16
FREE May 6, 2011 Butler County Officials Look to Feds for Levee Repair Reform in Broken System SEMO TIMES www.semotimes.com

5.6.11 SEMO Times

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

SEMO Times web edition

Citation preview

FREEMay 6, 2011

Butler County Officials Look to Feds for Levee Repair

Reform in Broken System

SEMOTIMESwww.semotimes.com

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOMpage 2

SEMO TIMES5.6.11 Volume 3 Issue 26

2725 N. Westwood Blvd.Suite 17

Poplar Bluff, MO 63901573-785-2200

Inside this edition

The Week in Review - 3The Social Network - 3

Feature: Broken System - 4News Briefs - 5

Your Local Expert - 6Opinion: Steve Cookson - 7

Opinion: Medical Partners - 7Flooding Social Networks - 10

To Have and to Hold -11Fashion Column - 11

Baseball Column - 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]

It was a good week for Pres. Barrack Obama. It’s hard to have a bad week when you catch the

most wanted terrorist on the plan-et. Thumbs gets it, Obama didn’t strangle him with his bare hands, but he was the president when he was caught. One word for Republicans who want to nitpick the pgraresident over this one: Scoreboard.

It was a good week for Poplar Bluff. If any com-munity has deserved a party it is ours. Community leader

Francisco Esquivel hosted the entire area for his annual Cinco de Mayo celeberation at Las Margaritas. Great bands, and a lot of fun. Wonderful job.

It was a good week for Mo. Speaker of the House Steve Tilley. In an age where our leaders pussy-

foot around every issue with loads of meaningless political correctness, the speaker told it like it was regard-ing the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-neers’ inention-ally blowing up a levee in Missouri to save Cairo, Ill. He basically said he would save the farms. Thumbs agrees, and thanks him for his can-dor. What if they wanted to flood Jefferson County to save East St. Louis?

It was a bad week forThree R i v e r s

College. Well it was a couple weeks ago, but thumbs has been busy staying dry. President Dr. Devin Stephenson applied for a job at Dayona Beach. Clutch time for the trustees.

www.semotimes.com current events Section

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOM page 3

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

pic in the newspaper

NONoNoNo

BothYES

Yesdefinitely yes

the social network

how to join our social network:

from our

friends on: #1 Do you have flood insurance?

#2 Would you like to see both or either Poplar Bluff hospital

receive state approval to move forward during the certificate of

need hearing next week?

Tim KrakowiakManaging Editor

No levee system in Butler County has proven it can with-stand a 100-year flood based on standards set by the Federal Emer-gency Management Agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security.

There are six levees with over-seeing boards in Butler County, five of which have been disaccred-ited by FEMA over the past several years.

One district has entered a PAL agreement with the government agency through which the board over the provisionally accredited levee is nearing the end of its two-year period to prove a flood only has a 1 percent annual chance of occurring, according to county of-ficials.

“They say they’re 100-year

floods—I done lived through three of them myself,” said Dale Bur-nett, manager of Riggs Wholesale Supply Company, and an employ-ee of nearly five decades. “Seems like the weather patterns any more are so extreme. Who ever heard of getting 20 some inches of rain in just about a week and a half?”

Twenty inches of water from the swollen Black River entered Riggs 53,000-square-foot build-ing in the 1,000 block of Business 60 as a result of the Easter flood. Fortunately, Burnett said, the home supply center participates in the national flood insurance program (NFIP) administered by FEMA.

Riggs is in Drainage District 12, which spans about five miles and encompasses what officials call the ring levee system that is intended to protect the east side of Poplar Bluff from the river overtopping.

The Butler County Commission

oversees DD12, as required under Missouri law since there is no private levee board, but that does not mean general funds can be used to upkeep the levee. Ac-cording to Butler County Emergency Management Direc-tor Rick Sliger, the district generates $3,000 annually from a levee tax at $5 per parcel and uses more than half the total for maintenance, which city em-ployees help carry out.

