50 years ago

Oct. 9, 1974

— SCHOOLS, COUNTY SHARE $103,967 FROM FUNDS

Barry County schools, road districts and county government will share in a total of $103,967.46 received by County Treasurer Vedes Davis this week from three sources. Davis said the funds came from Federal Revenue Sharing, Foreign Insurance Fund and Forest Reserve Funds. Schools got the largest share of the funds, a total of $67,167.53 from outof- state insurance companies doing business in Missouri and $3,412.45 from funds. forestry breakdown apportionment of the that goes to area schools serving those students residing in this county includes: Jenkins $1,888.80 and $141.79. Shell Knob $1,646.94 and $620.65. Golden $863.78 and $606. 11. Galena $218.82. Crane $1,289.91. Reeds Spring $69.10 and $363.07. Pierce City $1,891.70. Verona $794.68. Cassville $15,225.56 and $1,184.54. Exeter $4,388. Wheaton $4,169.18. Southwest $8,027.50 and $496.29. Purdy $7,152.10. Monett $18,600.06. Aurora $1,013.50. Double figures in districts indicate insurance and forest payments. Road districts will share $1,137.48 from forest funds, according to the breakdown furnished by Davis. Included are: Roaring River $358.85, Sugar Creek $1,654.43, White River $49.90, Shell Knob $240.04, Mineral $208.23, Viola $32.05 and Mountain $82.98. Second largest bundle of money to arrive for the county this week was $23,250 in Federal Revenue Sharing. This combined with three previous payments amounting to $54,979, brings the year’s total to $78,229, according to Davis. The treasurer also reported this week his office no longer handles state apportionments of school funds. A new system this year makes payments direct to school treasurers, with no reporting available from the county office. Davis also announced his office would be in the process this week of collecting interest on county funds from bank depositories. He said a report on this phase of county fiscal business would be available in the near future.

— TWO BIDS BY SCHOOL BOARD SPECIAL SESSION

The Cassville R-4 Board of Education met in special session Friday to study proposals and bids on two major items, reports Superintendent James Ford. Proposal one to re-work the parking lot north of the new gym was successfully bid by Shaffer and Gum construction of Mt. Vernon. This will include filling washouts and resurfacing the parking area. The bid for the job was $3,515. The second major proposal was to furnish material and labor for floor covering for the new elementary addition. The successful bidder was Simpkins Furniture and Appliance, Cassville, with Bar-wick products. Ford said a total of 550 square yards of the new addition floors will be carpeted under the plan on a bid of $4,389. Superintendent Ford presented several problems in the transportation system evolving generally from the lack of materials. The building to house the garage has not arrived. Maintenance is being done in the vocational shop. Larger buses ordered in March have not been delivered which has created some over-crowded conditions in some areas. These problems cannot be solved immediately. The board indicated, *We will just have to live with them until some of these,” items come through said Ford’s release. Under a new policy, the Cassville school will charge 25c for students and 50c for adults for the remaining junior high football games. No charge has been made up to this time. The charge for the last home game will be used to pay for officials during the total year.

40 years ago

Oct. 10, 1984

— 123 NEED SHOTS, FACE SUSPENSION

One hundred and twenty- three Cassville school students face possible suspension for not having complied with state regulations involving inoculations. Marvin Henningson, assistant high school principal, said a department breakdown lists 70 high school, 23 middle school and 30 elementary pupils do not have full current shot requirements. Henningson said most of the high school problems involved boosters for diptheria and tetnus. Elementary requirements include shots for diptheria, polio, tetnus, whooping cough and measles.

—COUNTY GETS $29,764 FROM PILT FUNDING

Congressman Gene Taylor has announced 12 counties of the Missouri Seventh Congressional District will share in the more than $104 million to be paid by the U.S. Department of the Interior to local units of government as compensation for the fiscal impact caused by the presence of certain tax-exempt federal land within their boundaries. Congressman Taylor, a cosponsor of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) legislation enacted in 1976, said the funds will go to local governments for tax-exempt lands such as national forests, national parks and national wildlife refuges; lands used for federal water projects and some military installations. Counties in the Seventh District that will share in the revenue include: $29,764.00; Cedar, S18,23.00; Christian, S21,347.00; Dade, $19,545.00; Douglas, $17,104.00; Greene, $851.00; Newton, $151.00; Ozark, $30,095.00; Polk, $7,574.00; Stone, $24,486.00; Taney, $42,491.00; and Wright, $2,940.00. Payments in Lieu of Taxes are in addition to shared receipts from the U.S. Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. By law, the Forest Service makes available 25 percent of the revenues it collects from timber sales, grazing, recreation, mineral and land use to states in which the national forests are located. The funds are then used locally for schools and roads. Forest Service payments for this year are not yet available on a county- by-county basis, but it is estimated that $158 million in interim payments will be made to forty-one states and Puerto Rico this year. Eventually, the states will be paid a total of $211 million. The State of Missouri will receive an interim payment of $1,045,387.52 with the total payment estimated to be $1,393,850.03.

