 The possibility
of the city of Holden once again having a local municipal court
was a topic of discussion at the regularly scheduled meeting
of the Holden City Council, held Tuesday night at City Hall.
The subject was brought up by councilwoman Brenda Stumpff reporting
on a visit she had made to Holden’s November
municipal court day at the Johnson County Courthouse. “It
was a joke,” Stumpff exclaimed. “I was only
there a half day, and 159 out of 162 cases were continued. If
you average that out over a month’s time at approximately
$25 per fine, we’re losing $10,000 a month.”
The councilwoman continued, “How will our citizens ever
respect our police, if they know the municipal judge won’t
do anything. Let’s get serious and get our money
back.”
She related about one case where Holden had given numerous citations
to a resident for junk violations. The city has been dealing
with the case since May. “The judge dismissed
all but one of the counts and fined the individual $25.”
Johnson County has been handling Holden municipal cases since
the late 1970s. They receive $37.50 court costs per case.
Holden police chief Ed Bone voiced his approval of a Holden-run
and located municipal court. “I’m in favor
of having the court in Holden,” Chief Bone said. “I
believe it will be in the best interests of the city in the long
run.”
He also shared that the city of Sedalia hires a municipal judge,
who is an attorney, to preside over their court for a fee. “They
have a night court, and it works very effectively.”
Councilman Brent Brown stated that an added benefit of the city
having its own court was that if an officer needed to testify,
he would physically located in Holden. “In case of a police
emergency, the officer would be here and could leave and take
care of the situation.”
Holden mayor Terry Hedglin turned the matter over to the police
committee to investigate the possibilities of moving the court
back to Holden. He instructed them to give their recommendations
to the council next month.
By Steve Sullins
Editor
Through rain,
sleet, or snow, the mail continues and although the holidays
bring added packages, this does not deter the local men and women
in blue from delivering Christmas presents to local residents. And
parcels, cards and letters have increased this holiday season
from last year, according to Holden Postmaster Phil Bresette.
“The revenue is up from last year and the parcels seem
larger this year. There
also seems to be a lot more packages being ordered from the internet,” he
said.
The last day to mail a letter or package shipped with a guarantee
it will be delivered by Christmas is Thursday, December 22.
“Then it would have to be sent by express mail which costs
$13.65 up to one pound; then the rates increase based on the
number of pounds in the package,” Bresette added.
The post office will deliver express mail on Christmas Day--
their premium service--although they don’t usually have
a lot of deliveries for that day, according to Bresette.
When asked if there are a lot of last minute mailers Bresette
said, “Not really. Business has been pretty brisk
the past couple of weeks with a lot of mail going to the military. The
cut-off date for priority mail was December 16. This gives
the packages a good chance of being there by Christmas.”
Bresette added that holiday retail advertising magazines and
catalogues have dropped off over the past 10 days.
“This gives us a chance to focus on the Christmas mailings. The
advertising will pick up again around the 27th of December, along with all
the New Year’s mailings, including tax forms and sweepstakes mailings,” Bresette
said.
The post office attempts to keep all the windows staffed at their
branch office during this busy time. And as for added
work for the carriers, the rural carriers sometimes have problems
with the parcels being too large and they sometimes have to make
more than one trip to get them all delivered, Bresette said
The most common mistakes postal customers make this time of year,
he says, is incorrect information on addresses, zip codes and
omitting a return address.
“They also try to mail a package that is too big, which
would be any package weighing over 70 pounds or 108 inches in
total girth,” said
Bresette.
Other problems, he added, were contents not properly packaged
or tape used incorrectly. Surprisingly, most people don’t
choose to insure their packages although the insurance is only
$1.30 for up to $50, or $2.20 for up to $100.
Extra hours aren’t usually a problem for carriers because
of the holiday season. According to Bresette, snow and
ice cause more problems for them and sometimes increase the hours
needed to complete their deliveries.
“In this last snowstorm, we only missed three or four deliveries
and that was due to the mailboxes being knocked down by snowplows. We
do all we can and make every attempt to get the mail delivered,” he
added.
