Pulaski County Daily News

Former Waynesville Mayor Luge Hardman has been named the Waynesville-St. Robert Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year for 2022. Hardman retired from teaching in the Waynesville R-VI School District in 2003 and was elected to the Waynesville City Council, where she served during a difficult period in which the council was deadlocked on a 4-4 split between different factions. Hardman's efforts to clean up downtown factored into her election as mayor in 2012, a position she held for two terms until 2020.

Local resident Xavier Souser has been ordered to leave the Pulaski County Courthouse after swearing at Presiding Commissioner Gene Newkirk and saying Pulaski County should use $30,000 in marijuana tax revenue to repair gravel roads. According to Newkirk, he's received calls and texts saying Souser is walking down Route 66 holding a sign objecting to taxation without representation in front of various local public offices including the Waynesville License Office and Waynesville Police Department. "He's still screaming at cars out there and showing his sign," Newkirk said.

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. -- A three-vehicle wreck killed one person before noon at the Missouri Avenue/Highway Z/Route 66 intersection and a second in late afternoon on Old Route 66. According to St. Robert police reports. Mineva Simmons Williamson, 70, a passenger, was transported by Pulaski County Ambulance District personnel to General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital (GLWACH) with what police described as "significant" injuries in first crash. She succumbed to her injuries at the hospital and was pronounced dead; next of kin have been notified. An unidentified woman was killed in the second crash; her name has not been released pending notification of relatives.

Pulaski County now has two declared candidates running for sheriff. Rex Larson, a school resource officer in the Laquey School District and former Pulaski County deputy, announced yesterday. Stacy Ball, a current deputy and an undercover drug task force member, has a kickoff rally today at the Hampton Inn St Robert/Fort Leonard Wood.

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. -- City officials announced today that the impeachment trial for Waynesville Mayor Jerry Brown will be Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 5 p.m., in city hall. The announcement said Brown has filed a pretrial motion to which city officials will have until Monday, Jan. 16, to respond; the motion will be argued at 4 p.m. Tuesday, prior to the impeachment trial.

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. -- One man is dead and the suspected shooter is in custody following a Wednesday afternoon incident north of St. Robert. The victim is a male in his 50s with a gunshot wound to the chest who was transported from the scene but subsequently died. Pulaski County Sheriff Jimmy Bench confirmed that the suspect is in custody, but no names have yet been released. "Still under investigation but I can tell you that the suspect is in our custody," Bench said in a Wednesday evening statement.

CROCKER, Mo. -- Faced with an estimated bill of $4 million to bring its city wastewater treatment plant into compliance with discharge regulations, Crocker Mayor Glenn Smith said his predecessor as mayor, James Morgan, signed a consent agreement with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources more than a decade ago to improve the plant to bring it into regulatory compliance but the city wasn't aware of the agreement the mayor signed. "He didn't tell anybody!" said Alderman James Patton during a special Wednesday afternoon city council meeting called to address the problem. Council members met Wednesday with their city attorney, Ronda Cortesini, the city's engineer, Cary Sayre from Allstate Consultants LLC, and a financial advisor to plan how to deal with the problem. Voters approved a bond issue of up to $4 million to pay for the treatment plant upgrade. City officials plan to apply for a state revolving loan fund at an interest rate of less than 2 percent, probably between 1.5 and 1.7 percent, for 20 years.

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. (Jan. 3, 2023) -- A Vietnam veterans memorial won't be coming to the Fort Leonard Wood area this year, but according to Waynesville Economic Development Director Doug Potts, it may be possible to bring the "Wall that Heals" to Waynesville next year. Speaking at Tuesday evening's Waynesville Economic Development Committee meeting, Potts said the cost to bring the wall to Waynesville for a full week would be $11,000. However, he said that amount was minor and likely could be covered by donations.

DIXON, Mo. -- A Dixon woman and child suffered minor injuries in a single-vehicle New Year's Eve crash when the driver, Gino V. Levine, 42, also of Dixon, fell asleep at 7:12 a.m. Saturday while driving on I-44 a mile west of Phillipsburg, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol reports.

