4.15.11 SEMO Times

FREEAPRIL 15, 2011

Future of Poplar Bluff Health Care to be Determined by

the State May 9

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SEMOTIMES

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

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SEMO TIMES4.15.11 Volume 3 Issue 232725 N. Westwood Blvd.

Suite 17 Poplar Bluff, MO 63901

573-785-2200

Inside this editionThe Week in Review - 3The Social Network - 3

Hospital CONs - 4SEMO News Briefs - 5Your Local Expert - 6Opinion: The Call - 7

Opinion: The Unforgiven - 7The Rambler - 11

Tech Talk - 11Fork: Castello’s -11

+bluffee Event’s Calendar - 15

Scott R. Faughn, [email protected]

Tim Krakowiak, managing editor

[email protected] Norman,

advertising [email protected]

Mark Cozart,distribution [email protected]

Rachel Woolard,marketing director

[email protected] Harlan

creative [email protected]

It was a good week for Attorney General Chris Koster. It took a while, but the AG finally manned up and took a position on

Obamacare. He came out against, but whatever side of the issue you come down on, statewide elected officials should have the courage to go on the record on the big issues of our time. So Koster has…how about Gov. Jay Nixon next?

It was a bad week for State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, D - St. Louis, and State Sen. Maria Chapelle-Nadal,

D - University City. According to Nasheed, Nadall said, “if she had a knife, she would cut my &%#*@!? Throat.” All of this went down at the Lil Wayne concert in St. Louis. Come on ladies, step up your game. Off topic: Thumbs has a hard time seeing Sen. Rob Mayer threaten to shank Rep. Steve Cookson at a Mer-yl Haggard concert.

It was a good w e e k for our f r i e n d s

over at Cape. Af-ter a mature debate on the smoking is-sue in a close vote, they chose to leave smoking bans up to property own-ers. Thumbs is sure someday all the world will be smoke-free, we just hope when the debate comes to our neck of the woods, we handle it as well.

It was a good week for T r a c y

Tipton for open-ing Second De-but, consignment clothing and home furnishings store, in the Pop-lar Bluff Square.

www.semotimes.com current events Section


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The Week in Review

1. Become a friend of SEMO Times on Facebook2. Watch for ‘The Social Network’ questions3. Reply for a chance to be featured with your profile

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RUNNING TO STOP

CHILD ABUSE

5K Charity Run/Walk

When: April 30th, 2011Where: McLane ParkTime: Registration at 7:00a.m., Race at 8:00a.m.Cost: Registration $25

Trophies to overall male and female, awards to top 3 in each age group. All proceeds to benefit Ozark Family Resource Agency, alocal non-profitorganization that operates a Child Advocacy Center and Women’s Crisis Shelter.They currently work in 8 area counties

Applications available at www.ofra.org. Whitworth’s Gift Chest, Hibbett Sports, J.R.’s Shoes,

Ozark fitness, The P.A.R.C. And First Community Bank

Tim KrakowiakManaging Editor

On the day the state determines whether Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center can begin building its proposed $170 million 250-bed replacement medical campus, Poplar Bluff Medical Partners will attempt to gain approval for a fraction of a hospital also along PP Highway.

Poplar Bluff Medical Partners has made a case against PBRMC’s pricing and quality of care, yet publicly supports the construction project, while PBRMC opposes Poplar Bluff Medical Partners’ three-bed approach to entering the acute care industry, and has de-cided to defend its position.

The Missouri Health Facilities

Review Committee will vote on both certificates of need beginning at 9 a.m. May 9 in Jefferson City, a public hearing that has the poten-tial to set a precedent about how hospitals and surgery centers inter-act, according to state officials.

“I look forward to looking across the road at their hospital, and then look where we are at, and send the patient to [the facility] that pro-vides the best services,” said Mike Burcham Sr., Poplar Bluff Medical Partners chief executive officer, and chairman of the Greater Pop-lar Bluff Area Chamber of Com-merce Board.