Bresette also added, “the mail carriers and postal employees
feel fulfilled and appreciated when they can help their customers
in mailing safely at the right price and get the mail there in
the allotted time.”
By Dana Neubert
News Staff
The Kingsville
School Board voted to withdraw from the Golden Valley Vernon County
Conference at last Monday’s regular
board meeting.
According to superintendent Kevin Coleman, Kingsville joined
the conference two years ago but found many of the towns involved
in the conference were a great distance away from Kingsville. Sheldon,
Walker, Hume and other northeast Vernon County schools were in
the conference and it was just too far for Kingsville to travel.
“Right now we are working with the schools from Leeton, Chilhowee, and
Calhoun to see about inviting some other schools in closer proximity to start
a new conference. We don’t know yet what the name of the conference
will be, we’re just in the preliminary stages,” added Coleman.
Athletic director Mike Bodenhamer said the biggest problem with
the conference is the distance and the economy with the price
of gas.
“There is one school we travel to that is 132 miles from Kingsville;
that’s just too far for the kids and we don’t get very good
fan support when we play that far from home,” he added.
There are three other schools in the conference that are south
of Nevada, Missouri, and again that’s just too far to travel,
Bodenhamer said.
He also said there is still no decision what conference Kingsville
will be in or if they will start a new one; they have been talking
to other schools in similar situations to see what can be worked
out.
In open forum, several FFA students gave a report on their trip
to the FFA convention held in Kentucky earlier this year. Those
students giving a presentation were Tyler Davis, John Rogers,
Chris Hawley and Bryce Simms. Part of the FFA experience
is to give the students an opportunity to work on their public
speaking, which they did at the board meeting.
In new business, Cindy Wade gave a presentation to the board
on the guidance report. She provided updates on her
work with the elementary students and shared information about
scholarships for seniors. She spoke about the MAP testing
which is coming up next semester and basically gave general informational
status on the guidance program.
In other new business, Coleman gave the board the new policy
updates. These will be reviewed by the board and discussed
or adopted at the next meeting.
Coleman also informed the board of the Missouri Association Rural
Education (MARE) Conference to be held February 24-25 at
Port Arrowhead in Osage Beach, Missouri. Kingsville is
a member of the MARE.
In other business, Ms. Lorna Warren and Mr. John Griffith gave
the principal reports on attendance stating it was above 95 percent
in both the elementary and high school. Upcoming events
are semester finals which will be given this week.
After regular business was concluded, the board voted to go into
executive session to discuss mid-year evaluation of teachers. No
action was taken on this matter.
The meeting was closed to reopen on January 11, 2006 at 7 p.m.
By Dana Neubert
News Staff
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Holden
resident April Strate was honored by the Johnson County Ambulance
District director Earl Neal for her life-saving efforts on behalf
of Marion Noland.
She received the recognition and plaque from Neal at the regularly
scheduled meeting of the Holden City Council held Tuesday night
at City Hall.
Early last month, Noland was found unconscious at the Country Cosmetology
Beauty Shop. Strate, who works close by at Strate’s
Drive-Inn heard of the situation and ran to the shop to render
aid.
She found that Noland did not have a pulse and had stopped breathing. She
began performing CPR after which the paramedics who had arrived
detected a pulse. Shortly after that, Noland started breathing
and regained consciousness. She was then life-flighted to
St. Joseph’s Hospital in Kansas City where she was stabilized.
Neal lauded Strate for her quick action in the life-saving effort.
During the council meeting, the members passed two resolutions,
one which would put the city in compliance with the FEMA-mandated
National Incident Management System (NIMS) policy. NIMS provides
for emergency management training for all levels of government
workers. The mayor and council members would receive four
hours of training, while fire chiefs would be trained a total of
24 hours.
The other resolution gave the mayor the authority to sign a change
order in the contract with Cherokee Construction Company for work
to be done at the City Hall to make the building fully handicapped
accessible.
Cherokee said that because of the hurricanes this year, construction
costs had risen. They in turn had to raise costs of their
work by 10 percent. After the resolution passed, Mayor Terry
Hedglin said he would sign the contract to lock in the present
construction price before he left that night.
