50 years ago

June 19, 1974

— CASSVILLE WILL CLAIM USA FESCUE SEED TITLE

Cassville will lay claim to er most recent point of fame on July 19 when the Chamber of Commerce proclaims the community as “Fescue Capital of the United States.” Being promoted by the agriculture committee of the C of C, the claim will be made during a barbecue and program at Cassville’s Memorial Park on that Friday evening. Cooperating in the event will be a group of sponsors, as yet unnamed by Cherry Warren, committee airman, and the University of Missouri Extension Division. This area’s leadership in fescue seed production is a basic for the C of C’s claim. Missouri last year was the adding producer of fescue seed in the nation. In the USA there were 133 million pounds processed with the Show-Me State providing 84 million pounds of this total. Marry County produced nearly six million of Missouri’s total. thus, the claimed leadership. While the entire program of the event will be established next week, Warren announced the date in advance. Included will be a tribute to early boosters of the grass, recognition of long-time growers and most recent developments of the three-way crop currently in the seed stage of harvest. Major markets for this area’s seed will also be recognized in the program, according to Bob Mitchell, C of C president. Included are Pennington Grain and Seed of Madison, Ga.; United Seed Company of Rogers, Ark., Green Seed Company of Nashville, Tenn., and Missouri Farmer Association. Several agri-business firms have expressed an interest in the program, expected to follow a guideline of information on how to improve the crop and production for the ag-economy of the area. As a major factor in the county’s economy, fescue came into its own around 1950. Since that time the grass has contributed much to the development of grasslands that have resulted cattle number increases. The three-way feature of the crop is grazing, seed and hay, unequaled in this area by other crops. Based on current seed prices, the seed alone purchased in the area this year will produce about $900,000 in revenue for farmers and related businesses. Warren said this week the fescue claim undoubtedly would have more economic impact on the county than Cassville’s last capital claim, that of being the Confederate Capitol of Missouri during Civil War days. Full plans of the program will be developed over the next couple of weeks. C of C plans for the project were announced during the Soils and Crops Conference here in the winter. Working with the program will be these members of the agriculture committee: Burl Hess, L. D. Brown, Duane Blankenship, Mike Keen, Dr. Eugene Miekley, Ken Morris and Lonnie Duckworth. Tickets for the barbecue, slated for service between 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. will be made available to farmers, processers and businessmen through sponsoring agri-business firms.

40 years ago

June 21, 1984

— ONE PROJECT IN COUNTY FOR STATE ROAD PLAN

Barry County has one project in the 1985 fiscal year construction program for the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department. Officials noted in the print-out sheets of the state program that some might not be started this year due to uncertainties involving funding, obtaining rights-of-way, developing plans and obtaining agreements. The county project listed is on Route ‘F’, east of Roaring River State Park. Included will be a .3 mile relocation of the road in the area crossing, off Davis Hollow. The project will include constructing a bridge to replace the existing low-water crossing. According to Joseph Mickes, district engineer, the route leading from the park to Table Rock Lake, carries an average daily traffic count of 780 vehicles. The proposed project is the second on the route of the department in a year. Just recently opened is an improvement in the park that eliminated a pair of extensive curves in the vicinity of Camp Smokey. Involved was changing the road to run straight through a bluff and fill area reconnecting with Route F near the park stables. Underway in the park last week was the first extensive paving of auto parking areas and road improvement is to be scheduled in a number of Years. Hot mix applications were being laid in the park lodge and other heavy use areas in the park. The new Route ‘F’ project planned by the department is under the Supplementary system improvement program.

