Today's Feature
Housing
- Annexation Policy on Agenda.
The Public Works Committee is
scheduled for its regular meeting this afternoon
at 5:15 in City Hall. The agenda includes further
discussion of a City policy on annexation and a
policy for developers wishing to get a Council
recommendation for State grant funding.
Recommendations from the Engineering Department
on the annexation policy have been requested by
the Committee.
City Codes Inspector Bud Rogers
previously submitted suggestions for a housing
policy. His recommendations include an on-site
review of any property that would be proposed for
housing developments by Engineering personnel. A
report of any special requirements of the project
would be submitted to the Public Works Committee
before the developer presented his proposal to
the full Council.
Two recent requests for
annexation have raised concerns by several
Council members.
One annexation request included
a business zoning when the current use was
residential. That request was denied.
Another request was approved
for a residential lot with a septic system.
Across
the Plains to Stone’s Throw.
news release
Sandra Fenichel Asher’s
award-winning play, "Across the Plains: The
Journey of the Palace Wagon Family," is on
the boards March 16, 17, 18; and March 24, 25,
26, at Carthage’s Stone Throw
Dinner-Theatre, located on West Old Highway 66
Boulevard at 796 South Stone Lane.
Commissioned by the Coterie
Theatre, Kansas City’s nationally-known
producer of plays for children and the young at
heart, "Across The Plains" was selected
for the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New
Voices program and received the American Alliance
for Theatre and Education’s Playreading
Project National Award.
Mrs. Asher, writer-in-residence
at Drury College, Springfield, Missouri, has
published fifteen plays and nineteen novels for
young readers. A recipient of a National
Endowment for the Arts grant in playwriting, Mrs.
Asher’s best-known play, "A Woman
Called Truth," received the American
Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished
Play Award, the Joseph Campbell Memorial Fund
Award by the Open Eye Theatre, NYC, and was named
an "Outstanding Play for Young
Audiences" by the International Association
of Theatres for Children and Young People.
Among her plays produced at
Stone’s Throw are "Little Old Ladies in
Tennis Shoes," "The Wise Men of
Chelm," "In the Time of Trolls,"
and most recently "The Wolf and its
Shadows." Mrs. Asher has indicated she will
attend one of the performances of "Across
the Plains" if her schedule permits.
The play, based on actual
letters, diaries, and published reports, is
directed by Henry Heckert; the cast features
Kendra Dearing, Joplin; Hallie Fonseca, Carl
Junction; Ray Geopfert, Joplin; Randi Key,
Carthage; Dorothy Maples, and Edgar McGuire,
Joplin, and Robert Moritz, Carl Junction. Also
appearing in the cast are C.J. Lungstrum, Erin
McCauley, Garrick Reynolds, Russell Reynolds, and
Trista Vicory.
Ms. Dearing has staged the
dances, with Annetta Medlin and Carrie Clark,
responsible for the special music. Robert Beck
produced the sound effects used for The Coterie
Theatre production. Brandi A. Graber, Shirley
Reynolds, and Luella Brooks are costumers for the
production. Makeup is under the supervision of
Mrs. Graber. Technical Director is Cody Dyer,
with assistance from Eric Conrardy.
All ticket prices include
dinner, with seniors fifty and over, $16.00;
youth sixteen and under, groups of twenty or
more, and guests of season members, $14.00.
Regular admission is $17.00 per person. Dinner
includes soup and salad, an entree with
vegetables, bread and butter, dessert, and
beverages.
Beginning Friday, March 10, the
box office is opened weekdays only during the
production run, from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Prepaid reservations are required; seating is
limited to 80 patrons each performance. Admission
is by season membership, VISA or MasterCard,
cash, or check. Doors open for evening
performances at 6:00 p.m.; dinner is at 6:30,
with curtain a 7:30. The Sunday matinee serves
dinner at 1:00 p.m., with curtain at 2:00; doors
open at 12:30.
For more information, call the
theater 417-358-9665.
Letter to the Editor
Opinions expressed
reflect those of the writer
and not necessarily those of the Mornin' Mail.
Editor
Mornin’ Mail,
What is wrong here?
Economic development in purest
form is being displayed by Webb City, Monett,
Neosho and Joplin.
In Carthage, it seems that
development takes the form of moving a store
across the street or sending a manufacture to
Mexico.
Churches are buying major
buildings with total tax relief. No sales tax and
no property taxes.
I am very concerned about where
our City is going. Sister Cities such as Monett,
Neosho, Mt. Vernon, Webb City and Lamar are
growing in business and prospering while Carthage
is losing its economic base one business at a
time. Nothing but existing business’ have
been placed on our airport property development,
nothing coming in new there. We have more houses
for sale in this town than I have ever seen
before. People used to move to Carthage to raise
their family now they are moving out. Why
can’t we get something going? What is wrong?
Are we so close to Joplin that no one is
interesting in Carthage? We have two grocery
stores and a Wal Mart..
Where are all the shops? I have
to go to Joplin or Webb City to buy a suit and
tie. The airport would have been an excellent
choice for an outlet mall, but Joplin got it
first. Are we as a City so busy worrying about
where our trees are planted and the green spaces
are than where our sales tax base will come from?
I am hoping something happens
soon to get us back on track and competitive with
other Cities for growth or we might become the
"ghost town" tourists visit on their
way to Joplin from Branson.
We need planners, shakers and
business people in charge not decorators.
Leonard Harlan
Carthage, MO.
Commentary
Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126
In a shocking
and disgraceful display of partisanship, the
Missouri House of Representatives reverted back
to the way it was run in the worst days of former
Speaker, Bob Griffin. Griffin, you will remember,
is currently serving time in federal prison for
various corruption charges.
As you probably have been
hearing for the last couple of years, the tobacco
industries have agreed to pay a large chunk of
money to the states, supposedly to reimburse them
for the cost of treating tobacco related
illnesses.
Although this column isn’t
going to be about the settlement, be aware that
it isn’t about reimbursement, it is only
about a money grab to pay for more government
programs. That has been evidenced by the large
line of interest groups with their hands out for
a piece of the pie.
Back to the original point of
this column. The figure that has been thrown
around is that Missouri will be in line for
roughly 6.8 billion dollars from the settlement.
If that figure holds firm, it would easily be the
biggest spending bill in the history of the
state.
You would think that something
of that magnitude would deserve free and open
debate as to how and where that much money would
be spent, and more importantly, if it would be
returned to the taxpayers.
Unfortunately that wasn’t
to be. Under the control of Speaker Steve Gaw, a
democrat from Moberly, debate was shut off and a
vote was forced.
Many members had amendments
they wanted to offer and questions they wanted to
ask, but due to the actions of Speaker Gaw, they
were precluded from doing so. Adding insult to
injury is the fact that Gaw is running for the
office of Secretary of State. How sad is it that
the man that wants to be in charge of making sure
elections are being held properly in the state,
won’t even allow free and open debate on the
most important spending bill in the history of
the state? When all participants aren’t
allowed to participate in a democracy, it ceases
to be a democracy.
As usual, I can be reached at
House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City,
MO 65101, or 1-800-878-7126, or
mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions,
comments, or advice.
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