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JUly 29, 2011 VOl. 3 ISSUE 35 - SEMO TIMES

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Vol. 3 Issue <strong>35</strong><br />

July <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2011</strong>


page 2<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

www.semotImes.com


www.semotimes.com current events Section<br />

semo Inside this The Week in Review<br />

tImes edition<br />

complete, and apparently long overdue. Glad<br />

7.<strong>29</strong>.11<br />

The Week in Review - 3<br />

It was a good week for the the kids are off of the traffic congested North<br />

Volume 3 Issue <strong>35</strong><br />

American taxpayer. So far Con- Main Street.<br />

2725 N. Westwood<br />

gress hasn’t been able to raise the<br />

The Social Network - 3<br />

Suite 17<br />

debt ceiling. Republicans may have<br />

It was a good week for the Pop-<br />

actually found the only way to cut govern-<br />

Poplar Bluff, MO<br />

lar Bluff Police Department, bust-<br />

Paranomral - 4 ment: amazing.<br />

ing a suspect allegedly involved in<br />

573-785-2200<br />

a drive-by shooting. We have drive-<br />

Scott R. Faughn,<br />

It was a bad week for former bys in Poplar Bluff?<br />

publisher<br />

News Briefs - 5<br />

Carter County Sheriff Tommy<br />

Adams. So far it hasn’t been a ban-<br />

scottfaughn@<br />

It was a good week for Rachel<br />

Expert: Relentless - 6<br />

ner year for the sheriff, but things Joy Woolard, who made a major<br />

semotimes.com<br />

got worse last week when prosecutors piled comeback with her online blog,<br />

on cocaine charge. Tough year.<br />

“From Beauty Queen to Baby<br />

Tim Krakowiak, <strong>SEMO</strong> Review Team - 6<br />

Mama,” offering first-hand advice<br />

managing editor<br />

It was a bad week for deer hunt- to all the single parents out there. Be sure to<br />

