There my wife and I sat on President’s Day relaxing in our easy chairs watching the Winter Olympics on TV.  We had just experienced a “changing of the guard” at our house with our son and his family moving out the previous weekend and into a rental house and our elder daughter and her family moving in that day while her husband finishes up school in St. Joseph over the next year.  The change meant a net reduction of two children and one adult (most of the time) since our son in law is in school four days out of each week.  We loved having our son and his family living with us, even when they added a newborn to the group while they were with us, however nearly two years of togetherness had begun to wear on them and us.

 

The ambulance being remounted in recent months at Arrow Manufacturing is now in service, and the final price came in $78 below what the Linn County Ambulance District had budgeted. With the $10,000 for their trade-in and $700 for a used chassis figured in, Operations Manager Sean Hill had estimated the final bill at $65,578, but the final cost was $65,500. Very few modifications had to be made as almost nothing had to be corrected before the Ambulance District accepted delivery, and local paramedics and EMTs should find the remounted ambulance very user-friendly as equipment is stored in the same configuration as it was in the ambulance traded in.

Check out these pics from inside of the old Brookfield High School.

With the massive cuts in state funding that now seem inevitable, local communities may soon find that in the absence of adequate support from the State of Missouri, they will have to fend for themselves. This may very well mean that the residents of Linn County as a whole, or of our local municipalities individually, may be called upon to lend some of the support the state used to provide.
 

A pair of local violent offenders have plead guilty to the crimes that they committed.  See inside for the details.

Check out these pics from yesterday's Marceline High School National Honor Society Induction ceremony.

Due to a small risk of mini-supercellular tornadoes Tuesday afternoon, the state-wide tornado drills for both Kansas and Missouri have been postponed until Thursday,  March 11 at 130 PM.
 

Check out some of the speakers at last night's Marceline Chamber of Commerce Downtown Renovation Rally.

Last night, about a hundred Marceline residents assembled at the Walsworth Community Center to envision what the downtown business district of Disney’s boyhood home could become if they all worked together. While no one suggested that the Disneyland of Walt’s youth be abandoned, Marceline Chamber Vice-President Steve Long urged the gathering to “live in the present and prepare for the future.” Continuing that theme, Dr. Long reminded his listeners, “We now have a digital highway; you need to have a virtual business as well as one of brick and mortar.”

Wow is it busy at the “Y”.  With the weather a snowy mess, the last 5 or 6 weeks have been a busy place here at the YMCA.  Sometimes it has been a little overcrowded and I would like to thank everyone for their support and to encourage everyone to please be patient with each other during this busy time.  With that in mind, please remember that the YMCA is here to serve all the people that come into our doors.  

 

Our ego is an on-going part of us that we are constantly forced to deal with from time to time. I'm no different from anyone else, I'm made aware of my personal ego sometimes at the most inopportune times. Recently I've been made aware of mine.
For some unknown reason I have not experienced the urge to write anything for several months. There just wasn't any topic that jumped up, yanked my arm and said, "We need to do a story on this!"

 

According to Marceline Mayor Bill Stuart in a phone interview conducted a few minutes ago with the LCL, power should be restored in town within the next 15 or so minutes.

This week is M.E.T.S. week in Missouri, as proclaimed by the Legislature and Gov. Jay Nixon.  What is M.E.T.S. week?  M.E.T.S. stands for math, engineering, technology, and science.  This was done in an interest to better expose these areas of study for school-age children.  So with this in mind, the first week of March is now M.E.T.S. week.

The students at Meadville Elementary School were presented with a challenge and an opportunity recently.  Their principal, Jeff Haley, and their Superintendent, Ron Holcer, offered the hair on their heads to the students in exchange for a certain number of minutes spent reading.

Although they are only proposed state budget cuts at this point in time, several local agencies/programs that provide services for the most victimized and vulnerable citizens in the Linn County are worried about what’s to come.