The City of Sikeston is showing its support to further efforts of getting Interstate 57 built, which would run from Chicago all the way through Arkansas.
At Monday's special city council meeting, a resolution was approved supporting construction of a new interchange at the intersection of South Ingram Road and Highway 60/future I-57 in Sikeston. The resolution will be presented to the Transportation Advisory Committee of the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission in hopes of making this a high-priority project for the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Currently, I-57 stretches from Chicago to Sikeston and supporters believe completion of the project will spur economic development in the area.
-- Standard Democrat
Wiggans resigns; Bristow named interim superintendent at Meadow Heights
John Wiggans has resigned from his position as Meadow Heights School District superintendent.
Donna Bristow, the Meadow Heights elementary principal, was hired July 2 to be the interim superintendent, Bristow said in an email to the Banner Press.
Wiggans sent his resignation by email to Meadow Heights School Board president Dennis Mouser. He will officially leave his position July 31, but the resignation was effective immediately, as stated in the email he sent.
During the July 9 Meadow Heights School Board executive session, the board voted unanimously to "negotiate the severance of superintendent contract with max payout of seven month's salary no benefits." This motion was made by Lindsey Petton, the board secretary, and seconded by Candy Wilfong, a board member. The board members present were Mouser; Charlie Besher, board vice president; Petton; Kathi Miinch, board treasurer; Brian Brugger, board member; and Wilfong. Board member Sheila Bess was not present for the session.
The details of this meeting were disclosed in a draft of the July 9 executive session minutes. The draft is expected to be approved at the August board meeting.
Bristow sent a letter to the school district patrons once she had accepted the position as superintendent. In the letter, Bristow wrote about her 28 years working for the school district in various roles, starting in 1991 as a special-education teacher.
After six months, the board will review its decision, and decide what direction to take at that time.
If Bristow does not retain the position, "I will go back to being principal," she said.
Bristow is a lifelong resident of Bollinger County, and she is a graduate from Meadow Heights High School.
During the interim period, Mitch Nanney will serve as the principal for sixth through 12th grades; Jessica Conrad will serve as the interim principal for pre-kindergarten through fifth grades.
-- Banner Press
Miner Board votes to put sales tax on November ballot
In an effort to help with an expected budget shortfall next year and in the future, the Miner Board of Alderman voted to put a half-percent sales tax on the November ballot.
Miner City Clerk Darrin Skinner told the Board that currently the City of Miner is $36,000 over-budget which could have been $213,000 if not for income they received from selling railroad property.
"Our biggest concern now and our biggest hurdle is 2018-2019," Skinner said. "Again our expenditures are expected to exceed our revenues by over $200,000 to meet our obligations we already have."
Alderman Bill James said the groundwork for the budget had been laid for the past decade.
"The city has overspent their income for the last 10 years," James said. "Sometimes it's $40,000, last year it got up to $151,000 more than they took in. This year it's projected to be $212,000 over. We had all that money to cover it in the past but we don't have all that money to cover it in the future."
Miner mayor Darren Chapman recommended the City attempt to pass a half-percent sales tax. The tax, if passed, would bring in an estimated $250,000 according to Skinner, who said even if the measure passed the City would still be in trouble in the 2018-19 budget year.
Some on the Board questioned why the City had fallen so far behind.
"Our income has stayed the same for the last 10 or 12 years and our spending gradually rose above the line of where our income was," Skinner said. "I'm not pointing fingers because you do have cost of living (increasing) and inherently it is going to cost more with inflation and everything to run a city."
-- Standard Democrat