tim@semotimes.com Alex Riffle Band - 10<br />

ers—morespecifi- Liz Ellis, Reporter<br />

cally deer hunters<br />

who run dogs while<br />

lizellis@semotimes. Kindergarten Center - 11 hunting. Last year, Judge<br />

com<br />

Robert Smith struck down<br />

Rachel Woolard<br />

Marketing Director<br />

rachel@semotimes.<br />

Social Calendar - 11<br />

Hooked on Science - 12<br />

laws outlawing the use of dogs<br />

in deer hunting. This week an<br />

appeals court overturned his<br />

ruling.<br />

com<br />

Chris Lowry<br />

creative director<br />

chris@semotimes.com<br />

+bluffee Calendar - 15<br />

Take the Times with You - 16<br />

It was a good week<br />

for the Poplar Bluff<br />

School Board. The<br />

state-of-the-art Kindergarten<br />

Center is<br />

the social network<br />

# 1 Are you a skeptic or believer when it<br />

from our<br />

friends at:<br />

&<br />

comes to the paranormal?<br />

Ricky<br />

Allen<br />

Timbush<br />

how to join our<br />

social network:<br />

# 2 Have you ever seen local grassroots band,<br />

Alex Riffle & The Stiff Riffs, perform?<br />

Bridgett<br />

Barnhill<br />

1. Become a friend of <strong>SEMO</strong> Times on Facebook<br />

2. Reply to our questions for a chance to be<br />

featured with your profile pic in the newspaper<br />

Ashlee<br />

Bashaw<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

www.semotImes.com page 3


www.semotimes.com News Section<br />

Century Old Railroad Hotel in Piedmont<br />

Entices Paranormal Investigators<br />

Submitted Photo<br />

The Southwest Ghost Finders of Springfield, Mo. captured this<br />

photo in the old railroad hotel in Piedmont that contains what<br />

they say may be an apparition of a law enforcement officer.<br />

page 4<br />

Tim Krakowiak<br />

Managing Editor<br />

PIEDMONT, Mo. – The turn of the<br />

20th century railroad hotel in Piedmont<br />

has attracted paranormal investigators,<br />

who claim they have captured some supernatural<br />

evidence.<br />

GoDark! Missouri Paranormal Research,<br />

a group of nine amateur ghost<br />

hunters mostly from Wayne County,<br />

investigated the hotel on Elm and<br />

2nd streets for the third time Saturday<br />

night, and produced an electronic voice<br />

phenomenon on a Sony recorder of a<br />

male supposedly asking, “Where’s the<br />

baby?”<br />

On separate visits to the hotel earlier<br />

this year, the group caught EVPs that<br />

could be heard<br />

on their website,www.godarkmpr.webs.<br />

com, which<br />

they believe<br />

to be a teenage<br />

female voice<br />

saying, “My<br />

Grandpa’s in<br />

there” and a<br />

middle aged<br />

man stating,<br />

“He knows the<br />

way.”<br />

“I would say<br />

there’s paranormalactivity<br />

going on<br />

there,” said<br />

Carin Les, who<br />

founded Go-<br />

Dark! in 2008.<br />

A writer, Carin<br />

Les is the<br />

pen name the<br />

Piedmont woman chooses to go by.<br />

She has a book exploring the theory<br />

that spirits are considered energy slated<br />

for a fall release through Tate Publishing,<br />

tentatively titled “Whispers in the<br />

Hallway,” inspired by her experiences<br />

on the second floor of the hotel.<br />

Les has been interested in the paranormal<br />

since before ghost hunting became<br />

popular on national television. In<br />

1992, Les said, she captured an audio<br />

recording, which she believes was her<br />

recently deceased aunt, and has had<br />

premonitions that have since come<br />

true.<br />

Other members of the group have<br />

also developed a curiosity toward the<br />

unexplained, based on personal experiences.<br />

Andrea Birch of Clubb suggested her<br />

childhood home in Brownville, Neb.,<br />

was haunted by a woman who had died<br />

in the house a year prior to them moving<br />

there. Birch said her family contacted<br />

a clairvoyant, who was allegedly<br />

able to postmortemly reunite the woman<br />

with her fiancé, who hanged himself<br />

the day before their wedding.<br />

“Nobody talked about this sort of<br />

thing when I was a little girl, but my<br />

mom did,” said Birch, who is a florist<br />

by day.<br />

A partial remodel of the old railroad<br />

hotel is what the group attributes to<br />

perhaps stirring up paranormal activity<br />

in recent years. Vicki and Jim Roberts,<br />

a retired couple from St. Louis, pur-<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