In January, Poplar Bluff Medical

Partners requested non-applicabili-ty—a way to curtail the CON pro-cess if it can be proven the project costs less than $1 million—but was denied by the review commit-tee in a 4-3 vote.

The following month, Poplar Bluff Medical Partners submitted a CON application for the project, estimated at $2.8 million, includ-ing the fair market value of the land and the building to be leased to the Black River Community Medical Center, a taxable not-for-profit hospital.

According to the architectural drawing designed by ACI Boland based out of Kansas City, 4,650 square feet of the existing ambu-latory surgery center would be converted to a three-bed inpatient monitoring hospital, with two additional observation beds, plus emergency room services.

The CON states BRCMC would be an alternative for short stay medical conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, diabetes, hypertension, simple pneumonia and dehydration. There would be no operating rooms or major medical equipment.

“We will be allowed to expand in the future without going through the CON process again, that’s true, but expansion would always be based on community need and financial viability,” Burcham explained. “We run on a 6 percent profit margin—not 30—we’re not publicly traded, and we don’t have shareholders to answer to, we have a local governing board.”

Through the Black River Health Care Foundation, the 501(c)(3) philanthropic arm of Poplar Bluff Medical Partners, partnerships could be established and grants sought, Burcham said. A group of 38 physicians and three non-phy-sicians own the majority of Poplar Bluff Medical Partners.

PBRMC, which is owned by Health Management Associates, a for-profit corporation headquar-tered in Naples, Fla., with a local

advisory board, will testify against the three-bed hospital project, but only because of the concept itself, according to PBRMC CEO Greg Carda.

“The proposed three-bed facility is not a full-service hospital by any reasonable definition,” Carda said, explaining that BRCMC could not care for heart attack and severe trauma victims, deliver babies, provide cancer treatments, or offer many other acute care services. “Unfortunately, a three-bed hos-pital would take resources away from a full-service hospital, which could greatly impact its ability to provide the highest quality of care for all members of the commu-nity.”

The three-bed hospital would re-instate a standard for quality, cost and service that existed prior to in-patient hospital care monopolizing in Poplar Bluff, Burcham stated.

“The real question is, why is

there such a fear about a three-bed hospital?” Burcham said. “This decision is supposed to be based on merit, not big hospitals trying to maintain barrier to entry.”

BY THE NUMBERSPoplar Bluff Medical Part-

ners’ CON cites that PBRMC was ranked the ninth lowest out of 2,500 hospitals in the United States based on patients’ willing-ness to recommend the facility to family and friends in 2008, ac-cording to Hospital Consumer As-sessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. The rating has since improved, but remains behind the Missouri and national averages for similar hospitals.

Last year, HCAHPS gave Poplar Bluff Medical Partners’ surgery center a 97 percent and the imag-ing center an 88 percent patient satisfaction rating.

www.semotimes.com News Section



Future of Poplar Bluff Health Care to be Determined by the State May 9

“The real ques-tion is, why is there such a fear about a three-bed hospital?”

Mike BurchamSr., poplar bluff

medical partners cEO

According to Carda, the data is not an “apples to apples” compari-son since hospitals and stand alone surgery centers are much different entities in terms of patient volume, patient circumstances and in the way data is collected. PBRMC had more than 36,000 ER visits last year, he explained, and surgery centers mainly perform elective procedures where a hospital stay is typically a “last resort.”

Based on publicly reported data through the U.S. Department of

Health and Senior Services view-able at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov in December, PBRMC outperformed hospitals in the Cape Girardeau market in 18 of the 21 processes of care measures evaluated, Carda pointed out. The survival rates for patients who receive open-heart bypass surgery at PBRMC are among the top five in the state, and they exceed the “best practices” benchmark rates, he continued.

“The quality of care delivered by our physicians and nurses is excel-lent as proven by outside sources, but the space constraints of the environment itself can be a chal-lenge to giving patients a positive experience,” said Carda, noting it is one of the reasons HMA is pre-pared to invest in a new state-of-the-art hospital with private rooms.

