Stories from Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Dexter City offices will be closed on Friday, Jan. 24 from noon until 3:00 p.m. to attend the funeral of a former employee.

PUXICO, Mo. - The Puxico Indians varsity boys basketball team didn't experience a letdown about 24 hours after securing arguably its biggest victory of the season Monday night when it beat Twin Rivers 80-66. Puxico continued its strong midseason play with a 69-64 home win against the Dexter Bearcats Tuesday night at Arnold Ryan Gymnasium...

Filing officially closed at the end of the business day on Tuesday for the upcoming April 8 municipal election. As a result, the races are now set and voters can begin to think about how they plan to vote in the various races that will most closely affect them...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- The Stoddard County Commission approved a 2014 budget that showed $7,848,994 in total revenues with $7.898.573.72 in expenditures. The commission met Tuesday due to the holiday on Monday. The budget as approved cut $137,559 from the amount requested by the various offices in the county...

ESSEX, Mo. -- The Essex Fire Department just financed a new truck through a pair of government programs. Representatives from USDA Rural Development visited Essex last week to commemorate the receipt of the funds for the purchase. Rural Development officials approved a Community Facility Direct Loan of $29,300 and a Community Facility Grant of $8,700...

Retired Dexter kindergarten teacher, Susie Grobe, was the guest reader Tuesday at Keller Public Library's Story Hour. On a cold, winter day, Grobe appropriately read three "snowy stories" to the preschool chldren in attendance before the children participated in a crafts project. Additional photos from Tuesday's Story Hour may be viewed in Photo Galleries...

NEW MADRID -- Changing technology and declining funding has prompted a Missouri legislator to propose new 9-1-1 legislation and to seek the public's input. Missouri State Representative Jeanie Lauer of Blue Springs, who sponsored H.B. 635 in 2013, has scheduled a series of seven meetings, including one in New Madrid, in preparation for the 2014 legislative effort to pass comprehensive 911 legislation. ...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - The Bernie Mules varsity boys basketball team outlasted Bloomfield 55-30 Tuesday night without tallying a made free throw. The Mules finished 0 of 1 from the free throw line, but hit 11 two-pointers and 11 treys. Bloomfield scored eight points or less in every quarter...

Marie Sides, daughter of the late Albert and Emma Berry Pixley, was born in Advance on Feb. 23, 1924, and died at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff on Jan. 21, 2014, at the age of 89. She had lived in Dexter until 1966, when she moved to Ellington. She moved to Poplar Bluff in 1986. She was a member of the First Church of God in Poplar Bluff...

Wilma Miller, a resident of Dexter, Mo. died on Jan. 21, 2014, at her residence at the age of 94. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time and will be announced by the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter.

Charles Gisi, a resident of Essex, Mo., died on Jan. 21, 2014, at the Cypress Point Skilled Nursing Center in Dexter at the age of 95. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time and will be announced by the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter...

Raymond Lee Asa of Poplar Bluff, son of the late Raymond Asa and Mable M. Tracer Asa, was born on Jan. 27, 1958, and died at Poplar Regional Medical Center on Jan. 14, 2014, at the age of 55. Mr. Asa is survived by two half sisters, Georgia Asa of Springfield, Mo., and June LaNeal Bond of Henderson, Nev.; and one niece, Lesa Johnson of O'Fallon, Mo...

Well, I suppose it is par for this time of year, but the temperature swings still seem to catch me off guard. Apparently there is another "polar vortex" on its way, and man am I stoked... Polar vortex, what a way to describe a cold front, more sensationalism I suppose. ...