30 years ago

Sept. 28, 1994

— STATE PROGRAM PROVIDES EXETER LAW OFFICER

For the first time in six years, Exeter will have a city law enforcement officer. In a pilot program of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Exeter is one of two communities to be funded. Mayor Leveta Welch said the program was scheduled to begin October 1 and run through July 1, 1995. Titled Exeter community policing program, the state grant amounted to $37,180.50, with paperwork completed Monday morning with signatures of Barry County presiding commissioner Lloyd Dilbeck. Mrs. Welch explains the program was instigated in a conference between she and state representative Nolan McNeill this sum-mer. McNeill instigated applications through the Department of Safety, which is providing the federal flow-through funding for the officer, equipment and supplies. Exeter’s choice for the officer is Dave Bowman, a one-time deputy sheriff in the county and later a candidate for sheriff. He has been approved for the spot by sheriff Ralph Hendrix. Administration of funding will be through the office of county treasurer Ben Loudermilk. Concurrence in the program came through the Exeter city council. Members Charles Patterson, Johnny Bishop, J. R. Chappel and David Newman were involved in completing final applications and making the officer selection. Linda Tichenor is clerk of the council. Full details of the new law enforcement program, scheduled to last nine months, have yet to be completed between the council and the sheriff’s office. These details and hours will be formalized between now and the end of the week beginning of the experimental program. “Until now, we’ve been the only community in the county without municipal law enforcement to take care of our individual problems,” Mrs. Welch noted. She said in the past Exeter had attempted to keep an officer on the force through a number of methods, none of which worked out, either financially or on a scheduling basis. “It will be good to have full-time law enforcement in Exeter and we are grateful for the program and effort that provided the service,” the mayor noted. For the town of 680 persons, break ins and vandalism are becoming more frequent, including a number of thefts of the American Flag from the city hall area. McNeill said the first-time program in Missouri would be monitored by local and state officials to measure the effectiveness of the financial grant.

—AFTER 46 YEARS, FINAL MILKING FOR COWHERDS

Over 34,000 milking since they started in 1948, Barry County’s most senior dairy family ran their cows through the barn for the last time at 10 p.m. Monday evening. Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Cowherd and son Gene began the process of herd dispersal Tuesday morning. For Ernest and Mary Cowherd the parting wasn’t without nostalgia. While this was their second herd of their milking career, they are ancestors of the original herd and many they have put into production after raising them as baby calves. They have always been on a first name basis with their animals, probably a major contribution to their successes. Monday evening an auction company was in the process of putting up a sales ring, tent and two sections of bleachers. Looking over the scene, Cowherd and banker son Donald of Boonville, questioned having enough seating capacity for the anticipated number of buyers. Dispersal of the herd involves selling 122 head of registered Holsteins. Included are both milk cows and bred heifers. Cowherd began his dairy career in 1947, immediately after returning from Army service in the south Pacific during World War II. Wounded in battle, he was recognized with commendations for his individual actions against the Japanese in island warfare. A year after returning home, Mary Edens came into the picture and the two Butterfield community natives were married in 1948. Therein began a family that was eventually to include seven youngsters, all closely related to the dairy industry through their teenage lives. Included were six boys and one girl, who during the growth and improvement of the Cowherd herds, showed champion animals throughout the Midwest. Mary and Ernest estimate this involvement by the family concluded in 1984 when the last of the youngsters began thinking about other involvements. Scheduled to join their parents at the sale Tuesday were all the family members that could get away from their present involvements. In addition to the elder son, Gene, who’s on the farm, there are four lawyers, a banker and a high school music director in the family. The six boys, Gene, Robert, Charles, Don, John and Randy, are all graduates of Missouri University-Columbia. Janette, the lone girl, got her degree in music from the University of Arkansas. She teaches in Carl Junction. Charles and Randy lawyer in Springfield, Robert is in Chillicothe and John practices in Mt. Vernon. One of Ernest’s first planned activities upon this retirement will be getting repairs on his knees that require surgery, partly as a result of wartime injuries. The family has other plans of doing some of those things that they haven’t been able to do with twice daily milking chores to complete. Some of these might be involvement in community activities. Cowherd, a longtime member of the Cassville board of education, said getting back into activities such as this are not included in his plans. One of the biggest problems Mary and Ernest seemed to be having Monday evening as the sale preparations were in progress was consulting with prospective buyers about the leading animals of the herd. Mary had a tear or two roll down her checks as she pointed to features about a certain animal in the sale catalog. Ernest stood in the feed lot and looked at his prize animals, possibly wondering where their next home might be. Plans for the future include watching Gene’s grape vineyard progress into one of the better facilities of the area. Already in the stock cattle business, expansion of this possibility can also be in the future. Dr. Tony Rickard, University of Missouri extension director, said the loss of the Cowherd herd to the Barry County dairy family picture, drops to 103 those remaining in the industry according to the latest figures available in March. A year ago, dairy family numbers in the county stood at 112.