Local News – Thursday, May 12th, 2023
The Meramec Regional Community Foundation (MRCF) awarded the Council for a Healthy Dent County with a $500 grant for Project RISE. The checks were presented at MRCF’s March meeting at MRPC in St. James. This year, the MRCF board reviewed a total of 22 grant applications, requesting a total of $10,905 and representing projects in Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties. Council for a Healthy Dent County was one of three projects selected for funding. Project RISE (Reaching Independence through Support and Education) is a community support program that replicates the Northwest Project in Springfield. The goal is to provide the necessary tools and education to help families overcome the challenges that have kept them in poverty and begin building and sustaining a thriving lifestyle outside of poverty. This program is available to qualifying residents of Dent County and the funds will be going towards the continuation of administering the program. MRCF is an outgrowth of the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) and is an affiliate of Community Foundation of the Ozarks (CFO) in Springfield. The regional affiliate was formed in 2010. Its 12-member board includes representation from each of the eight Meramec counties and from MRPC. To keep up with the latest MRPC news and events, visit the MRPC website at www.meramecregion.org or on Facebook at meramecregion.
Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows that turkey hunters checked 33,355 birds during Missouri’s 2022 regular spring turkey season, April 18th through May 8th. Top regular season harvest counties were Franklin with 798 birds harvested, Callaway with 614, and Gasconade with 606. Harvest totals in the Salem area included Crawford with 447 birds harvested, Dent with 491, and Iron with 151. Other counties included are Maries with 557 birds taken, Phelps with 616, Shannon with 235, and Texas County harvest total was 648. Young turkey hunters also harvested 2,896 birds over the youth weekend, April 9th and 10th, bringing the overall 2022 spring turkey harvest to 36,251. Last year, young turkey hunters harvested 2,795 birds during the spring youth season and hunters harvested 31,800 birds during the regular spring season for a 2021 spring season total harvest of 34,595 turkeys. The 2022 spring turkey harvest was up about 5% from the 2021 spring turkey harvest but is still about 7 percent lower than the average spring turkey harvest during the last 5 years (2017-2021). MDC Turkey Biologist, Reina Tyl saith that our annual wild turkey brood survey indicates that, at the statewide level, hens have been producing one or fewer poults, on average, for the past 6 years. So, the cumulative effect of relatively poor production the last several years has been fewer turkeys and more challenging spring turkey hunting conditions. There were two self-inflicted firearm-related hunting incidents, one fatal and one non-fatal, reported to MDC during the 2022 spring turkey hunting seasons. There were no shooter-victim hunting incidents reported. Get more information on spring turkey harvest numbers at mdc.mo.gov.
The City of Salem will hold a Capital Improvement Committee meeting at the Salem Community Center @ The Armory on this evening at 6:00. They will review the fiscal year 2021-22 capital improvement projects before discussing the proposed new projects for the 2022-23 fiscal year. The meeting was called by Alderman Shawn Bolerjack, chairman of the Capital Improvement Committee.
Waste Corporation of America will be providing the annual residential spring cleanup for Salem residents this week and again May 16th through May 20th. They ask that residents have all trash curbside the night before your normal scheduled trash day. The Environmental Protection Agency will not allow the collection of the following materials that include yard waste, batteries, tires, motor oil, chemicals, or solvents or paint, appliances or non-compactable items such as concrete, tree stumps, steel, or construction debris. For more information or if more questions, you may call 1-800-926-3935.
The Salem R-80 Board of Education will be holding a special board meeting via Zoom this morning at 8:00. After approval of the agenda the board will accept resignations before adjourning and moving into closed session