Month: June 2023

Nixa city leaders have given the go ahead for repairs to the community pool.

Nixa Parks and Recreation now have authorization to spend $100,000 dollars to fix the leak.

Nixa City Council authorized the repairs during an emergency meeting Wednesday evening.

Money for the repairs will come from the aquatics reserve account which covers pool-related repairs and maintenance.

Park officials say there is no timeline for when the repairs will be completed, and the pool will be reopened.

After nearly 30 years in the Salvation Army, Majors Jan and Kris Augenstein are retiring.

The couple announced their retirement Wednesday, the culmination of a career that spanned 28 years in the organization, including the past three years at the Springfield Corps.

Previous stops for the Salvation Army included Wichita, Kansas; Mason City, Iowa; and Flint, Michigan.

They say their plans for retirement included returning to their native Wisconsin to spend more time with family and be part of the Salvation Army church in their hometown of Janesville.

Officials with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department are offering the mpox vaccine to high-risk individuals.

The CDC has reported that cases have fallen in recent years, but that a resurgence is possible.

Heath experts say the virus is only spread through close physical contact for an extended period of time with someone who already has the virus.

The two-dose vaccine is recommended for the following invididuals:

• Those exposed to someone with mpox.
• Men who have sex with men and have more than one sexual partner.
• People who have engaged in sexual activity in the past six months in exchange for money.
• Those who have had sex or other close, personal contact at commercial sex venues or at large public events in a geographic area where mpox transmission is occurring.
• People who have sex partners with any of the above risks.
• Those who anticipate experiencing any of the above risks.

The vaccine is available for residents across the county at no cost. Just visit vaccine417.com to find a location near you.

Today is the first day of Summer, and by the weekend, temperatures will be hot.

The National Weather Service says that heat index readings in the upper 90’s to near 100 will be in place by Saturday afternoon.

Sunday’s temps could reach the mid 90’s, with the heat index again approaching triple digits.

A federal judge has struck down Arkansas’ law banning gender affirming care for children.

The law was the first of it’s kind in the country.

U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanant injunction against the law. Moody had temporarily blocked the law in 2021. In order ering the permanant injunction, Moody ruled that the law violated the due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and families and violated the first ammendment rights of medical providers.

Following a back-and-forth between Republican officials in Missouri, a judge has ruled the issue be put forward for voters.

Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem ruled this week for Attorney General Andrew Bailey to approve the $51,000 proposal put forward by State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.

Bailey had previously refused to approve the price due to what the state would lose in Medicaid funding.

Beetem, however, said the Attorney General has no authority to change the price or create his own judgement.

The attorney general’s office plans to appeal the decision.

There is now opportunity for a constitutional amendment ensuring abortion rights to be on the ballot in 2024.

A man from Springfield, who was a student at Central in 2018 when he was charged, is now being sentenced for sexual assault.

Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Marquis Thomas with five counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual abuse and one count of sexual misconduct in November of 2018 while he was a senior in high school.

The student he assaulted was 17, and was also a student at Central.

Investigators say Thomas attacked the student in a staircase of the school.

He was sentenced earlier this week to seven years for each of the five sodomy charges, one year for each of the three sexual abuse charges and six months for sexual misconduct.

Chuck Wooten, a World War II veteran from Nixa who went on to serve five terms in the Missouri House of Representatives, died Tuesday morning at the age of 95.

Wooten was instrumental in establishing the Missouri Veterans Cemetery near Evans Road and Highway 65 in Springfield, which had its first burial back in 2000.

He also served as a sidekick to former Southwest Missouri Congressman Billy Long on KWTO’s Morning Line.

“There will never be an equal: veteran, public servant and cheerleader for the Ozarks,” Long said in a tweet Tuesday.

Wooten, a Republican, was appointed to the Missouri Veterans Commission in 2018 by then Governor Jay Nixon.

Wooten served in World War II in Japan, and later indicated the turning point in the war was when President Harry S. Truman dropped the bomb, saying it “saved a lot of American lives.”