chased the hotel in 2005 with plans to<br />

turn it into a bed and breakfast. They<br />

got as far as renovating the first floor,<br />

where they lived for the past few years,<br />

until they ran out of financing needed<br />

to complete the project.<br />

“As long as visitors are having fun,<br />

that makes us happy,” Vicki Roberts<br />

said. “I’ve never felt uncomfortable<br />

there.”<br />

Her husband had a freak occurrence<br />

happen in September of 2008, the day<br />

after remnants of Hurricane Ike reeked<br />

havoc in areas of Southeast Missouri.<br />

Early morning that Sunday, Jim Roberts<br />

went upstairs in the former hotel<br />

to check if any damage had been sus-<br />

www.semotImes.com


www.semotimes.com News Section<br />

Photo by Tim Krakowiak<br />

Paranormal investigators Carin Les<br />

(left) and Trina Dougherty use dowsing<br />

rods to try to commnicate with the<br />

other side Saturday at the old railroad<br />

hotel in Piedmont.<br />

tained. Everything appeared normal,<br />

he said, so he went downstairs to have<br />

some coffee. Fifteen minutes later he<br />

heard what sounded like an explosion,<br />

blowing out the windows and the doorframe<br />

of the very room he inspected,<br />

peeling back the roof.<br />

Since there was no destruction anywhere<br />

else in the neighborhood, Jim<br />

Roberts said a microburst, which is a<br />

concentrated downburst of wind, is the<br />

only logical way to describe it. “What<br />

are the odds of it happening in this particular<br />

building?” he said.<br />

Around 1900, the hotel was built to<br />

accommodate railroad workers on account<br />

of the terminal established in<br />

Piedmont in 1872. Linda Lunyou, president<br />

of the Wayne County Historical<br />

Society, said her mother Annie Warrick<br />

boarded at the hotel in 1927, while she<br />

worked at a restaurant on Main Street<br />

called Pollyanna that served the railroad<br />

workers.<br />

In 1939, Newman Richardson purchased<br />

the American Hotel from E.W.<br />

Fitz, and renamed it Hotel Richardson,<br />

where he and his family resided until<br />

they sold it in 1960. The railroad hotel<br />

was the birthplace of four of Newman<br />

and Isabelle Richardson’s five children.<br />

“It was a really wonderful place to<br />

be raised as a child, particularly with<br />

all the guests that came through during<br />

the 1940s and to a degree in the early<br />

‘50s,” recalled Dr. Rayman Richardson,<br />

professor emeritus of Fairmont<br />

State University in West Virginia, during<br />

a phone interview Tuesday. “Salesmen<br />

would use Piedmont as the center<br />

of their working area, then as the roads<br />

got better, they could stay in Poplar<br />

Bluff and work a bigger area.”<br />

The hotel reportedly later served as<br />

an indigent boarding house, and eventually<br />

became home to a tavern known<br />

as the Railroad Lounge, owned by Ray<br />

McGee followed by Randy Zamzow,<br />

before the 7,000 square foot building<br />

sat vacated for several years, becoming<br />

subject to vandalism.<br />

According to a website currently set<br />

up for paranormal investigators to book<br />

the hotel, www.hauntedrailroadhotel.<br />

webs.com, the crime rate increased<br />

during the era when Piedmont was a<br />

booming tourist town.<br />

The online biography reads: “Outlaws,<br />

gamblers, gunslingers and the<br />

notorious local troublemakers blazed<br />

a wide trail of mayhem and murder,<br />

leaving behind many victims in its<br />

wake.” It goes on to say, the Railroad<br />

Lounge “unwillingly hosted many barroom<br />

brawls.”<br />

Chief executive officer of J&J Sanitation<br />

in Piedmont, Tom Reich, said<br />

he could remember small businesses<br />

lining downtown, then Walmart and<br />

McDonalds came into the picture, and<br />

the mom and pop shops were forced to<br />

shut down.<br />

“There were bars up and down Main<br />

Street, and fights here and there, but<br />

not anything different than any other<br />

town,” said Reich, who has lived in<br />

Wayne County since the late 1960s.<br />

After graduating from Clearwater<br />

High School in 1972, he moved to the<br />

St. Louis area to work at a shipyard,<br />

only to return within a few years to<br />

start a family on the Black River.<br />

“Like many kids, I wanted to move<br />

to the big city and chase the big bucks,<br />

but decided to come back home where<br />

it’s nice and peaceful,” said Reich,<br />

adding jokingly: “where there’s no<br />