In order to fulfill the PAL agree-ment, the board needs $40,000 to hire a professional engineer to conduct a statistical analysis, yet

the district only has about $22,000 from excess revenue over the past decade or so, Sliger explained. Without the designation, FEMA treats the property within the flood-plain as if no levee exists, which

www.semotimes.com News Section

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOMpage 4

Butler County Officials Look to Feds for Levee Repair Reform in Broken System

Butler County Emergency Management Director Rick Sliger (left) and Presiding Commissioner Ed Strenfel (center) multi-task while being interviewed last week at

the Black River Coliseum.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOM page 5

www.semotimes.com News Section

semotimes.comdaily updates

MON - subfeature Tues - local expert

WEDs - almost famousthurs- guest column

fri - print edition

Special Graduation for Three Rivers Student Vets Wednesday

Student veterans at Three Rivers College will take part in a special graduation ceremony recognizing both their academic achievement and service to their country at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Tinnin Fine Arts Center.

Free Admission to Three Riv-ers Spring Musical Friday

In light of the recent flooding disasters, the Three Rivers College music department will present its spring musical, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” for free at the Tinnin Fine Arts Center at 7 p.m. Friday.

Godsmack and Coliseum Part-ner to Aid Flood Victims Tuesday

Boston rock band Godsmack and the Black River Coliseum have teamed up in a special promotion to raise money to support three organizations that have provided invaluable assistance during the recent flooding in Southeast Mis-souri. The weather emergency resulted in the designation of the coliseum as a shelter for area flood victims and necessitated the re-scheduling of the April 30 Gods-mack concert to Tuesday.

Southern Bank Teaches Youth Finance through Online

ProgramSouthern Bank announced the

availability of MoneyIsland, an educational and entertaining online world that helps tweens ages eight to 14 in three key financial areas: saving and spending, earning and investing, and using credit wisely.

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

@ semotimes.com

for property owners means they are responsible to buy expensive flood insurance.

“We at the local level don’t have money—it’ll take millions of dol-lars—to clean out the Black River to the government’s standards, and the Corps of Engineers doesn’t have funding. If they don’t have funding, who does?” asked Butch Anderson, eastern district com-missioner. “The levee tax was set years ago and it’s hardly enough to clean the levee, but nobody wants

to pay higher taxes.”

In order to qualify to enter a cost share agreement with the federal government, a drainage district must be in active status through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ rehabilitation and inspection pro-gram, and receive an “acceptable” or “minimally acceptable” grade in an annual levee maintenance inspection.

“You’ve got all these levees with people living and working behind them but they don’t know if its protected from a 100-year flood, and none of them got flood insurance, so now you start seeing the economic danger,” said P.J. Spaul, Corps chief of public af-fairs over the Little Rock District. “I think it’s kind of a misnomer to say FEMA decertified a levee; the levee board did not get the levee certified.”

Flood maps have existed on the books since the 1970s, according to Josh deBerge, FEMA external affairs specialist for Region 7, based out of Kansas City. In 2004, Congress allocated funds for flood map modernization, a five-year

“I think it’s kind of a misnomer to say FEMA decertified a levee; the levee

board did not get the levee certified.”

-P.J. Spaul,U.S. Army corps of

Engineers

SEMO Times: Tell us about your background?

Jeff Jungbluth: I have been a Farmers agent for about three years. My brother and I ran our own mold remediation company, so I have a great deal of experience in helping people deal with flooding issues. I grew up in Texas County and graduated from College of the Ozarks, and my wife Rhonda is originally from this area.

ST: Have you previously dealt with flooding of this magnitude?

Jungbluth: Not as an insurance agent. This one is enormous. We still do not even know how many claims will be turned in because many people still cannot get back into their homes. I can’t even guess how long it will be until we know how much damage has been done.

ST: What is the first step people who have flood insurance need to do take to begin the process of getting help?

Jungbluth: The first thing they should do is call their agent and go over what kind of coverages and deductible they have. If they can’t find or get to their policy, their agent should be able to find it and help them with their claim.

ST: What assistance is available from the state and federal government for those who have been affected by the flood?

Jungbluth: That is still currently up in the air, because as of now they still haven’t declared this a federal disaster area. The American Red Cross, many local churches, and other local organizations have done a great job to help provide for many

of the im-m e d i a t e needs.

ST: What are some f a c t o r s p e o p l e s h o u l d c o n s i d -er when looking to p u r c h a s e flood in-surance?

Jungblu-th: The b i g g e s t and most important factor is that many people have been told they cannot get flood insurance if they are not in a flood zone, and that is completely untrue. You just need a physical address, and what zone you’re in is the biggest factor in what you will pay. How much do you want and need, and if you want contents covered are also important things to consider.

