2023-2024 deer-hunting season ended January 15th with the Missouri Department of Conservation reporting a preliminary record-setting total deer harvest for the season of 326,026. This year’s new harvest record surpasses the one set in 2006 of 325,457. Of the deer harvested, 147,705 were antlered bucks, 29,060 were button bucks, and 149,261 were does. Top harvest counties for the overall deer season were Franklin with 7,395 and Howell with 6,346. Dent County reported 1,506 antlered bucks, 339 button bucks and 2,013 does were taken for a total harvest of 3,858. Totals from the surrounding counties include Texas with 2,543 antlered bucks, 510 button bucks and 3,128 does taken for a total of 6,181 deer harvested; Crawford County had 1,949 antlered bucks, 457 button bucks and 1,999 does taken for a total of 4,405 deer harvested; Shannon County finished with 1,527 antlered bucks, 358 button bucks and 2,256 does being taken for a total of 4,141 deer harvested; Reynolds County had 1,209 antlered bucks, 329 button bucks and 1,593 does taken for a total of 3,131 deer harvested; and Phelps County had 1,321 antlered bucks, 310 button bucks and 1,362 does taken for a total deer harvest of 2,993. Hunters harvested 299,719 deer during the 2022-2023 deer hunting season with 140,735 being antlered bucks, 27,028 being button bucks, and 131,956 being does.