Poplar Bluff Medical Partners’ money stays local while a “good part” of PBRMC’s revenue leaves Missouri, according to Burcham.

“I don’t do what I do for money, or else I’d be somewhere else,” said Burcham, who previously worked in administration under HMA before assuming his post with Poplar Bluff Medical Partners

in 2006. “I’m not a bean counter.”The cost of services at PBRMC

has risen from $3,707 per day in 2001 to $7,163 in 2009, during which time outmigration for health care services from the Poplar Bluff community to Cape Girardeau has increased by about 1,000 patients to 3,679 annually, according to Burcham’s research.

Typical out-of-pocket payment for imaging services like MRIs and CT scans at Poplar Bluff Med-ical Partners is on average about three times less than other area fa-

cilities, and outpatient procedures like colonoscopies and gallbladder surgeries cost nearly six times less, according to a recent marketing campaign.

Carda retorted that third party data supports that costs at PBRMC are in line with other hospitals in the region that are able to offer the same level of care.

“Hospitals and surgery centers are reimbursed differently for the services they provide, so it is not an accurate evaluation to compare



www.semotimes.com News Section

semotimes.comdaily updates

MON - subfeature Tues - local expert

WEDs - almost famousthurs- guest column

fri - print edition

Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center Expands Board

Amidst the most significant investment and growth effort in its history, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center has expanded its board of directors by an additional five seats to better reflect the hos-pital’s growing footprint and foster community involvement, officials recently announced.

Southern Bank Named Top Community Bank

Southern Bank recently an-nounced that it was included in SNL Financial’s listing of top 100 community banks for 2010.

Fall Semester Begins at Three Rivers College

Registration for the fall semester at Three Rivers College has begun.

Richardson, Mayer Help Kick Off Community College Month

Rep. Todd Richardson and Sen. Rob Mayer recently presented resolutions before the Missouri House of Representatives and Sen-ate designating April as Commu-nity College Month.

Survey of Businesses in Bootheel will Help State Expand

High-Speed Internet AccessJEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – As

part of Gov. Jay Nixon’s efforts to expand high-speed Internet access throughout Missouri, the Gover-nor’s MoBroadbandNow initiative is working with planning teams across the state to assess the cur-rent status of broadband, the chal-lenges faced by expansion, and the efforts already in place to improve availability.

Read the full story on the daily fix over at the .com.

@ semotimes.com

continued on page 10

“The proposed three-bed facil-ity is not a full-service hospital by any reasonable definition.”

- Greg carda, PBRMc cEO

SEMO Times: How many people come to you who have given up on New Year Resolutions coming to you for help?

Diane Bates: Confidentially is a big issue, but I will say: They come to take the ‘guesswork’ out of [reaching] the goal. Reading labels are con-fusing. Most already know what to do, but think they have to deprive themselves. We actually have chocolate and chips!

ST: What do you advise them to do?

Bates: I listen to them. Some like pasta… some like junk food... some like home style foods. The snacks are the favorite. I often say, ‘I work for chocolate, myself,’ I lost 30 pounds 18 years ago with Nutrisystem, and have worked here ever since.

ST: What is the key to helping your costumers see results from Nutrisystem?

Bates: I focus on what people like, and not what they don’t like. Nutrisystem has products for ev-ery appetite. We fashion a diet of food that our customers like, and we steer away from ones they don’t. The key to staying on a diet is enjoy-ing the food.

ST: What is the biggest mistake people make in dieting?

Bates: Not eating enough of the food groups. People should eat five times a day, and make sure they are not empty calories.

ST: What advice do you have for our readers to become or stay healthy?

Bates: Losing weight for a particular occasion,

such as a class reunion, is dieting. Choosing a different style of eating habits is the key to maintaining a healthy weight loss, and staying healthy.

Want us to cover a par-ticular topic of expertise? Nominate a local expert by Facebooking us at www.facebook.com/semo.times.