Jeff Jungbluth can be reached by calling 573-686-1185 or e-mailing [email protected]

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOMpage 6

Business

“Flood Insurance”

Jeff Jungbluth,Owner of Farmers

Insurance in Poplar Bluff

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.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOM page 7

Opinion & Editorial“Patients of our Health Care Region”

To the editor:

Health care - locally and nationally - is in the news. It is a growing concern as Americans are aging and the Medicare funding is being cut. There is a local solution here in Poplar Bluff that has worked well for nearly 10 years. That solution is Poplar Bluff Medical Partners. Poplar Bluff Medical Partners was founded in 2001 specifically to increase quality and decrease cost. We were founded because a group of local doctors wanted to preserve care here so that patients would not have to seek primary care out of town. And it is working. To continue that work, we need to add a three-bed hospital to our campus. This will improve care, make patients more comfortable and increase our payments from the government.

The local hospital, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center and its owner Health Management Associates of Naples, Fla., has a certificate of need to build a replacement hospital for $170 mil-lion. This replacement is long overdue and we support it. There are procedures that require a large hospital.

Our project is also necessary. It is more modest and will cost less than $1 million. It will allow your local physicians an alternative for many services, keeping costs down. The Black River Com-munity Medical Center, a three-bed hospital with emergency services, physical therapy, respira-tory care, dietary services, pharmacy and all of the other associated and required medical services, would operate as a taxable not-for-profit hospital. The hospital would be supported also by a not-for-profit, local foundation known as the Black River Healthcare Foundation.

There has been a lot of talk about these projects. We encourage people to ask questions for we believe there are many great answers. Poplar Bluff Medical Partners supports the construction of both projects. We believe that competition in health care as in every business increases quality and decreases costs.

l Fundamentally there is one question: “Will having two hospitals in Poplar Bluff lower the price for health care for our community, improve overall quality and create healthy competition?”l Emphatically yes. One needs only to look at the costs at Poplar Bluff Medical Partners and

the hospital for proof. Our costs for similar procedures on similar equipment are three times lower than the costs at the hospital. Outpatient procedures at Poplar Bluff Medical Partners like colonos-copies and gall bladder surgery are six times lower than at the hospital. The quality of care is equal - in most cases it is the same physicians. And we believe our staff in a smaller atmosphere is more committed to our patients. l If you need further proof, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s ex-

ecutive summary entitled Improving Health Care: A Dose of Competition; “Vigorous competition, both price and non-price, can have important benefits in health care… price competition generally results in lower prices and, thus broader access to health care products and services.”

Additional Internet Articles re: health care competition available for you to read:-www.ncpa.org/pub/st296?pg=4;-www.me-ri.org/july262005healthcarecostnewsrelease.htm;-reason.com/archives/2009/07/16/health-care-competition;-www.nber.org/digest/mar00/w7266.html

Poplar Bluff Medical Partners’ commitment to quality and affordability will be part of what the Black River Community Medical Center offers to you and your family. We will, in fact, lower your health care costs by offering inpatient care at a lower price than the hospital. We have done this for 10 years with outpatient imaging services and outpatient surgical services. Compare our MRI charges and subsequent out of pocket expenses to the hospital - we are three times less. Compare our outpatient surgical services – we are six times less. These are real costs savings our patients are realizing right now.

The Black River Community Medical Center will complete the commitment made by your lo-cal physicians in 2001 - to continue the choice for high quality health care at lower costs. It is not complicated - we save you money. It is a project that deserves your support.

Thank you for your support,

Michael Burcham Sr.,president and chief executive officerPoplar Bluff Medical Partners

Balanced Budget By State Rep. Steve Cookson, 153rd

We are entering the home stretch of the 2011 legisla-tive session, with several bills left to tackle and a bud-get to send to the governor.

The best part about the Fiscal Year 2012 budget for Missouri is that it will be balanced without raising taxes. Education remains our top priority, and we will continue to fund it at this year’s levels, plus it will add funding to school transportation and higher education. The Missouri Legislature added $20 million for K-12 transpor-tation, which means nearly $120 million will go toward transportation for school districts.