shootings and ghosts.”<br />

When asked about the reputation of<br />

the Railroad Lounge, Lunyou echoed<br />

Reich’s sentiment: “Any bar that I’ve<br />

ever known of has had its share of<br />

fights. I don’t know of anything that<br />

happened there out of the ordinary.”<br />

One incident that can be verified<br />

through the Officer Down Memorial<br />

Page at www.odmp.org, a nonprofit<br />

organization that honors fallen law<br />

enforcement, involves Piedmont Police<br />

Officer Jack Lee Daugherty, who<br />

suffered a deadly heart attack Oct. 27,<br />

1989, after placing suspects who were<br />

involved in a bar fight he broke up into<br />

his squad car.<br />

Earlier this month, the Southwest<br />

Ghost Finders of Springfield, Mo., investigated<br />

the old railroad hotel and<br />

supposedly captured a photograph of<br />

an apparition that appears to be a lawman,<br />

based on the apparent silhouette<br />

of a hat.<br />

Tim Krakowiak can be reached by<br />

emailing tim@semotimes.com.<br />

@ semotimes.com<br />

Stephenson Appointed to National<br />

Commission<br />

Three Rivers College President Dr.<br />

Devin Stephenson has been invited<br />

to serve as a commissioner with the<br />

American Association of Community<br />

Colleges.<br />

According to the invitation letter<br />

sent to Stephenson last month, AACC<br />

commissions advise the board of directors<br />

on issues that “reflect key aspects<br />

of the association’s work on behalf of<br />

its member colleges.” Stephenson has<br />

been asked to serve on the commission<br />

of communications and marketing.<br />

Stephenson’s term as an AACC advisor<br />

began on July 1, and will last<br />

for three years. The next commission<br />

meeting will be held Nov. 9-10in<br />

Washington, D.C.<br />

To read the full story,<br />

visit the .com.<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

www.semotImes.com page 5


Business<br />

page 6<br />

Marketing Campaigns<br />

Liz Ellis<br />

Reporter<br />

Running a successful marketing<br />

campaign is tricky, and can walk a fine<br />

line between innovative and disastrous,<br />

between creative and annoying.<br />

Tabitha Thomas of Relentless Media<br />

Productions said that traditional thinking<br />

and time-tested techniques may not<br />

always be the best way to go.<br />

“Think outside of the box,” Thomas<br />

said. “When you’re thinking about<br />

marketing, don’t think of the business<br />

in your terms. Put yourself in your<br />

customer’s shoes, your client’s shoes.<br />

Don’t think about it the way you do,<br />

think about it the way they will.” That,<br />

she said, is the essential first part of<br />

successful marketing.<br />

The second step, she said, is knowing<br />

what the brand of your business is,<br />

and then fostering it to create the proper<br />

feel and technique for the marketing<br />

campaign.<br />

“Your brand is not your color scheme,<br />

it’s not your logo,” Thomas said. “Your<br />

brand is the spirit of your business.<br />

If someone were to say three words<br />

about your business, what would they<br />

be? Really understand your brand and<br />

business, because until you do, they<br />

[your customers] won’t.”<br />

To establish what the brand of a company<br />

should be, Thomas said that the<br />

first step is to ask a ton of questions.<br />

Figure out what you want others to<br />

see in your business, how you perform<br />

your business and<br />

what your character<br />

as a business<br />

is. The important<br />

thing is to just get<br />

to brain storming,<br />

and know what<br />

you want.<br />

“There is no<br />

such thing as a<br />

dumb idea, because<br />

dumb ideas<br />

spark good ones,”<br />

Thomas said.<br />

Another tip for<br />

the contemporary<br />

business owner<br />

is to use social<br />

media to market<br />

products.<br />

“It’s free and it’s the best thing you<br />

can do,” Thomas said. “It’s the best<br />

way to communicate with your clients<br />

on their terms.”<br />

Thomas has been doing marketing at<br />

Relentless Media for three years, and<br />

does a little bit of everything from account<br />

managing to script writing.<br />

“You come up with these ideas and<br />

Photo by Liz Ellis<br />

Tabitha Thomas is the chief financial officer for Relentless<br />

Media Productions in Poplar Bluff. She has been doing advertising<br />

at the company for three years.<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