DIXON, Mo. -- A late Thursday night rollover wreck south of Dixon moderately injured a Dixon man, Johnathon L. Shults, 45, and totaled his pickup. According to Missouri State Highway Patrol reports Shults had been driving southbound on Highway 28 near Colorado Road in a 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 when he ran off the right side of the roadway at 11:33 p.m., returned to the roadway, then ran off the left side again and overturned. Shults, who had been wearing his seatbelt, was transported by Dixon Ambulance District personnel to Phelps Health. His vehicle was removed by Onsite Towing.

An insurance representative's proposal to the Pulaski County Commission isn't likely to help the county, several commissioners said during a Monday morning meeting with insurance representative Charles Galen Floyd of Group Benefit Services, Inc. Floyd said his company manages partially self-funded plans. Responding to questions from Presiding Commissioner Gene Newkirk, Floyd gave a list of counties participating in his company's plan. None are in the immediate area. Western District Commissioner Clinton Jarrett asked where the closest clinics are; Floyd said the closest clinics qualifying for the company's reduced rate are in Rolla and at the Lake of the Ozarks. "I don't see families driving an hour to go to an emergency care clinic, especially when we have three clinics right here," said County Treasurer Sue Rapone.

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. -- St. Robert officials announced Saturday evening that they issued a boil advisory following a water main break earlier in the day. The boil advisory covers residences and businesses on all of Eastlawn Avenue and all of Kathy Lane, Bell Drive, April Drive, Charlotte Circle, Shara Drive, Phoenix Avenue, Dogood Circle, Woodland Lane, Meadow Lane and Kale Court, then from the intersection of Eastlawn and Marshall Drive going north of Marshall Drive to 200 Marshall Drive (Hidden Valley Plaza) and all of Liberty Parkway, Vickie Lynn Lane and Bruce Drive, as well as all of the Woodridge Subdivision, which includes Ridgeview Drive, Cedar Court, Oak Court, Walnut Court, Ash Court, Locust Court, and Sycamore Drive.

St. Robert Mayor George Lauritson has apologized to local businesses that lost water for up to six hours today on what, for many, is one of their busiest days of the year. According to Lauritson, a water main break ran ten feet down a water main, and that break required shutting off numerous water valves to repair the break. Many though not all businesses on Highway Z and on Missouri Avenue north of Eastlawn lost water, and the city's water tanks have been depleted, which may lead to low water pressure until the tanks refill.

CAMDENTON, Mo. (Sept. 16, 2022) -- A civil jury this afternoon determined that the City of Richland is legally liable for a breach of contract by the city, which was renting a city-owned factory building to the Earth to Go business and a related operation, Biodegradable Food Service. Jurors awarded the Earth to Go business $620,000 in damages, with attorney fees to be determined in a subsequent Oct. 20 court hearing before Judge Aaron Koeppen. The decision today after nearly four hours of deliberation and a five-day jury trial could have returned a much larger verdict against the city, which had accused the companies and their owner Kevin Duffy, of "squatting" by refusing to pay rent. The company accused the city of failing to repair a roof causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to its equipment and inventory. Lawsuits were filed in 2018 but the case dates back to 2014 when, according to the company, conditions at what was then a city-owned facility had deteriorated to the point that the company could no longer manufacture its biodegradable food service products and sell them to customers. "This is a day we have looked forward to since August 2015," said Earth to Go attorney George Restovich. "They can run, they can't hide. Today is their day; they've been running for six years."

DIXON, Mo. (Aug. 6, 2022) -- A single-vehicle Friday afternoon wreck on Highway 133 southwest of Dixon injured two Dixon residents and totaled their vehicle. According to Missouri State Highway Patrol reports, Harry L. Emfinger, 67, was moderately injured, but his passenger, Janet S. Rosario, 60, suffered serious injuries and was medevaced by LifeLine air ambulance to University Hospital in Columbia.

Fort Leonard Wood's drill sergeant of the year, Staff Sgt. Krista Osborne, was honored Friday by the Committee of Fifty, a local military support organization. The post's top enlisted soldier, Command Sgt. Maj. Randolph Delapena, himself a former drill sergeant at Fort Sill, said he was impressed by Osborne's work and predicts she'll do well at the upcoming Army-wide drill sergeant competition next month that will name the top drill sergeant for TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command). "She's doing it way better than I did," Delapena said.