Bob Corbin, Sr., of 501 E. 10th, came before the council about
tickets he had received for weeds in the ditches of his property,
which is at the corner of Clay Street and Highway 58. He
stated that the ditches were very steep and he didn’t want
anyone hurt trying to weed-eat them. He also explained that
he didn’t want to spray because children walk to and from
school in them.
Corbin stated that if the city would take down the banks he would
take care of the weeds. He also said that he would give land
on Clay Street to the city if they would widen the ditches so they
could be maintained safely. The matter was referred to the
street committee for further review.
Councilman Brent Brown reported that the Board of Public Works
would be sending a flyer to residents stating what they can do
to fix problems at their homes which is causing a large amount
of rainwater to drain into the sewer system. He stated that
if the problems were in noncompliance with regulations, they would
have to be repaired. “A lot of the areas that need
to be fixed can be done so inexpensively,” he added.
Brown also explained that the refurbishing on the water tower was
complete and inspected and the work was done for approximately
$2,000 under bid.
Councilman Butch Shore told the council that he had received a
phone call about a citizen using their city acerage for animals. The
matter was referred to the city’s planning and zoning committe
for a recommendation at next month’s meeting.
In other city business, City Clerk Shelia Spies told the council
that the filing period for mayor and six council seats had opened. Presently,
Mike Wakeman has filed to seek election to mayor and Brenda Stumpff
and Michael Zumwalt had filed for council seats in Ward I and Ward
IV respectively.
During an executive session, the resignation of police officer
Richard Rivera was accepted and Michael Brandt was hired to fill
that position.
Liquor consumption licenses were given to Donna Woods for a Christmas
party at the Hallar building for the period of 5 p.m., December
24 to 1 a.m., December 25. Jennifer Daniel received a license
for December 31, 7 p.m., to January 1, 2006, 1 a.m.
By Steve Sullins
Editor
Local, Area
Polling Places To Move
Johnson County Clerk Gilbert Powers is giving notice to the voters
of North & South Holden, Kingsville, Rose Hill, Centerview,
and Columbus Precincts that their polling places have been moved.
This change will be in effect for future elections beginning with
the April 4, 2006 General Municipal Election.
The North & South Holden, Kingsville, and Rose Hill polling
places have been combined and moved to the Community Activity Center
located at 100 Market Street in Holden.
The Centerview and Columbus Precinct polling places have been combined
and moved to the Johnson County Youth Community Building at the
Johnson County Fair Grounds located at 144 NW 361.
Voters in the affected precincts will be notified of the change
and new voter cards will be issued. As a cost saving measure,
the voter card mailing and the polling place change notice will
coincide with the biannual canvassing of voters.
Upon receipt of their voter registration card, voters are asked
to verify the information on the card. If there are no changes
necessary, voters may use this card for identification when voting. This
new card replaces any previous voter card, and the voter should
only use the new card as it was created under the new Missouri
Central Voter Registration System and their voter ID number has
changed under this program.
If the voter finds there are changes to be made to their card information,
the change should be noted on the back and the card should then
be signed and returned to:
Gilbert Powers, County Clerk, Johnson County Courthouse, 300 North
Holden, Warrensburg, MO 64093.
Cattlemen
To Meet In Holden Jan. 3
The Hallar Building in Holden will be the site of the first-ever
Johnson County Cattlemen’s Winter Series to be held Tuesday,
January 3, 2006, from 7-8:30 p.m.
In an exciting line-up of economically relevant and timely topics,
the first offering will be a discussion on Cowboy Calving. Doctor
Bob Larson, DVM, an extension veterinarian with the University
of Missouri, will present information about how to avoid problems
during calving, including management practices, equipment usage
and facilities.
Doctor Larson will also discuss the reproductive calving process
and give insight about when you should call a veterinarian for
assistance to maximize your cow and calf survival rate.
There will be an opportunity to visit with the doctor during the
break and after the session.
If anyone is interested in learning information that could make
their operation more profitable and would emjoy fellowship with
other forward-thinking producers make plans to attend the session.
The event will be free and refreshments will be provided. Everyone
is welcome. Questions can be answered by contacting the Lafayette
County Extension office at (660) 584-3658.
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