BusinessDieting

Diane Bates, distributor of

Nutrisystem

Looking for a New Career?Do you hate time clocks?

Do you have a Facebook page?Do you know Charlie Sheen’s one-word catchphrase?

If you got four affirmations on our pop quiz, then we may have the opportunity you have been searching for.

We, at 573 Media, are expanding our sales team. If you are looking to join Southeast Missouri’s fastest growing media company in this seemingly desolate industry, e-mail your best resume to [email protected]. Let’s see if we have a winning combo on our hands. No phone calls necessarily.



Opinion & Editorial“The Unforgiven”

The other morning, in church, we were asked the question, “How do you love someone that is unlovable?”

First, I believe the question was asked be-cause there was a sense of unforgiveness in the congregation. I think at one time or another we all have people in our lives that have hurt us, and we mark them as people we are unwilling to forgive or maybe unwilling to love.

Let’s hit this head on—love is a choice. Just like you choose what shoes you wear in the morning or what restaurant you are going to eat at for lunch. Jesus didn’t consider anyone to be unlovable. He showed us unconditional love when he was nailed to the cross and died so that we may have life, and have it more abundantly. When there is a seed of unforgiveness placed in our hearts, the bitterness grows and grows until it’s not just one person we aren’t forgiving, it then turns into a few people.

Have you ever watched a dandelion spread after you have mown the lawn. Dandelions destroy a yard and are very unwanted. Yet when you mow them they spread everywhere. Kind of like unforgiveness. Once you don’t forgive one person, then the next time you have an issue with a person it becomes so much easier to not forgive them either.

To have life more abundantly, we must choose our actions wisely. Is there some-one in your past that you haven’t forgiven? Maybe you believe you have forgiven them

“The Call”Some of the women of Bread Shed felt a

desire to reach out to ladies of all walks of life and decided to do something that has never been done in this area before. I have lived here all my life, and never have I seen anything like Petra Ballet Company in our city. So, we women have invited the Petra Ballet Company of Springfield, to come to Poplar Bluff on April 29-30 to minister at our Women’s Conference. The conference is free to the public and will be totally financed by the generous monetary gifts of our sponsors.

I personally became acquainted with two of the ballerinas about three years ago and have met the entire troupe recently. In addition, I watched a practice of their presentation, “The Call,” two weeks ago. (By the way, “The Call” is off-the-chart awesome!!) These young, pro-fessional dancers have committed their hearts to use the talents God has given them to present the truth of the Gospel.

You may access more information about them at www.petraballet.com. Their leader is Kim Raymond, who was a member of the nationally known Christian ballet company, Ballet Magni-ficat!, before moving to the Springfield area.

Their vision statement: “Petra Ballet Com-pany desires to give Jesus Christ the highest praise with our talents. Our mission is to exalt His name through dance, revive hearts through worship, and make Him known through excel-lence in the arts. With Jesus as the foundation of this company, we are committed to share our passion for Him with the city of Springfield and the surrounding community. Petra Ballet Com-pany is a non-profit organization.”

Helena DiNicola EubanksPoplar Bluff

To submit a letter to the editor or become a contributing columnist, e-mail the managing

editor Tim Krakowiak at [email protected].

but you choose to stay away from them and have no interaction. What if Jesus told you that because of your past mistakes that he wasn’t going to forgive you?

I am so glad we serve a loving God that for-gives us even when we don’t deserve it. With-out a doubt there are people in this world that we believe that do not deserve a second chance or to be forgiven. Is that having the mind of Christ?

And now I ask you this question: If someone that you say you have forgiven asks for your help today, would you be willing to extend a hand?

Linda HerbertPoplar Bluff



News section www.semotimes.com

the variation of pricing between Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center and Poplar Bluff Medical Partners,” Carda said. “In addition, through our recent acquisition of Bluff Radiology, we are now able to provide expanded imag-ing services at competitive pricing comparable to outpatient surgery centers.”