you pitch them to a client and they’re<br />

like, ‘I love it!’ and it’s the best high<br />

in the world,” Thomas said. “It’s really<br />

exciting when you think of these new<br />

ideas and they get it… writing commercials<br />

is my favorite.”<br />

And she writes a lot of them. Relentless<br />

Media specializes in video production,<br />

but they also offer a wide variety<br />

of marketing services including branding,<br />

websites, photography and graphic<br />

design. They are based in Poplar Bluff,<br />

but also have an office in Jackson.<br />

However, they aren’t limited to just<br />

Missouri. They travel all over.<br />

In Poplar Bluff, they have worked<br />

with Gamma HealthCare, Popular<br />

Bluff Credit Union, Black River Coliseum<br />

and Three Rivers College.<br />

“I do it because it’s fun,” Thomas<br />

said. “It’s different every single day<br />

and it’s challenging because somebody<br />

is placing their business in your hands<br />

to help you promote them. Everybody’s<br />

business is their baby and there’s a lot<br />

of trust there.”<br />

Liz Ellis can be reached by email at<br />

lizellis@semotimes.com<br />

www.semotImes.com


opinion & editorial<br />

Movie Review: Horrible Bosses<br />

Horrible Bosses is the tale of three<br />

men in the depths of despair in their<br />

careers. Each of the three pals suffers<br />

at the expense of their superior, and at<br />

the height of their suffering, they hatch<br />

a plan to dispose of the bosses who are<br />

the source of their distress. Of course,<br />

at this point, hilarity ensues.<br />

The three main characters, played<br />

by Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman and<br />

Charlie Day (of It’s Always Sunny in<br />

Philidelphia notoriety, which I love),<br />

no doubt are the heart of the movie, exhibiting<br />

an exceptional on film chemistry,<br />

but the supporting cast of the<br />

bosses and Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of<br />

a “murder consultant” are at the heart<br />

of some of the most funny moments<br />

in the film. Jennifer Aniston and Colin<br />

Ferrell demonstrate some range in the<br />

film indicating that they can do things<br />

other than just look pretty, and Kevin<br />

Spacey and Jamie Foxx deliver as always.<br />

My only critique of the performances<br />

was that Bateman and Spacey<br />

didn’t seem much different than what<br />

I’ve seen them in before. Additionally,<br />

Charlie Day’s character only seemed<br />

like a slightly less moronic version<br />

of the one he plays on TV (although<br />

I didn’t mind because he was just so<br />

funny). I really can’t remember the<br />

last time I laughed out loud so much in<br />

the theater. The film has its fair share<br />

of raunchiness, but it also manages to<br />

come off as kind of intelligent and out<br />

of box at the same time, which is sometimes<br />

rare in R-rated comedies.<br />

Now the way I’ve come to understand<br />

comedies over the last few years<br />

is that you are usually either a Hangover<br />

person or an I Love You Man person.<br />

I personally am the latter. It’s not<br />

that I don’t like The Hangover. It’s just<br />

that that particular film seemed like a<br />

list of antics thrown together to make a<br />

movie, while I Love You Man focused<br />

on the nature of the characters and their<br />

relationships in order to create humor.<br />

Bosses uses both approaches, which<br />

results in a constant flood of laughter<br />

throughout the movie. In fact, I think<br />

I’ll probably have to watch it again as a<br />

rental since my own laughing prevented<br />

me from catching all of the jokes.<br />

Definitely worth a trip to the theater<br />

to see. Just don’t go with your mom (or<br />

with your boss).<br />

Dr. Amber Richardson is a life-long<br />

resident of Poplar Bluff. She is a mother<br />

and teaches part-time for Central<br />

Methodist University. Amber does not<br />

claim to have any specific film expertise<br />

other than possessing a love of<br />

movies and a desire to convince others<br />

to see quality films.<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

www.semotImes.com page 7


Peoples<br />

Community<br />

Bank<br />

Our Mission Statement: Peoples Community Bank is a family of dedicated individuals<br />

making a commitment to act as one. We are a family owned and community oriented bank,<br />

where customer service is not a department...it is our attitude. We treat every customer<br />

as if our world revolves around them, because it does.<br />

Greenville Hwy 67 & Sycamore St, (573) 224-3267<br />

Wappapello Hwy D & Hwy T. (573) 222-8505<br />

Piedmont 1401 N Main, (573) 223-4000<br />

Puxico 422 S HWY 51, (573) 222-3700<br />

Marble Hill Hwy 34 E Building 1001, (573) 238-0100<br />

I am the President of<br />

People’s Community Bank.<br />

We are locally owned and<br />

dedicated to helping families<br />

like yours acheive your goals.<br />

Give me a call and let’s talk<br />

about how the<br />

family at<br />

People’s can<br />

help your<br />

family.<br />

-Keith Willcut


Alex Riffle and The Stiff Riffs’ Future<br />

with Band Namesake Going to College<br />

Liz Ellis<br />

Reporter<br />

“There’s really not a better group of<br />

guys or musicians in the whole state,”<br />

said Alex Riffle of Alex Riffle and The<br />

Stiff Riffs. “I’ve been very fortunate.”<br />

Riffle began playing with the Stiff<br />

Riffs, a very fluid group of five or six<br />

bluegrass players, when he was 11 and<br />

hasn’t ever looked back. Now, at 19, he<br />

will soon be going off to study medicine<br />

at St. Louis University.<br />

But Riffle says his Stiff Riff gigs are<br />

far from over.<br />

“I think I’m not going to be able to<br />

come back as much as I wish I could,<br />

because hopefully I’ll be busy and be<br />

concentrating,” Riffle said. “But, I’ll<br />

certainly come back as much as possible,<br />

and I might even bring them up<br />

to St. Louis for gigs. We’re certainly<br />

not going to quit, because I’ve enjoyed<br />

playing with these guys so much.”<br />

“It would be a sad affair if he was going<br />

to one of the coasts, but fortunately<br />

he’s going close by to a great college<br />

and we’ll still play here from time to<br />

time,” said Steve Walsh, mandolin and<br />

fiddle player.<br />

Riffle’s last performances in Popular<br />

Bluff with the Stiff Riffs before college<br />

will be next weekend, starting with a<br />

performance 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at The Wine<br />