30 years ago

June 8, 1994

— MARINAS GOING FULL BLAST

After being buffeted by 70 mile per hour winds last week, marinas on Table Rock Lake are ack in operation, either rushing repairs or just taking care of minor damage. Table Rock Lake boat docks will be in full operation for the beginning of the summer seaon and up-coming July 4 holiday, is the general consensus. Hardest hit by the storm was Eagle Rock Landing, who had been owned by Don King of Wichita, ans., only a few days. King got is welcome to the reservoir only days after buying the facility from r. and Mrs. Chuck Edwards. On June 7, not normal storm winds out if the northeast blew upstream on the lake and either tore the docks apart or pushed them ashore. A determined King and crew, with the help of reservoir dock construction crews, set to work and got the facility back in the water, tore down heavily damaged sections and have the public dock adjacent to Highway 86 up and going. The highway and bridge approach abutment on the southwest side of the dock which normally deflects winds from the normal storm directions, wasn’t any help in the recent storm, noted King. Part of their recovery was unstacking rental boats that were piled together on the beach. They are in good condition and will be available to the public. Further down stream Big M Marina co-owner Gwen Goad rode out the storm on the dock. She estimated wind forces at the 70 mph range for a duration of 45 minutes. Big M suffered one broken cable and a sunken boat. Big M was partly protected by a cove point from the unnatural winds. Viola Boat Dock, on the Kings River arm of Table Rock, lost some galvanized roofing sections according to Lane Johnston. Heaviest damage in this area was to large trees in the camp grounds of the public use area. Campbell Point dock, just east of Shell Knob, was fully protected from the storm winds, according to Bob Freeman, owner. Probably the largest of the marinas, Freeman didn’t think the twilight storm that caused considerable damage in subdivision of that area, would bother his operation any. Bill Shiveley, manager of Barry Electric Cooperative set outage reports for the storm at 68 which served about 1,620 customers for the service area. Crews were out all night getting service restored that was disrupted mostly by falling trees or large limbs. Extended periods of no service had some dairy and poultry operations resorting to generators to get their feeding and milking accomplished that evening and the next morning. Largest of the outages was in the Jenkins area where a downed line served 459 patrons. Every substation in the system, five in number, had outages in that area, “which means we were in trouble system- wide,” Shiveley noted.

— STATE PARK BIDS IN DELAY, OTHER PROBLEMS

For nearly three years now, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks, has targeted this month to open bids on a $4.2 million improvement at Roaring River State Park. The only problem is, the state doesn’t expect to receive the plans until June 20. Processes involved will require extensive reviews by the Department of Design and Construction, DNR and other agencies until the state is now looking for a late summer or early fall bid call. In the meantime, rumored problems with the plans and cost increases that will be obvious in the nearly three year delay, could have other problems facing the project that would build a new motel and restaurant at the park. Jim Crabtree, DNR program director for planning and development, was not in his office to answer questions, but the information on obvious delays was provided the Democrat this week by Sue Holtz of the DNR. She would say only that there had been problems with the drawings. Ms. Holtz would not estimate how long the state agencies would require for review of any possible corrections. State representative Nolan McNeill said this week the $4.2 million figure had been appropriated by the Missouri legislature for the project. Under circumstances that the increased costs would bring bids in above money avail-able, he said it was possible, but not assured, that additional funding could be made available. Project funding is out of the state’s parks and soil conservation sales tax, but must be approved by the legislature. McNeill was not sure why the plans had been delayed. One source told the Democrat this week the plans were being drawn by a firm in Springfield. Another placed the location of one-time offices in Kansas City. Delays as they relate to increased costs were put straight by one official, who noted all projects were coming in higher than expect-ed. “Between the spotted owl, hurricane Andrew and earthquakes in California, building materials have gone out of sight,” he noted. No one from whom information was requested would venture a guess how much the project would cost today compared to the appropriated figure of 1992. The 45,000 square foot structure is to be a combination of 26 unit motel and restaurant to seat a maximum of about 200 persons. The new facilities would replace those built in 1963 by private interests out of Kansas City. Missouri purchased the motel and restaurant properties in 1968. Square footage division originally announced had 22,000 square feet in the motel, 13,000 in the restaurant and 2,700 in a store. This structure was scheduled to be built atop the hill behind the present location and accessible off Highway 112 leading out of the park. A superintendent’s residence and two rentals units were to be demolished to make room for the project. McNeill noted this week he had recently received letters questioning the location and its separation from other park facilities. He noted recent incidents were not the first to question the location as to accessibility and possible cost increase due to site preparation on the rocky hillside. Access to the location has also been questioned according to the legislator. Changes in the park that would work with the new facility have included relocation of the Nature Center to the old lodge, presently used for concession offices and store. Demolition of the present motel and restaurant would provide more picnic space in the park immediately adjacent to highway access.