Since last year, HMA has made more than $13.5 million in capi-tal investments in Poplar Bluff, including the $2.4 million acquisi-tion to expand women’s services plus an expan-sion of the intensive care unit equivalent in cost in the last six months. PBRMC also has obtained the state’s only da Vinci Surgi-cal System with an accompany-ing simulator and MAKOplasty robotic technology for partial knee resurfacing, Carda said.

The PBRMC CEO said that in 2010, PBRMC invested approxi-mately $44 million in wages and benefits as the community’s largest employer, paid more than $1.3 million in property and sales taxes, gave more than $100,000 to local charities and nonprofits, and pro-vided more than $58.7 million in charity and uncompensated care.

‘POLITICAL, EXPENSIVE AND TIME CONSUMING’

Poplar Bluff Medical Partners obtained close to 4,000 letters of support for BRCMC from multiple counties, area business leaders and legislators, including a peti-tion with more than 500 signatures compiled by Dr. Dorothy Munch, owner of Poplar Bluff Wellness Clinic, an independent family practice. Her “vested interest is not financial, it’s this town,” she said.

Two weeks ago at the chamber of commerce, Munch and other community leaders met with Jim

Lim-baugh, execu-tive vice president of plan-ning & business develop-ment for Southeast

Hospital, which competes with Poplar Bluff Medical Partners’ affiliate Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

When Limbaugh was encour-aged not to testify against BRCMC next month, he claimed Southeast Hospital’s resistance was simply a matter of principle, that a three-bed hospital would receive a higher reimbursement per diem rate than a full-service hospital, Munch said.

“It only matters in that they resent that fact,” said Dave Libla, founder of Mid-Continent Nail Corporation in Poplar Bluff, who also participated in the meeting. “I walked away knowing they genuinely aren’t interested in ad-ditional competition.”

While Southeast Hospital did not immediately respond to a media request from the SEMO Times, Limbaugh indicated to Munch today that her request would be addressed during an executive committee meeting next week.

State Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, said he supports both CONs, and any investment in health care in the region at that. “We lose tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars each day to Cape, St. Louis, Mem-phis and Jones-boro,” he said.

Richardson commended both PBRMC and Poplar Bluff Medical Part-ners for engag-ing legislators and making their case, which has included each operation having several registered lobbyists in Jefferson City. He will pursue legislation over the next year and a half to eliminate the CON process

altogether, like other states have already done, the representative went on to say.

“If we’ve got a private company that wants to come in and invest money in our community, why does a committee of people who have no connection to Poplar Bluff have any say in the matter?” Rich-ardson questioned. “It becomes very political, expensive and time consuming, and at the end of the day, does it really ensure better health care for our state?”

Tim Kra-kowiak can be

reached by e-mailing [email protected].

continued from page 5

Columns www.semotimes.com



John n.

FoXorthodontics &

dentoFacial orthopedicschildren - teens - adults

1-800-FOX-GRIN(1-800-369-4746) 785-1466JOHN N. FOX, DDS MS PC

1300 N. WESTWOOD SUITE B Poplar Bluff

“The Real Poplar Bluff Poplar”You may have noticed banners lining some streets in town

featuring poplar leaves. This is a laudable effort; unfortu-nately the leaves depicted are of a European poplar. There may be a few growing around town, but they are not native, and certainly were not growing here when Poplar Bluff was named.

The confusion is understandable. Butler County came into being in 1849, and according to the book, “A View of a Growing Town,” originally published in 1884, “at that time Poplar Bluff was simply the name of a certain section of wilderness so named by virtue of the large growth of poplar timber which presented… the appearance of a bluff from a river view.” The grove of trees was probably on the west side of the Black River in what is now downtown Poplar Bluff. George R. Loughead, in his “Early History of Butler County, Missouri (1987),” says that these trees were actually tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera), botanically not a poplar at all, but a relative of the magnolia.