Rack. The band will later play at Ozark<br />

Border and the First Baptist Church.<br />

“We’ll have a large band, six guys<br />

hopefully,” Riffle said. “It’ll consist<br />

of what I think we all consider to be<br />

the elite pickers in the area—possibly<br />

in the southern half of Missouri. We’ll<br />

have a fiddle player, a great lead guitar<br />

player and then the four of us. So, it’ll<br />

be good music.”<br />

Submitted Photo<br />

Alex Riffle and The Stiff Riffs play at Rogers Theatre in 2008. Next weekend will<br />

be their final performances in Poplar Bluff before Alex goes to college this fall.<br />

ORIGIN<br />

The Stiff Riffs—commonly composed<br />

of Walsh, Doug Kennedy, Billy<br />

Watkins and a few other alternates—<br />

has been around for about three decades.<br />

“I played Bluegrass when I came<br />

here, and immediately began looking<br />

around for people to play with,” said<br />

Walsh, a Poplar Bluff attorney. “But it<br />

is always hard to find a banjo player.<br />

You have to go a county or two over to<br />

find one, and it was always tough because<br />

when you’re playing bluegrass,<br />

that’s kind of an integral part.”<br />

Of course, when Walsh and Riffle<br />

first met, Riffle was 10 and was still<br />

learning piano. The next year, he decided<br />

that he wanted to play banjo and<br />

has since added guitar, mandolin, bass<br />

and a touch of fiddle to his repertoire.<br />

“I told Dad [Matt Riffle] one day that<br />

I wanted to play the banjo, and he said,<br />

‘Well, yeah, we’ll see what happens,’”<br />

Riffle said with a smile. “I’m sure he<br />

was thinking it was just another phase.”<br />

However, it turned out to be far from<br />

that, and soon Riffle had borrowed<br />

an old banjo from Kennedy and purchased<br />

a book or two on how to play,<br />

and within a few months, was ready for<br />

jam sessions with the rest of the band.<br />

“He really reenergized me—and I<br />

think Doug and Billy too—by being<br />

there, because he’s very talented and<br />

very high energy,” Walsh said. “All<br />

of that helped us to get a new lease on<br />

bluegrass life when he came along.”<br />

Indeed, Alex Riffle and The Stiff<br />

Riffs play more than just traditional<br />

bluegrass hits and have recently begun<br />

to add bluegrass renditions of popular<br />

rock and country songs to their repertoire,<br />

including artists such as U2, The<br />

Beatles, Tom Petty and Rolling Stones.<br />

An unusual move for a bluegrass band,<br />

but one that has been well received by<br />

the community.<br />

“We’ve been really surprised at the<br />

number of people who have embraced<br />

bluegrass music,” Walsh said. “They<br />

come from all walks of life.”<br />

MEMORY LANE<br />

Since they began playing, Alex Riffle<br />

and The Stiff Riffs have had several<br />

memorable performances, including<br />

opening for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.<br />

They also played at The Landing in Van<br />

Buren, opening for Ralph Stanley, who<br />

sang on the soundtrack for the movie<br />

Oh Brother Where Art Thou?<br />

> Continued on pg 12


New Kindergarten Center<br />

Commended in Poplar Bluff<br />

Liz Ellis<br />

Reporter<br />

The Poplar Bluff R-I School District is having a<br />

ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of their new $6<br />

million Kindergarten Center today. The new building<br />

is located on the edge of town behind Cripple<br />

Creek Plaza on Hwy PP.<br />

“I think it’s great,” Pam Dunivan, a kindergarten<br />

teacher at the new school said. “It’s so bright and<br />

airy, the kids are going to absolutely love it. It’s so<br />

much different from what we had. It’s like going<br />

from poverty to ‘Wow!’”<br />