The 2012 fiscal year will start on July 1. The $23.2 billion budget is very close to what the governor presented to the legislature back in January. Once again, we have had to make very tough decisions. The state is required to have a balanced budget every year, unlike the federal government. We do not spend any money we do not have. When we heard late last year we could expect a $500 million deficit, we have gone to work finding ways to save in some areas and make all of state government function better.

Our work is not finished, though. We are al-ready hearing that FY13 could prove to be more challenging, depending on the economy over the next year. We could see anywhere from a $200 million to a $700 million shortfall for the fiscal year that will start in 2012. We knew, when the recession started, that this would be a long jour-ney. We are prepared for what is to come. Smart budgeting has kept Missouri above where most states are financially, and this trend will continue.

Fortunately, revenues are up in Missouri, but now is not the time to start creating new pro-grams and making promises that cannot be kept. With fuel prices climbing and straining our fam-ily and economic budgets, caution and careful planning are necessary. Our policy of budgeting conservatively has proven to be a successful method, and it will remain this way. My hope is to see continued economic growth combine with the pro-jobs agenda of the Missouri General Assembly to make the state an economic power-house and lead the country in the years to come.

It was good to see the young people and their teachers from Alton Schools this week. Visiting with these and other young folks at the capitol serves as God’s reminder to all us. Our purpose is protecting and providing a better future for our children and respecting promises made to our senior citizens.

As always it a pleasure serving the good folks

of the 153rd district. You can contact me at 573-751-1066 or [email protected].

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOMpage 10

News section www.semotimes.com

Tim KrakowiakManaging Editor

The real time speed of social networking was reinforced Sun-day when the leaked news went viral on Twitter 45 minute before Pres. Barrack Obama made the announcement that United States Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden.

The undeniable force of social media was used in Southeast Mis-souri over the past two weeks after the Easter flood to share informa-tion about road closings and severe weather, and to recruit volunteers and get supplies to victims.

“This event has proven the use-fulness of social media as a tool to establish a news feed with rapid developments in the community, the downside being inaccuracy,” said State Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff. “But when you have the Poplar Bluff Police De-partment and the National Weather Service in the mix, you can’t deny the real time functionality.”

Richardson used Twitter last week to provide official updates he was privy to such as announc-ing that the Missouri National Guard was being mobilized in Poplar Bluff. He put out a success-ful tweet to recruit volunteers in helping to fill sandbags at the city’s maintenance shed.

It is the personalized touch that provides validation to the social networks, according to Pastor Jim Hoyt of Agee Fellowship Church, who also became a spot news

reporter in his own right, provid-ing pictures on Facebook from his travels throughout the flooded Bootheel.

“On Facebook, you can say ‘We need hand sanitizer at the colise-um,’ and my phone vibrates while I could be driving in my car near Walmart,” Hoyt explained. “We could have no electricity, but my iPhone still works.”

The police department’s fol-lowers more than doubled to over 500 as law enforcement officers became more active in tweeting about areas of the city that would be evacuated.

In one instance, an Arizona woman informed police that her 90-year-old blind aunt, Delvina Ferren, might need assistance in getting out of her Poplar Bluff home. Officers responded that Fer-ren’s neighborhood was unaffected by floodwater.

“Times are changing,” said Sgt. Keith Hefner, patrol supervisor and assistant information technology manager for the police department. “We don’t have the National Guard handing out flyers any more. We cover a whole lot more ground in a short period of time [through social networking].”

Poplar Bluff native LaTricia Owens said she could remember the flood of 1982 when she lived on Karen Drive before the World Wide Web existed in its present form.

“We didn’t have Facebook, the

[Black River] Coliseum, no shel-ters to go to,” Owens recalled. “Cops would go door to door and they would notify people that way,

which was so time consuming. Now we can get information to everybody up to the second.”

Community takes Reporting in their own Hands on Social Networks during Flood

This is a Screen Shot of the Poplar Bluff Weather and Community Facebook Page launched during the flood

by LaTricia Owens of Poplar Bluff.

Columns www.semotimes.com

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOM page 11

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

“To Have and to Hold”So many times have I heard the phrase “To have

and to hold” in wedding nuptials. I think it is essen-tial to hold our spouse and show them affection. This got me to thinking though, about our children.

If we have taken vows to have and to hold our spouses, shouldn’t we also make a commitment to hold our children? Do you know the affect it would have on a child if you took the time to just give them a hug or sit and hold them?

