By Tammy Hilderbrand It's a chance to have a great time, and at the same time raise money for a great cause. That's how Lance Inman characterizes the "Halloween BATFEST" being held Saturday, Oct. 25 at McLane Park in Poplar Bluff. The event is being sponsored by Lucas Edington of Mossy Oak Properties, Mozark Realty and by Inman with SLAMA Softball Club. The coed softball tournament is to raise money and awareness for Poplar Bluff's Child Concern Center. The Child Concern Center is an organization designed to help provide clothing, diapers, food, utilities and other emergency items for area low income families in need. The group was originally organized by the women of Poplar Bluff’s First United Methodist Church over

POPLAR BLUFF – If the cold, blustery winds that blew through downtown Poplar Bluff Saturday kept you away from the Iron Horse Festival a few weeks ago, you’ll have a second chance to enjoy downtown fall festivities at the Iron Mountain Market’s Fall Festival to be held Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Historic Train Depot. The event will run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Organizer Rhonda Belcher says she is hoping for perfect weather for the event because there is so much for people to enjoy. “We have a lot of vendors signed up, and more are added to our list every day,” said Belcher.  She says the number of vendors signed up are beyond last year’s numbers already. Booth

The ladies from N'Style Galleria and Salon At the same location for the last several years, visitors to N’Style Galleria might recognize the boutique by the tell-tale mural painted on the outside of the building. Or perhaps by the former moniker Lois' House of Fashions. Owner Pam Garner was there for the last 12 years and says a recent remodeling offered rebirth to the store, and to business. "The new stores opening here helped a lot," she admitted. "The Loft, The French Market, The Metro, all helped to bolster all the businesses here." Garner said diversity of goods and services makes N'Style Galleria a unique shopping experience. From Merle Norman cosmetics to Romanian original art, the shop has a surprise

DEXTER – Jane Jacobs, in The Death and Life of American Cities, describes the need for a vital downtown because its life-force breathes into every other part of the city. Dexter's downtown is a perfect example of that life-force and Dexter is a great example of a great city. Downtown Dexter is bustling with retail business, from consignment clothing stores to upscale, eclectic variety shops. You need only go into a single shop to find out about all the downtown retailers and what you can get where. That’s one astounding attribute you find in downtown Dexter; they support each other very proudly. Talk with City Administrator Mark Stidham and you will quickly understand the winning strategy behind Dexter’s success. Dexter’s

On Sept. 23, a committee of seven city employees unanimously recommended that city council accept AON as their health insurance consultant over a local company’s less expensive bid. The council voted to approve the recommendation. The next day, our Rust-owned daily proclaimed “City shuns cheaper local bid” and misrepresented that it was the city manager who made the recommendation to take the non-local bid. The first eleven paragraphs of the article painted a city council and city manager who did all they could to take the city’s health insurance business “overseas.” Buried on page 2 in paragraph 12, the report finally mentioned the employee committee recommendation. The next day the paper featured a completely uninformed editorial claiming that Kaplan and

We are excited to announce that both the Dexter and Poplar Bluff locations of Dexter BBQ have a rack display of the SEMO TIMES. The newspaper hits the stands on Thursday and each rack holds copies of this week's and last week's newspapers. So stop by Dexter BBQ in Dexter or PB, grab a copy of the newspaper on your way in and order some tasty food.