Local News – Wednesday, November 4th, 2020
A General Election was held Tuesday nationally to determine a number of state and national offices as well as number of county offices. In Dent County, 7,224 ballots were cast which comes to 73.27% of registered voters cast their ballot. Only the locally contested races directly affecting Dent County are presented here. These results are unofficial. * Denotes winner
Dent County Commissioner-District One
Wes Mobray* (Repub) 2,416 votes
Larry Lundy (Dem) 1,056 votes
Dent County Commissioner-District Two
Gary Larson* (Repub) 2,596 votes
Tom Welch (Dem) 740 votes
Kourt Gustav Tiefenthaler (Lib) 140 votes
US Representative District 8
(All counties reported)
Jason Smith* (Repub) 253,646 votes
Kathy Ellis (Dem) 70,504 votes
Tom Schmitz (Lib) 5,846 votes
The City of Salem Board of Aldermen met in the Bank of Salem Courtesy Room Monday night. Teresa Stark of 1203 South Washington says her neighbor has two big dogs, a pit bull and lab and she is afraid they will get into her yard and hurt her smaller dog. She also said that the tenant of the house constantly burns when winds are high and the flames occasionally climb higher than the home. He also has a disabled camper in his yard. Police Chief Joe Chase said he addressed the issues with the owner of the property and now has met with the tenant about violation of city ordinances. He has five business days to show he is trying to address the violations. Samara Dozier of 1506 South Main asked the Board of Aldermen to provide her with a written permit for her mini pigs. She said she has four mini pigs for now and she has two large dogs. City Ordinances prohibit swine in the city unless the Alderman gave her permission to have the pigs. The board postponed any decision on this until they can investigate this further and get a legal opinion. The board approved the bid from Municipal Equipment Company out of St. Louis for $27,810 for a grinder pump station equipment package for the Highway 72 and Route J Sewer Project. Mary Happel reported on the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting held October 20th and said they recommended the approval of the subdivision of part of the Master’s Industrial Park with Tract A being 2.9 acres, Tract B being five acres and Tract C being 25 acres. They also discussed the subdivision of the lots of 712 North Hickory and 713 North Oak and the movement of the property line. That issue was sent to the Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment for their recommendation. Administrator Ray Walden gave his report and said the on-going renovation work at the City Administrative Building was delayed a couple of weeks waiting on materials. The renovation should be completed by November 16th. Walden said a video was posted to the City of Salem Facebook page on Friday that explained the AMI system, the utility billing and also gave an update on the city hall auditorium improvements. Walden said he is going to get with Everything Cinema to try to get the theatre project completed. Public Works Director Mark Nash said the city replaced 44 water meters and those bills will be out no later than today day. Nash said electric meters from 911-1027 cannot be read by Incode and they need to be updated with a new download from Incode. This can’t be done until after the billing cycle is complete. Walden also said the city offices would be closed on Wednesday, November 11th. The board then approved Bill #3465 that allowed for the subdivision of the Masters Industrial Park as recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The meeting was then adjourned.
Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation shows that young hunters ages 6 through 15 harvested 15,591 deer during Missouri’s early youth portion of the 2020 deer hunting season on October 31st and November 1st. Top counties were Franklin with youth hunters harvesting 336 deer, Howell with 324, and Osage with 320. Locally, Texas County harvested 277 deer, Reynolds County had 227 deer taken, Dent County had 224 deer harvested, Shannon County had 201 deer taken, Crawford County had 162 deer harvested while Iron County had 102 deer taken. Last year, youth hunters harvested 18,289 deer during the early youth portion. The firearm portion of deer season will begin on November 13th and run through November 25th.
Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation shows that hunters checked 2,127 turkeys during Missouri’s fall firearms turkey season, October 1st through the 31st. Top harvest counties were Greene with 70 birds harvested, Maries with 58, and Franklin with 55. Dent County had 42 birds taken. Other counties in our area include Crawford with 44, 33 in Phelps, and 45 in Texas county. Hunters harvested 1,953 birds during the 2019 fall firearms turkey season. Fall archery turkey hunting continues through November 13th and resumes November 25th through January 15th, 2021. Get more information about fall turkey hunting from MDC’s 2020 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where hunting permits are sold and online at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov.