Opinions
Recovery time increases with age
Lee Stubbs Column
I’m about one month away from my 48th birthday, which has given me cause for recent reflection about my age.
In many ways, getting older is very cool.
For example, I have found that I’m generally wiser and more financially secure than I was in my younger years. Likewise, I feel more settled and at peace with who I am and where I’m at. Hair loss and weight gain don’t bother me like they once did.
County Fair unique in its antiquity
Platte Rambler
Bill Graham
The 147th Annual Platte County Fair, now under way with full revelry in Tracy, seems so unique and ancient.
When much of your brainpower is spent daily evaluating virtual realities on computer screens, televisions and handheld digital electronic devices, the smell of krautburgers cooking, kids screaming on the carnival rides and real people standing in front of you to make conversation does seem exotic.
I’d like to think that this is the result of our founding fathers using their superior wisdom to invent the fair, an idea so splendid that it still thrives today.
Follow Lee on Twitter 
BREAKING NEWS: Weston man charged with possession of child porn
A 26-year-old Weston man was arrested July 21 and has been charged with four counts of felony possession of child pornography.
Samual McPherson was arrested after an investigation into his Internet habits. During a search of the family home, several image and video files depicting sexual acts on children younger than 10 years of age were discovered. McPherson is the son of Weston Chronicle newspaper owners James and Beth McPherson and was living with them at the time of his arrest.
McPherson is being held at the Platte County Detention Center on $200,000 cash-only bond and will appear before Judge Thomas Fincham Aug. 10.
For more on this story, see next week’s print version of The Citizen.
Parkville mayor rejects Community Improvement District candidates
After more than an hour of discussion at the Parkville Board of Alderman meeting July 20, Mayor Gerry Richardson used his mayoral privilege to reject a slate of candidates for the nine-member board of the Parkville Old Towne Market Community Improvement District (POTMCID). Richardson said he made the decision to honor the request of Alderman Jeffrey Bay, who was out of town on previously-made vacation plans and who asked the Board to postpone a vote on what he considered an important matter. Richardson said a written explanation of the reasons for the rejection will be provided as soon as possible and POTMCID will then have 10 days to respond, with the matter to be revisited at the Aug. 3 meeting.
POTMCID representatives including district manager and secretary Carol Kuhns, chair Tom Hutsler and attorney Charles Renner stated concerns that the POTMCID Board could become insolvent without new members put in office within a 30-day time frame, but Richardson said he hoped an alternate slate of candidates could be brought before the Board.
Platte County R-3 school district ‘holds the line’ on teacher salaries
The Platte County R-3 School District says it is “holding the line” when it comes to teacher and staff salaries and benefits. That’s the phrase R-3 officials used to describe the Board of Education’s decision last week to accept R-3 Superintendent Dr. Mike Reik’s recommendations for the upcoming school year.
For the second year in a row, the teaching staff at Platte County R-3 will not see an increase in the base salary schedule, nor will there be any movement allowed for years of service on this schedule. The base salary will remain at $34,500 per year. The district will compensate teachers who move horizontally — acquire further education hours — accordingly.
“Last year was the first time in all my years at Platte County that we did not increase base salary,” said Reik, who served as a teacher and administrator for several years prior to taking over the superintendent’s post in 2009. “Now, this year, for the first time, we will not increase salaries based on years of experience. At the same time, though, we are happy that we are not being forced to cut positions and are still able to offer paid health care.”
Man of many colors
Nestled quietly in a Riverside strip mall is a little-known and colorful treasure of the Northland — Gene’s Stained Glass Studio.
Its windows filled with examples of stained glass, since 1986 the shop has been a Riverside staple, and one of a very few custom stained glass shops in the Kansas City metro area.
Its owner, Gene Roper, never suspected a community education course he took in 1981 would have such a lasting impact on his life.
Roper was working for TWA when he took a Park Hill Community Education course in stained glass making.
“I just couldn’t put it down and I still love it today,” Roper said. He went to his instructor’s stained glass shop in Claycomo the day after his first class and bought all the tools he would need to become a stained glass professional. “It was a six-week class with four projects and I had done them all within two weeks.”
Proposition C pits feds versus state
After nearly one year of heated debate, negotiations, and public demonstrations, both in support of and against health care reform, President Obama accomplished one of his top domestic policy goals by signing the “Affordable Care Act” into law on March 23. Opponents of the legislation quickly began to take their fight to the states by way of the court system and state legislatures.
In Missouri, this resulted in Proposition C, also known as the “Health Care Freedom Amendment”, which will be on the Aug. 3 primary election ballot. The measure is intended to block the federal government from requiring people to buy health insurance and bans punishment for those without health insurance.
Even before the final federal bill was decided on and passed, the debate was already brewing here in Missouri on whether or not individual states should have the right to refuse complying with the new provisions if the federal legislation were to pass. State Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-St. Louis County) introduced the “Health Care Freedom Act” prior to the 2010 legislative session when she filed Senate Joint Resolution 25 on Dec. 1, 2009. Six months later, on May 11, after many long and wide ranging debates, the Missouri House followed the Senate by voting to pass the resolution and requiring by law that it be placed on the August state-wide ballot.
Manchester United to hold clinic at Park University
Manchester United soccer club will hold a youth Skills and Drills Clinic July 24, at Park University’s Julian Field, in advance of the club’s July 25 match against the Kansas City Wizards at Arrowhead Stadium.
The clinic will be conducted by Manchester United coaches with assistance from Park University men’s and women’s soccer players, with 48 youth participants from around the Kansas City metropolitan area taking part in the event.
Open to the media and public, the clinic will get underway at 3 p.m., ending at 6 p.m., and Julian Field facilities will be open throughout the event.
Photo Page: Carnival Set-up at the Platte County Fair, Gene's Stained Glass Workshop
 |
 |
 |
 |
Click Here and provide your contact information to sign up for a subscription or call 816-858-5154.
Copyright © 2009 Platte County Citizen All right reserved. Platte County, Missouri