I’m not sure how they got the name poplar. Loughead says that in a forest “the trunk… is free of limbs to a great height, giving it the appearance of a tall, straight column.” European poplars are often described as “columnar.” What branches they have grow very close to the trunk, so maybe that’s why.

Today it’s simply called “tulip tree,” primarily because of its unique, cuplike flowers of chartreuse and orange, a little flatter than a tulip but about the same size. The leaves, while not exactly tulip-like, have a floral form as well.

There are a few growing around the courthouse. They are a bit scraggly, having been hacked up by street pruners. The best specimen I know of is a block north of the Rodgers The-atre at Oak and Broadway. It might be in bloom by the time you read this. Tulip trees are a good landscape choice if you have room. They have no serious faults that I know of, and planted in the open in good soil, attain a beautiful form.

For several years there’s been a push to make Poplar Bluff the “crape myrtle capital of Missouri.” Crape myrtles are the bushes that start blooming in midsummer and go on and on until you get sick of them. Their traditional color is “water-melon,” but thanks to modern science they now come in all sorts of improbable and garish colors, not to mention sizes.

Anyway, I thought we’d be having the crape myrtle festival by now—there should be enough of them. I don’t know what the holdup is, but if that’s what we’re doing, by all means let’s get on with it. But if you would like to plant something that both honors our history and contributes something meaning-ful to posterity, consider planting a tulip tree, the real Poplar Bluff poplar.

ID TheftIdentification theft is on the rise. Phishing attacks and mal-

ware tirelessly pry private information from us. ID theft is not limited to people using the Internet. News sources report data breaches at companies and government institutions regularly. While government, top universities and security companies around the globe work to create software, biometrics and other solutions to ID theft, the best protection is prevention. Most institutions have stopped practice of using e-mail for account verification processes. Online applications use secure connections and features like CAPTCHA to prevent automat-ed account creation to use in spamming or phishing. Seems for every countermeasure, another Trojan is released. Long story short, prevention is in your court. Listed below are some steps you can take to help prevent ID theft:

• Check your credit reports. You can obtain a free copy of your credit reports from each of the three credit bureaus every year. Scan report and get errors fixed. Close old accounts you no longer use. Set up credit monitoring with each of the three bureaus. This step doesn’t prevent ID theft but can alert you when there’s an attempt to acquire credit in your name.

• Protect your social security number. Memorize the number and store your card in a safe. Don’t carry the card with you. Only use for employment, medical and financial ap-plications like those for loans, interest accounts and brokerage accounts.

• Destroy sensitive documents. Both at work and at home, practice shredding documents, CDs, DVDs and credit cards you do not need. Shredders have become robust enough to destroy computer media and plastic cards. Software can do the same for documents stored on computers.

• Encrypt and lock up sensitive data. Computer software can be used to encrypt data at rest on computers. Similarly, paper documents and media should be locked in a file cabinet or safe, and not left out open on a desk.

• Use secure passwords. Create strong passwords and refrain from using the same password for multiple accounts. Change passwords on a regular basis. When possible, apply security questions to online accounts. Refrain from using security questions that ask for something that would be avail-able on public record like maiden name or a street you used to live on.

Be diligent, use common sense and read more at: Detect. Deter. Defend - sponsored by FTC: www.ftc.gov/

bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/index.html On Guard Online - sponsored by several federal agencies:

www.onguardonline.gov/ID Theft resource center - a non-profit: www.idtheftcenter.

org/index.htmlBret and Judy Ladewig are local business owners of 1-2-1

Computer Services providing Web services, online marketing, computer training and repair. Go to www.1-2-1computerser-vices.com.

Fork in the Road: Castello’sby Mark Cozart, SEMO Times Some would say that there are few fine

dining options in the 573 area. Sure, there are several nice restaurants that are charming, romantic and full of wonderful food. However, Poplar Bluff has only one fine dining restaurant in Castello’s. The ambiance is simple, yet refined enough to make a person feel special. The res-taurant brilliantly finds a way to make the expe-rience an inexpensive spare-no-expenses dinner.