The Kindergarten Center has been in the works for<br />

several years, and was proposed four times before<br />

the bond to build the new building finally passed. It<br />

has been under construction for about a year.<br />

“It’s been a big need for us to have more room,”<br />

Debbie Harper, intervention specialist at the school<br />

said. “It was just too small. Where we were before,<br />

it’s going to be fine for a much smaller school.”<br />

The old kindergarten center, the Mark Twain<br />

building, will be used for the early childhood programs<br />

at Poplar Bluff. They will be moving into the<br />

new addition to the building.<br />

“Right now, we don’t have anything in [the old<br />

portion of the building],” Rod Priest, assistant principal<br />

of finance said. “Cause, in order to utilize that,<br />

we’d probably need to look to totally renovating it.”<br />

The new building however, is state of the art. It<br />

features a full sized gym with hardwood floors,<br />

a large cafeteria, a full-service library center with<br />

a smart board and a tiered area for reading time, a<br />

state-of-the-art nurse’s office complete with a small<br />

Photo by Liz Ellis<br />

The new Kindergarten Center will open on Aug. 24 for classes. It has<br />

been under construction for a year, and was proposed four years ago.<br />

shower in the bathroom, and 24 classrooms, all of<br />

which have smart boards and a computer as well as<br />

individual restrooms.<br />

“In the old building, we spent precious instructional<br />

time lining kids up to go to the bathroom,” said<br />

Kindergarten Principal Tammy Crouse. “The girls’<br />

bathroom was on one side and boys’ was on the other.<br />

So you would have to have two classrooms go to<br />

the bathroom at the same time so two teachers could<br />

monitor. We had to schedule bathroom breaks.”<br />

The new building also features some additional<br />

security measures, like a state-of-the-art sprinkler<br />

system and security locks on the doors in the lobby,<br />

so office personnel can buzz people through the lobby<br />

doors during the day.<br />

After hours, the Kindergarten Center will be used<br />

for basketball practice for high school students, and<br />

the full-size stage in the gym may also be available<br />

to the other schools or the community.<br />

“At the high school, we’ve got one basketball<br />

court,” Priest said. “If you’ve got girls and boys,<br />

sometimes they have to wait or practice early or<br />

practice late. This gives us one more spot to give<br />

them so they can get their practices in and get home<br />

at a decent hour.”<br />

Crouse says she thinks the biggest improvement<br />

will be having everyone under one roof.<br />

“When we had three buildings, we had three different<br />

sections,” Crouse said. “Now we will be more<br />

together, plus the children are more together.” She<br />

also added that the old building layout was complicated<br />

and the traffic on Main Street was dangerous.<br />

The benefits of the new building seem to be endless,<br />

with a full-size playground and room for the<br />

building to grow as it needs to. All of the teachers<br />

and workers at the new building<br />

have perpetual smiles on their<br />

faces at the new prospects.<br />

“I am just looking forward to a<br />

very great year,” Cindy DeWitt,<br />

a kindergarten teacher said. “All<br />

the teachers are excited and maybe<br />

a little overwhelmed from all<br />

the unpacking and boxes.”<br />

“I think its state of the art,”<br />

Crouse said. “I’m excited and<br />

anxious to start the school year.<br />

It’s just wonderful.”<br />

Liz Ellis can be reached by<br />

email at lizellis@semotimes.com.<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