As a society and as parents we are failing our children. Everybody wants and deserves to be loved and shown affection. Children grow up to be adults. When we don’t show them love as children, how will they be able to show that love when they get older?

Wow and I can hear it now, “I don’t have time, I work two jobs,” or “my kids don’t want that kind of attention.” How can we not take the time when our kids are depending on us to do this for them? It should be as natural as feeding them supper or taking them to church or ball practice. It doesn’t take long to give your child a hug and say “I love you.”

Face it, our kids have bad days just as us adults do, and a hug would make them feel more secure in a very unsecure world. At night when I sit down to relax, I love to sit next to one of my children and just hold them or put my arm around them while we read or watch a show. Even though three out of four of my children are grown and have left home, I love to snuggle with them and talk about what is happening in their lives.

Our children never get too old to love and to hold. Just remember, the next time you are having a rough day and wish you had a hug from somebody, your children feel the same way. God has given these children to us to love and nurture and to raise in the ways of the Lord. They are a very precious gift and we should cherish them always.

“Mom: The Fashionista”There is no doubt in my mind that a person’s mother is

the single most important factor in making a person who they are. That goes for fashion and personal style, also.

Lucky for me, my mother always had a great sense of style. I could play in her closet or down in the basement where she stored all of her old clothes for hours.

I thought I’d discovered the treasure of the century when I discovered her 1958 blue prom dress. Its taffeta full skirt had an almost cloud-like appearance. I thought it was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen in my life. Like so many treasures, I’m sure it got sold in a yard sale. Damn those yard sales.

But I can still see it clearly in my mind. And the shoes! Mom had shoes fit for Cinderella herself.

And then I discovered her hats… up high on a shelf in her closet.

Most of them were funeral hats, because Mom didn’t often wear hats. Still… they were gorgeous... mysterious in their black mournfulness. If I had hats like that today, I’d be wishing for someone to die just so I could wear one. Nobody close to me, mind you, but some distant aunt or uncle twice or three times removed... just close enough to be able to wear one of those amazing funeral hats.

I’m not alone in my fascination for my mother’s clothes. I just discovered a new blog, www.momstyleicons. Women from all over are sending in photos of their moms as fash-ionistas. It’s absolutely fantastic. And the reason? It lets us have a peek at our mothers as their former selves, often before we came along. You think you know your mom? No… not really… often she was a totally different person before you came to know her. Those old photos tell a lot about how she saw herself. It’s an insight into her hopes and dreams before she became the mother you know.

What does this tell me?That mothers and aunts have incredible power over the

future. They are our first role models. How they dress not only gives us fashion cues for the future, but it tells us about the women we want to be. Through their clothes, hair, jewelry and other accessories, they express self-con-fidence, creativity, and their demands to be known as an individual… not just someone’s wife or mother.

So… in developing your personal style, think about what you want to say to future generations about yourself. Because believe me… someday your kids, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren will be looking at old family photos looking for clues.

They will be looking for clues about who you were… and who they will be.

Give them some really good stuff to find.Tammy Hilderbrand is the owner of Hilderbrand

Diamond Company in Poplar Bluff. You can reach her by e-mailing [email protected]

Pujols Hitting .239 “What’s Up With That?”

I will preface this column with this: I’m not entirely sure what the following numbers mean, but the stats read like this:

According to FanGraphs, Albert Pujols’ out-of-zone swing percentage of 20.9 percent is only 0.6 points higher than his career average. Not alarming. His contact rate on those swings, unfortunately, is 85.4 perfect, representing an 18 point increase from his career average. What it says is that while he hasn’t necessarily started swingingly wildly at bad pitches, when he does swing, he’s unfortunately putting a lot more of those bad pitches in play.

And those numbers help explain this one: his batting average on balls in play through Monday is .213, a full 100 points lower than he averages. Alarming. The line is an easy one to draw - you swing at bad pitches, you make bad contact. Cause, meet effect.

When pitchers feel confident that they can get you out, they pitch to you. Hence, his walk rate is down. His on-base percentage is down. His OPS starts with a 7. He looks... human.