The salads are an absolute must in Italian cui-sine, and that is definitely true when ordering at Castello’s. There is something magical about feta cheese, and something downright heavenly about the restaurant’s signature Italian salad dressing. After the salad, try the brie wrapped in phyllo with crusty bread. Then, order anything off the menu because it is all delicious and full of rich Italian flavor. Are you in the mood for something other than pasta? Try the St. Louis style pizza, which is a thin and crispy pizza pie that makes Missouri proud. If you are not in the mood for fancy eating, but craving good food and drink, check out the enclosed bar inside the restaurant.

It is nice that Poplar Bluff has an Italian place (something with which we have had a problem getting and keeping in the past) that serves won-derful food with outstanding service and charm. If you decide to eat there, make sure to strike up a conversation with the men and women who work there, because they are a big part of what makes this place magnifico.

The Ramblerwith Gordon Johnston





Arts section www.semotimes.com

For: Redemption

Picture a man walking through a deep, dark and dangerous sewer tunnel with a camera dangling from his neck. The man is breathing heavily from the jaunt, fueled by adrenaline. He is looking for old ruins neglected and forsaken, yet locked away and forbidden from being seen. Now frame that picture and continue reading about Dennis Minner Jr. and his mission to bring “redemption” to the forgotten and neglected places.

It would be easy to say that Minner is a photographer who takes pictures of dilapidated buildings. Likewise, it would be simple to see a picture of a tattered and torn lime green chair and think it is all about the color and con-trast. However, there is something much more intricate about the inspiration behind his body of work. He likes to say that his work is kind of part picture taker and part Indiana Jones, due to the discovery of old forgotten buildings like churches, asylums and homes. It must be stressed that this kind of art isn’t just exciting; it’s slightly dangerous and very much illegal.

Minner does not find these “treasures” because he likes the rush or to disregard to public property. It is a crusade to capture the fallen bricks, the cracked ceilings, and old chairs and offer them a kind of redemption. One such picture is of an old cathedral with fallen walls and broken windows with a chalk written sign that says “holy.” The afternoon light shines forth through the old window and it is evident that this place is forgotten only by man.

I find his work to be similar to the plight that every person must endure. Time will turn us into old ruins with cracked walls with a few tattered arti-facts. Minner is an artist whose work speaks of a tale bequeathed to us from the past. They are our nation’s ruins visited only by the afternoon light, and there is a man that captures them for the entire world to see and redeem.

Visit www.facebook.com/dennisminner to see more photos, and don’t for-get to check out the exhibit at Fay’s Place in Poplar Bluff through April 30.

Entertainment section www.semotimes.com



Activity section www.semotimes.com



8 pm Friday April 15The Wine RackJimmy Davis

Noon Saturday April 16Van Buren City ParkLending a Hand River Race

1 to 4 pm Saturday April 16Bowz and MoreLittle Miss Muffett Tea Party

7 pm Saturday April 16Rodgers TheatreApologetiX

7 pm Thursday April 21Black River ColiseumNewsboys

9 am Saturday April 232737 Mill StRockstar Marketing Seminar

8 pm Saturday April 23The Wine RackChas 16th

7 pm Friday April 29727 Ridge AveWomens Conference

8 pm Friday April 29The Wine RackJefferson Fox

9 am Saturday April 30727 Ridge AveWomens Conference

10 am to 8 pm Saturday April 30Three Rivers CollegeMerchants Showcase

8 pm Saturday April 30The Wine RackNickel DiamondTo submit an event go to www.semotimes.com

and click on the +Bluffee tab

ALL NEW INSIDE

New Owners

TUESDAY NIGHT: DART LEAGUES WEDNESDAY NIGHT: KARAOKE

THURSDAY NIGHT: POOL LEAGUESFRIDAY NIGHT: KARAOKE

SATURDAY NIGHT: BANDS NEW OWNERS: GREG SMITH & KURT

RICHARDSON

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4.15.11 SEMO Times