Shelbina Weekly, 217 East Maple St., Shelbina, MO 63468-1219
Phone: 573-588-0051, Fax: 573-588-0052, Email: shelbinaweekly@centurytel.net
 

    4556

The Shelby County Commission has sent a letter explaining its financial difficulties and requesting money to help fund the Shelby County 911 program.
   According to the letter, the county’s general revenue fund has financed a portion of the 911 program since 1997. But commissioners say that with cuts that have been made, the 911 program needs to be supplemented with outside funding.
   The expense for salaries last year totaled $261,444, while other costs such as equipment repairs, utilities, insurance and other things came to $47,508, bringing the total cost of the program to $308,952.
   The 911 program operates on a 1/2 cent sales tax. In 2011, that sales tax generated $262,895, which left a shortfall of $46,057.
   To cover the shortfall in 2012, the commission is requesting certain amounts of money from different entities across the county. The requests include $15,000 from the Salt River Ambulance District; $2,000 from each the Shelbina, Shelbyville and Clarence fire departments; $2,500 from the City of Shelbina; and $1,500 from the City of Clarence. That would total $25,000. The Sheriff’s Department would contribute $21,057 out of the general revenue fund, according to the commission.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4557

The latest delay in the downtown demolition project has been taken care of.
   According to Shelbina City Attorney John Wilcox, Tim Moore, the owner of the Hoot’s Chestnut Inn buildings and property, decided to deed the property over to Shane Young of Macon.
   Moore had a couple of liens against the structures and property. Wilcox explained that there is still the issue with the liens. He said he sent Young all the information and paperwork needed to take care of the liens sometime last week. “He (the new owner) will have to take care of the liens before things can be done.
   Wilcox is anticipating the process should speed up now that this hurdle has been cleared.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4558

Shelbina Mayor John Smith said Tuesday that he is withdrawing his name from the ballot mayor’s race in the April election.
   Smith, who has served as Shelbina’s mayor since April of 2006, has made no secret that he is planning to run for Shelby County East Ward Commissioner’s position.
   He said that he filed for mayor because at the time nobody else had filed for mayor and he didn’t want to leave the city in a bad spot.
   After Al Dimmitt filed, Smith said he felt he could drop out of the race and focus on running for the commission position.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4559

The Shelby County R-IV School Board decided to pursue the continuation of its current tax levy, during its regular school board meeting earlier this month.
   Board members are looking at the April 3 election as to when to pose the question to the voters.
   The district put around $170,000 back in the budget when it paid off the leases for upgrades to the district.
   Superintendent Rick Roberts said that if the state formula doesn’t change, the district could be facing a steady decrease in fund balances. He added that the district is above what he projected to start with last year.
   Right now, the district gets around $5,330 for every cent, depending on assessed valuation. It has a levy set at $3.75. Roberts said they are not going to try to increase the ceiling on the levy, but instead keep it at $3.75.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4560

The Shelbina City Council passed a motion to approve a bill into ordinance involving an alternative work period for the city’s law enforcement during Tuesday night’s council meeting.
   Alternative Work
   Period
   The ordinance was amended to establish an alternative work period for nonexempt law enforcement employees and to establish an increased overtime threshold.
   It states that “all nonexempt law enforcement employees shall be compensated for a 14 day work period with 84 base hours and shall be compensated at an overtime rate of 1.5 times the hourly rate for all hours actually worked on the job in excess of the 84 base hours during a work period. Overtime must be authorized by the employee’s supervisor. Sick time, vacation time, personal time, funeral leave, and holiday time are not considered worked hours for the purpose of calculating overtime. Overtime shall be paid in the form of overtime pay.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4561

The Shelby County Economic Development Council members elected new officers at the beginning of the January meeting held Thursday, Jan. 19 in the Economic Development office in Shelbyville.
   New Officers
   With Glenn Eagan going off the board, Laden Force is his replacement. New officers for the 2012 year include Joe Gover, president; Dave Barton, vice-president; Jim McConnell, treasurer; and John Malcarney, secretary. McConnell and Malcarney were re-elected at their positions.
   It was also reported that Clarence hasn’t named a new board member to replace Donnie Sanford yet, but they plan to soon.
   Guest Speaker
   Tim Smith of Charitan Valley was at the meeting and gave a demonstration on how a new modem works that his company will have available Jan. 30. He also told the board that they have new towers in Redman and Bethel.
   Charitan Valley has partnered with Verizon and can now pull from those towers as well. They are looking at going 3G by Jan. 30 and 4G by this summer.
   Web Pages
   There was discussion about the Shelbina Chamber of Commerce having a web page. Susan Mann could possibly set this up for the chamber. Keller als mentioned the need of the cities of Shelbina and Clarence having updated websites.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4562

Shelbina native John Russell has made his way back home and has joined John Wilcox at the Wilcox Law Office in Shelbina and Monroe City.
   John started working with Wilcox at the beginning of December.
   A 1998 graduate of South Shelby High School, Russell attended Wabash College in Indiana and then went to law school at Indiana University. He graduated from law school in 2005 and passed the bar that summer.
   Russell then decided to join the Marine Corps, and went on active duty in January of 2006. He spent some time at the Marine corps base in Quantico, Va. and also in Newport, R.I.
   His first stationed duty was at the Marine Corps Air Station New River in North Carolina. He was there for almost three years where he was a legal assistant. He also served as defense council for about two years.
   In 2009 he moved from North Carolina to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. He had two jobs there. He worked in research in civil law. After that he did judge advocate support which dealt with manpower issues, worked on where people were going to be stationed, what jobs were going to be filled. Russell was also involved in an investigation that congress did on the Marine Corps legal community. “We had to do a lot of work to answer their questions. The general I worked for had to testify before a senate subcommittee,” Russell explained. He said working on that was very demanding. “You couldn’t make any mistakes,” he said.
   Russell said he thinks living out east in the urban area made him appreciate his home. “I wanted to do something where I would have more ownership over what I did,” John said. That explains why he chose to come back home.
   His wife, Lisa, is an orthodontist. She is working with Dr. Jolly in Hannibal and will eventually be taking over his office.
   For the full story, see this week’s issue of the Shelbina Weekly.   4563

Shelbina Weekly
Established in 2005