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Aug. 4, 2022) -- Eastern District Commissioner Charles Bassett is seriously overbudget in his road expenditures, Presiding Commissioner Gene Newkirk announced Thursday morning, and that could have serious consequences not only for the county but personally for Bassett, Newkirk said. "I have to inform you guys that when you know you are over budget, you can be held personally responsible for everything over budget... anything you spend from here on with asphalt or rock, I have to tell you about that."

DIXON, Mo. (Aug. 4, 2022) -- Mayor Mike Null announced Thursday afternoon that a water outage that began about 1:30 p.m. is due to a lightning strike. "The plan is to have it pulled tomorrow and fixed the following day," Null said in a prepared statement. "Currently we have the two backup wells running. They are smaller in size and will take time to fill the lines and towers. Please try and conserve water to help with filling the towers. I will keep everyone updated."

The Waynesville-St. Robert area finally received rain Wednesday evening after a long drought, but the rain came along with a severe thunderstorm warning, and numerous reports of downed power lines and other lines after the storm passed, along with vehicles crashing on I-44 due to hydroplaning. Initial reports of power outage locations could not immediately be confirmed.

SAINT ROBERT, Mo. (Aug. 3, 2022) -- A rezoning reversion request from residential to agricultural use attracted concerns at Wednesday's St. Robert Planning and Zoning Commission and objections from numerous neighbors near the Zeigenbein Road property, but after extensive discussion, zoning commissioners agreed to recommend that the city council vote next week Tuesday to rezone the property provided that the owner agrees to restrictive covenants that would bar potentially problematic farm animals or other agricultural uses. Speaking at Wednesday's planning and zoning meeting, property owner Kevin Johnson explained his request for a zoning reversion of property he owns from R1 residential to A1 agricultural. He said he bought the property in March and doesn't plan to have a commercial farming operation, but his grandchildren would like to have a horse. "I don't intend to put a poultry barn in, I don't intend to put pigs in," Johnson said.

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Aug. 2, 2022) -- County voters have selected a new Western District Commissioner, with Andy Helms soundly defeating incumbent Clinton Jarrett by more than a two-to-one margin, and decided that Mack Wilkerson rather than Lorna Lea West will succeed retiring County Treasurer Susan Boksan Rapone. By only a single vote, challenger Glen Askeland appears to have defeated incumbent St. Robert Ward I Alderman Theresa Cook. In other races, Presiding Commissioner Gene Newkirk fended off a challenge by Joe Krill, Cullen Township Democratic Central Committeeman Mark C. Prugh retained his seat over challenger Wayne Gifford, and Crocker City Hall officials succeeded in convincing voters to pass a $4 million water and sewer bond issue.

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Aug. 2, 2022) -- When voters go to the polls today, they'll find almost all contested local races on the Republican Party primary ballot. Polls close at 7 p.m., with precincts open in Waynesville, St. Robert, Dixon, Crocker, Swedeborg, Richland, Laquey and Big Piney.

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Aug. 1, 2022) -- The I-44 construction zone east of St. Robert claimed three more cars Sunday evening, with a wreck near the Highway 28 exit sending two of the three drivers to Phelps Health in Rolla with moderate injuries. Troopers reported that Anavel Gutierrez, 59, of Pharr, Texas, and Noah M. Canu, 24, of Berkley, were stopped in traffic on eastbound I-44 at mile marker 163 due to construction ahead at 6:08 p.m. when a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser driven by Judy A. Bingham, 77, of Elyria, Ohio, struck the rear of Gutierrez's 2022 Chevrolet Colorado, causing it to strike the rear of Canu's 2017 Toyota Corolla, totaling the PT Cruiser and extensively damaging the Colorado.

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (July 30, 2022) -- A Friday afternoon wreck injured a Plato woman, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol reports. Troopers reported that Dorothy L. Petty, 65, had been driving her 2014 Ford Escape westbound in Felton at 2:43 p.m. two miles south of Highway 32 when she ran off the right side of the roadway and hit a tree, suffering minor injuries and causing moderate damage to her vehicle.