www.semotImes.com page 11


RESULTS from 7 23<br />

CRATE LATE - FEATURE<br />

Finish<br />

1 69R Jamie Robards - Broseley<br />

2 3030 Tim Winchester - Gideon<br />

3 93 Mason Oberkramer - Broseley<br />

4 66 Robby Moore - Broseley , Mo<br />

5 18C Scott Bolden<br />

6 8 Juli Bell - Dexter , Mo<br />

OW MODIFIEDS - FEATURE<br />

Finish<br />

1 02 Robert Powers - Campbell<br />

2 1S Shawn Knuckles - PB<br />

3 97 Paul Reeder - Malden , Mo<br />

4 99R Justin Roberts<br />

5 D97 Daryl Hay - Doniphan , Mo<br />

6 67 Austin Matthews - Dexter , Mo<br />

7 45 Mike Jessup - Jackson , Mo<br />

8 5X Leonard Betsch Ii - Annapolis<br />

9 214 Kris Lloyd - Charelston , Mo<br />

E-MODS - FEATURE<br />

Finish<br />

1 94 Scott Tracer Rector , Ar<br />

page 12<br />

2 95 Josh Sissom Cape Girardeau<br />

3 44 Mike Stevenson Jonesboro , Ar<br />

4 21JR Lane Pennington Qulin , Mo<br />

5 75 Chuck Tilley Essex , Mo DNS<br />

6 75JR Chad Tilley Essex , Mo DNS<br />

SUPER STREET - FEATURE<br />

Finish<br />

1 31 Doug Moore - Dexter , Mo<br />

2 11 Matthew Brown - Broseley<br />

3 68 Greg Sparks - Bernie , Mo<br />

4 01 Cole Fowler - Portageville<br />

PURE STREET - FEATURE<br />

Finish<br />

1 <strong>29</strong>TOM Josh Tomlin - Hayti , Mo<br />

2 11 Matthew Brown - Broseley<br />

3 37 Christopher Webb Sedgwvl<br />

CYLINDERS - FEATURE<br />

Finish<br />

1 19 Terry James - Cape Girardeau<br />

2 36 Bradley Lewis - Poplar Bluff<br />

3 <strong>35</strong> Justin Redden - Clarkton , Mo<br />

4 39 Robert Owens - Bernie , Mo<br />

> From pg 10<br />

“We had one [performance], it was<br />

just a variety thing, and we killed the<br />

lights halfway through the show and<br />

put on these fake beards,” Walsh said.<br />

“And we came back on with funny hats<br />

and beards.”<br />

“People went crazy,” Riffle said with<br />

a chuckle. “We told ourselves we’d<br />

only do that one time, and we’ve never<br />

done it again.” Regardless, they said, it<br />

made for a memorable performance.<br />

Most of their other unforgettable<br />

performances were for charity events,<br />

such as the Ronald McDonald house in<br />

St. Louis, the Boys and Girls Club and<br />

playing at Silver Dollar City.<br />

“We’re always game for fundraisers,”<br />

Walsh said.<br />

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI’S NEWS-MAGAZINE OF POLITICS AND CULTURE<br />

While Riffle is away at college, the<br />

Stiff Riffs will continue to operate,<br />

adding him whenever they can.<br />

“We’re not going to let him go,”<br />

Walsh said. “We’ll still play dates after<br />

he goes to SLU, and insist he comes<br />

down here, even if we have to threaten<br />

his parents to make that happen.”<br />

“I plan on playing with these guys as<br />

much as I possibly can, even with the<br />

drive and everything,” Riffle said. “I<br />

would miss them too terribly to let go<br />

so quickly.”<br />

Liz Ellis can be reached by email at<br />

lizellis@semotimes.com or by calling<br />

573-785-2200.<br />

www.semotImes.com


Activity section www.semotimes.com<br />

~ Karaoke with Vern<br />

8 p.m. July <strong>29</strong><br />

Jake’s MDV Doniphan<br />

~ Shakespeare Picnic<br />

2 p.m. July 30<br />

Boster Castle Kingdom City<br />

~ Back to School Fair<br />

8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Aug. 4<br />

Black River Coliseum<br />

~ Whisky Down Grand Opening<br />

10 p.m. Aug. 6<br />

Formerly Scooters II<br />

~ Ozark Border Activities Meeting<br />

10 a.m. Aug. 6<br />

Bess Activity Center<br />

~ Rayni Day Miracles Fundraiser<br />

9 a.m.-6 p.m. Aug. 8<br />

Black River Coliseum<br />

~ As Is Band<br />

9 p.m. Aug. 6<br />

Jake’s MDV, Doniphan<br />

~ Nowhere Fast<br />

10:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Aug. 12<br />

Whisky Down<br />

~ Fundraiser Auction for Betty Badford<br />

4-11 p.m. Aug. 13<br />

Centerville Community Building<br />

~ Community Appreciation for Rescue Mission<br />

1-5 p.m. Aug. 14<br />

Mansion Mall Parking Lot<br />

To submit an event go to www.semotimes.com<br />

and click on the +Bluffee tab<br />

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Ladies Night Wed. & Fri<br />

Going out with<br />

a Group<br />

text 5737187803 and<br />

well set everything up<br />

TUESDAY NIGHT: DART LEAGUES l WEDNESDAY NIGHT:<br />

KARAOKE lTHURSDAY NIGHT: POOL LEAGUES lFRIDAY<br />

NIGHT: KARAOKE l SATURDAY NIGHT: BANDS<br />

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