And that my friends is the bottom line. He’s human. I’m not sure if it’s age that’s getting him. Maybe he’ll never be the same hitter. On the other hand, maybe tomorrow he snaps out of it. Maybe it’s his contract in his head. Who knows, but what I think the lesson learned is it all starts with pitch selection. Get ahold of me, Pujols.

Scott R. Faughn is the president of 573 Media, publishers of the SEMO Times and 573 Maga-zine; a Capricorn; commissioner of WWCW wrestling; lifelong Cardinals devotee; and a grape farmer. Twitter: @scottrfaughn.

Linda Smith

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOMpage 12

During the initial flooding last week, Owens observed before going to bed that a ‘friend’ on KFVS-12 meteorologist John Dissauer’s Facebook page suggested for someone to create a centralized page for flood updates.

Owens recalled waking up at 2:30 a.m. with a notion to create the Face-book fan page, Poplar Bluff Weather and Community. By the time she checked it again just hours later, there were about 1,000 fans, a figure that has since tripled.

“Poplar Bluff Weather and Community page was the most helpful news source I found,” said Karen Exelby, one of the followers. Another follow-er, Misty Lumpkins called the page a “godsend.”

A disabled woman with a degenerative disc condition of her back, Ow-ens took the initiative to keep people informed day in and out through use of a scanner and watching the weather on television.

At one point, Owens managed to coordinate donations from Save-A-Lot and other individuals within a half hour, resultantly delivering food to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who were sandbagging Wappapello Lake.

“It showed that there are caring people in this community,” Owens said. “We all banded together and helped each other out, whether it was kind words, food, clothing and even money in one case.”

Owens said she would continue to use the page to help families in need, even during times of no disaster.

Tim Krakowiak can be reached by e-mailing [email protected].

News section www.semotimes.com

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOM page 13

News section www.semotimes.com

effort to reduce the government’s escalating cost of disaster assis-tance by holding the private sector accountable.

“It’s a responsibility of owning

a levee, that the funding responsi-bility lies on the levee’s owner,” deBerge said. “Look what’s hap-pened in Poplar Bluff with the failed levees. That’s what we’re trying to show, that if you live behind a levee, that doesn’t mean you’re immune to flood damage.”

Four breaches in levees on the south and west sides of the Black

River between Poplar Bluff and Qulin occurred last week. At least two of the breaks took place along County Road 607, the same area where the levee failed in 2008 and received an “unacceptable” rating from the Corps after it was repaired by farmers.

Butler County officials say they are in a catch-22, that drainage districts with minimal infrastruc-ture and consequently a smaller tax base cannot afford to meet the standards to become eligible for monetary assistance. “It’s a goofy system,” Sliger stated.

He has represented a local group of leaders that are seeking support to reduce rules and regulations on the Congressional level, which has included meeting with Missouri Republicans, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, in recent days.

Emerson’s office did not respond to a media request from the SEMO Times, but Blunt’s communica-tions director, Amber Marchand, wrote the following in an e-mail:

“Local match pertaining to

projects of national significance is an impor-tant issue. Sen. Blunt is interested in any report that shows Missouri’s infrastructure is sub par, and he will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Tim Krakowiak can be reached my e-mailing [email protected].

“The levee tax was set years ago and it’s

hardly enough to clean the levee, but

nobody wants to pay higher taxes.”

-Butch Anderson,Butler county

commission

continued from page 5

Hundreds of flood evacuees sought shelter at the black

River Coliseum Last week.

www.semotimes.com

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOMpage 14

Activity section www.semotimes.com

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE

www.SEMOTIMES.cOM page 15

8 pm Friday May 6The Wine RackChristina Taddonio and Friends

7 am Saturday May 7Whiteley ParkCAP semiannual yard sale

2 to 6 pm Saturday May 7Indian Hills Winery PuxicoBill Booth Live

7 pm May 7Rodgers TheatreComedian Aaron Wilburn

5 pm Thursday May 12Black River ColiseumTaste of the Town

8pm Friday May 13The Wine RackBarnett and Gurley

7 pm Saturday May 14Rodgers TheatrePam Tillis Unplugged

8pm Friday May 20The River Centre in Van BurenRay Wylie HubbardPowder Mill

8 pm Saturday May 21The River Center in Van BurenRay Wylie Hubbard Part 2

8 pm Friday June 3The Wine RackDustin Martin and Friends

To submit an event go to www.semotimes.com and click on the +Bluffee tab