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“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” Chronicles 7:14 That was the verse before a crowd of about 50 people who gathered Friday evening at Northpoint Nazarene Church. Pastor Greg Gilberto had called the Prayer Summit in hopes of beginning a healing process for the city of Poplar Bluff. “I have never done this before,” Gilberto told the gathering. “But I feel this is something we need to do.” Gilberto has been disturbed by what he described as a feeling of a “wet blanket” laying over

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explain the City’s new vacation incentive program. After reading the Daily American Republic article titled “Spaghetti-Gate”, I felt I needed to respond to inform the public about the program and my rationale behind offering the program. I am a member of Rotary and the idea of exchanging a purchased dinner ticket for a day off was born when I wanted to do two things: 1. Improve employee morale, which in turn increases productivity. 2. Help raise money for a local non-profit. Why is this important? I’ll give you two examples: 1. Some employees working for the street department worked for two days during the heavy snow days to clear the City streets.

POPLAR BLUFF - As was reported in the SEMO TIMES today, the City's grant writer, Raynesha Hudnell, has secured two grants totaling $424,750 for city projects: $400k to connect city parks, and nearly $25k for Home Repair Opportunity (HERO) Program. Let's go back to early September when former councilwoman Susan McVey grandstanded during a council meeting questioning City Manager Kaplan, "How do you justify hiring a grant writer?"  And then in the DAR a few days later she was boldly quoted, "The grant writer's position was not in this year's budget. It was not advertised and it was not offered to a capable local person." Had the city not hired their own grant writer, one can first assume we'd never had gotten these funds. After

With Don Schrieber's and Donna Farley's daily tirade in black and white of the Daily American Republic and the nameless cowards printed in Speakout, I decided it was time to weigh in. First of all on Speakout: if you do not have the courage to put your name on it...then sit down and shut up. Don't be a coward on Speakout, send a letter to the editor and sign your name. Next I'd like to remind everyone that Doug Bagby deposited the funds from the City Cable sale into a "CITY" bank account. When Kaplan took over on August 18, the proceeds were sitting in a "CITY" bank account not a "Municipal Utility" bank account. It is clear that Bagby was not giving that money to

POPLAR BLUFF - Joni Mitchell wrote a song called “Big Yellow Taxi” back in 1970. The lyrics poke fun at the absurdity of a civilization where we “paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Since then, a lot of people have taken up the cause of trees because we really don’t want to have to pay to see them in a tree museum. Through much environmental education we’ve learned that trees are vital to the survival of our planet. If trees don’t survive, neither do humans. Also see "From The Publishers Desk (11/06/2014)" In Missouri, trees are center stage this time of year, putting on a color show that beats anything an artist can paint. Even Poplar Bluff recently