Stories from Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Kenneth Retherford, 67, of rural Houstonia, died Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006, at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia. Funeral arrangements are pending at Campbell-Lewis Funeral Home in Sweet Springs.

Mandrell Baker, 30, of Columbia, formerly of Marshall, died Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006, in Columbia. Funeral services will be Saturday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. at St. Peter Catholic Church in Marshall. The Rev. Charles Stephenson Jr. will officiate. Burial will be in the Fairview Cemetery in Marshall. Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at H.T. May and Son Funeral Home in Marshall...

The library will be jumping with activities over the next week! We start on Saturday with a Pitch Party (as in the card game) at 2 p.m. Prizes will be given to the high and low scores. Refreshments will be served. On Monday the 13th is the Family Fun Night at 7 p.m, celebrating Children's Book Week. Bring the children to join us for a special storytime...

With the fall season rapidly drawing to a close, I felt a need to recognize some of our students and programs for their successes. As always, Marshall boasts some very creative and talented young people who, in addition to being great students, excel in a variety of activities as well...

As high school players, Hannibal's Josh Pickett and Wayne McPike never seemed to mind the trip to Marshall. Things haven't change much in college. The senior Pickett and junior McPike provided most of Hannibal-LaGrange's offense Tuesday during a 65-61 non-conference win at Missouri Valley College...

Second-ranked Lee's Summit West may be a prohibitive favorite over the Marshall football team in today's MSHSAA Class 4 Sectional, but -- like the St. Louis Cardinals in October -- at least the Owls have a puncher's chance. "We'll definitely show up," declared Marshall head coach Paul Thomas...

Food drive for Lighthouse Shelter Nov. 28 The women of Alpha Sigma Alpha at Missouri Valley College will be canvassing the community in a food drive for The Lighthouse Shelter on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 28. As one of the required philanthropic projects the local sorority is to fulfill, they are going to be doing it in the form of a scavenger hunt. Each group will receive their individual assignment list...

A number of ballot issues were approved by Saline County voters in the election Tuesday, Nov. 7, including a school bond in Slater, a motel tax in Sweet Springs and a sewer bond in Mt. Leonard. Voters authorized the Slater School Board to borrow $1 million to pay for number of improvements to school facilities by a vote of 638 to 127, according to unofficial election results released by Saline County Clerk Ken Bryant...

Saline Countians turned out in good numbers for the mid-term elections on Tuesday, Nov. 7, to decide a number of statewide and local issues. Saline County Clerk Ken Bryant said on Wednesday morning that he had not calculated the turnout figures, but he estimated the turnout at somewhere around 45 to 47 percent...

In the one contested race for office on the Saline County ballot, incumbent Dennis A. Rolf held off a challenge by Weldon W. "Chip" Perry in the contest Tuesday, Nov. 7, for 15th Circuit Court judge, according to unofficial totals. Rolf, a Democrat, received 11,708 votes -- almost 58 percent of the 20,301 total -- in Lafayette and Saline counties. Perry, a Republican, received 8,593 votes, or about 42 percent, in both counties...

Saline County voters overwhelmingly passed a 1/2 cent sales tax for county-wide enhanced 9-1-1 service with centralized dispatch. Unofficial results say that the tax passed easily with 5,701 yes votes, good for 73.8 percent of the 7,716 votes cast in the county. The issue carried in each of the 19 Saline County precincts...

The Missouri Valley College Student Missouri State Teachers Association will hold a scholastic book fair Nov. 14, 15 and 16 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside the Formal Lounge of the Ferguson Center just off College Street at Missouri Valley College in Marshall...

I am most gratified on this day after the election, to have received a call from a lady in Pennsylvania who has been reading these articles about Nicholas/Beazley. I haven't had a chance to talk with her personally, but on her message she said that she and her family want to give a donation to the Building a Vision project. ...