Board Plans For Emergencies.

The Jasper County 9-1-1 Board has approved a plan that Executive Director Bill Cade says will significantly improve emergency event command and communications functions. The Board, while acknowledging the current fiscal uncertainty authorized the development of specifications for a mobile command and communications unit to support emergency service agencies.

"Our agencies must be able to effectively respond to all classes of emergency, both natural and man-made disaster," said Cade, "as well as have the capability to service local power and equipment failures."

The mobile unit would serve both the command and communications functions at emerging events as well as serving fixed sites which have lost telephone, power or radio capacity due to a local equipment situation.

The Mobile Communications Unit would also be capable of serving as a self contained backup 9-1-1 answering point for both the County and the City of Joplin.

"While current back up plans are in place," says Cade, "this unit would be available should some disaster make such plan unworkable."

Commentary
Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! While we need to keep those that have suffered horrific losses recently, we do have much to be thankful for. Not the least is the fact that we live in this great country we call America and this great state we call Missouri. We don’t have a perfect form of government, but we have the best in the world.

There was a special election in the House of Representatives this past week. Sadly, Rep. Gary Wiggins (D-New Cambria), lost his battle with cancer earlier this year. Gary left behind a wife and teenage son. While there was little I agreed with Gary about politically, I considered him to be a good friend and we spent time together away from the Capitol.

I am not sure if that district had ever had a republican representative. In recent memory, it was always represented by a democrat. It was long considered to be an unwinnable district for republicans. Lately though, some of those unwinnable districts have proven to be very winnable. That was the case here. In the election on Tuesday, the republican candidate won with 64% of the vote.

The perplexing thing about some of these districts has been that while the citizens of the district are conservative, they still voted democrat. As issues have been brought to the forefront, they have more information to base their vote on.

As it has become clearer that the democrat party is more concerned about people that don’t want to work, taking guns away from law abiding citizens, making excuses for criminals, and raising taxes than they are about people that go to work every day, making criminals pay for their crimes, and letting people keep more of what they earn, we are seeing big changes in the voting habits of many of these northern rural areas.

The count in the House now stands at 87 democrats and 76 republicans. The Senate is at 18 republicans, 16 democrats, and 2 vacancies. Sadly, another legislator, Sen. Paula Carter (D-St. Louis), lost her battle with cancer last week.

The other Senate vacancy was caused when Sen. John Scott (D-St. Louis), resigned in midterm. As there are some House members that are going to be running for those Senate seats, there will likely be some more special elections in the House soon.

Hard to believe we are only six weeks away from the start of another Legislative Session. From a personal standpoint, it is even harder to believe that I am getting ready to start what will be my last Session in the House.

With almost one half of the House members being forced to leave after this coming Session, it should be an interesting one. Stay tuned!

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.

Letter to the Editor
Opinions expressed reflect those of the writer
and not necessarily those of the Mornin' Mail.

Hello, I saw the following advertisement in your Mornin’ Mail that a church children’s department was presenting the musical "The Great Late Potentate."

Is it possible for you to tell me please where I might obtain a copy of the music tape from this musical and the play script?

The ad I found online:

Wednesday, December 3, 1997

Volume 6, Number 118

Did Ya Know?... The Children’s Department of Carthage First Church of the Nazarene will have a free musical presentation of "The Great Late Potentate" on Sun., Dec. 7 at 10:40 a.m.

My daughter was in this play in California when she was very young, and our tape is scratchy and at present very lost.

We have considered doing this children’s musical at our church where we currently live in Alabama. I have never been able to find the play books or the music. Can you help?

Thanks,

Nancy Goforth

Musta been the leaf rakin’ weekend. Piles and piles a leafs bein’ hauled to the landfill on Saturday. Got a good share out from our yard, but not all.

For those who have an aversion to the leaf smoke, it musta been a long couple a days. The rain on Sunday pretty much put a stop to that practice for a few days.

As is typical at the home place, I ended the day with one less rake handle. The stubby remanence of a handle on the rake makes a decent tool for pickin’ up the leafs however, and may be marketed as such by some inspired entrepreneur.

If the rain holds off for a few more days, most of the leaf gatherin’ should be taken care of. I still revert to the mulch idea when all else fails.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

Health Notes

Health & Nutrition by Judith Sheldon

KNOW YOUR OATS: For centuries, people have relied on oats to provide excellent nutrition at relatively low cost.

In recent years, we’ve been told about various health benefits of oats, which include helping to reduce the levels of LDL (the bad cholesterol) in the blood, and also helping to lower high blood pressure.

Now there’s some evidence that oats, or similar soluble fiber food, such as beans, buckwheat (also known as kasha), and apples, may also have an important effect on blood glucose and insulin, which would benefit diabetics while also helping in weight control.

Emerging research indicates that oat soluble fiber, because of its slower release of energy, may provide working muscles with an energy source on a more sustained basis, instead of going into less active cells to be stored as fat.

(By the way, if you have problems with dry skin in the winter, try putting some uncooked oats into a cheese cloth bag and hanging the bag under your bathtub faucet to allow the water to run through the oats and into your tub.)