The Thayer Electrical Department building was broken into and vandalized.
Unknown at this time if anything was stolen, or if any records were stored there.
Also vandalized were some of the railroad's locomotives.
Still developing . . .
I sent the following letter to the editor to the
Deckard Propaganda Machine South Missourian News on January 18th.
Re: "Thanks But No Thanks" in the 1/18/07 South Missourian News.
I was at the January meeting of the Thayer city council. Your article leaves out a few important incidents.
1. As reported in the January 11 West Plains Daily Quill but not in the South Missourian News, Bob Grimes expressed his desire at the meeting that "people [presumably meaning the people who elected him] shut up" about questions regarding the grant application process and "leave him [Barton] alone."
2. Mayor Allen Deckard complaining about the quality of people we have in Thayer. According to the Quill, the exchange went something like this:
Grimes said Barton oversees most of the city’s grants and “people around town are stabbing him in the back,” adding Barton should no longer carry the responsibility if his work is not appreciated.
“That shows what kind of people we have (in Thayer),” Deckard said . . .
3. The mayor reportedly accusing a member in the audience of slander, yet providing no evidence to support the accusation. Unfortunately, these outbursts did not make it into either paper.
It is the right of citizens to hold their government accountable, and to be informed.
But I have a solution to any questions about the grant application process, and many other questions a citizen might have about our city government -- a top-to-bottom independent audit of the city and all it's departments, including Utilities.
This would clear up any questions citizens have about how the City of Thayer is spending our money.
If you agree that a city audit is needed, contact your alderman. They are:
Bob Grimes
Buddy Rogers
Mike Harber
Steve Alford.
Or contact the mayor's office at city hall. He can be reached by phone via the city clerk's office at (417) 264-3921.
John Hutchison
Thayer Taxpayers Association Blog
It should have come out in yesterday's paper.
They didn't print it.
I placed a call to David Cox to find out why.
He didn't return my call.
They just proved me right when I call them the Deckard Propaganda Machine.
Jan Sisk Lawrence did not even attend that meeting, but you wouldn't know that by reading her article. Instead, she just parrotted the information that was spoonfed to her by the mayor's office. And this isn't the first time this has happened.
But they don't want you to know that.
After this, I wouldn't buy that paper if it printed
next week's lottery numbers.
. . . over at the
Deckard Propaganda Machine South Missourian News.You can tell by the tone of the article, how it leaves out certain exchanges that happened during the meeting, and how the newspaper did not have anyone actually at the meeting to cover it (although the article doesn't admit to that) that the entire thing was spoonfed to the paper by Gary Barton and/or Allen Deckard.
I wrote a letter to the editor, but they may choose not to print it. I have yet to receive a confirmation call about it.
If they don't print it, I'll put it up here for you to see.
Excellent article in the 1/11/07 WPDQ. Look for it
here, but hurry. Like all of their articles, it disappears rapidly from the online edition and isn't really recoverable.
It really shows the true colors of some of our elected officials.
Thayer Councilman Bob Grimes said he is “getting tired” of hearing rumors
around town that the city’s electric department supervisor, Gary Barton, is
getting extra money for administering grants.
He says that is not so, that Barton does a lot of work “on his own time” to
help the city get grants. The councilman would like Barton to continue working
on grants, but only if “people would shut up and leave him alone.”
If you want to be left alone, Bob, why are you in public office? Do you think aldermen shouldn't receive input from their constituents? When people find out you want to be left alone, Bob, I'm sure that can be arranged. On election day.
Grimes said Barton oversees most of the city’s grants and “people around town are stabbing him in the back,” adding Barton should no longer carry the responsibility if his work is not appreciated.
“That shows what kind of people we have (in Thayer),” [Thayer Mayor Allen] Deckard said, adding later he was not referring to everyone in town.
Then to whom was he referring? "What kind of people?" You mean, the kind that attempts to hold it's government accountable?
It's a unique re-election strategy; I'll give him that. Insult the people who will be voting for or against you.
Hey, I said "unique," not "smart."
The following excerpt demonstrates Deckard's bizarre position that people from Thayer should not be talking to their state representative:
Deckard asked Grimes to name who had been talking about Barton. Without naming anyone, Grimes turned to audience member Joe Barbee, asking him why he had called “Dethrow,” referring to 153rd District State Representative Mike Dethrow (R-Alton). Dethrow’s district includes Oregon, Butler, Carter, Ripley and Wayne Counties.
Barbee said it is a free country and he can call whomever he wishes, adding he had wanted information on city grants and administrative fees. Deckard told Barbee that information is available at city hall and he should have called that office instead of Dethrow.
Wednesday, Barbee phoned The Quill to say he did not call city hall because he has gone there in the past for information on issues and received no help. He called Dethrow with questions about administrative fees associated with grants, and did not mention Barton’s name, he added.
1. It is none of the mayor's business who a citizen talks to.
2. If Barbee believes that city hall is doing this, why would he expect city hall to admit to it?
3. City hall has a history of giving people deceptive information. For instance, telling people who want to sign up to run for a city office that they must supply a financial statement, when they don't have to.
In short, we can't trust the mayor or his flunkies to tell the truth, so why would we ask them ANYTHING?
Allison Wilson does a good job in this article, but she left out a very important detail about that exchange -- the mayor hurling accusation of slander at Joe Barbee, yet providing no evidence that Barbee had done so.
And one more thing:
[Alderman Stever] Alford asked if the South Central Ozarks Council of Governments (SCOCOG) in Pomona, which does grant writing, could do the work Barton is now doing.
Deckard said SCOCOG could write grants at no charge, but once the grant is awarded, it requires a fee to oversee the project.
Deckard asked the council its wishes. Grimes said he would like Barton to continue, but not under criticism by the community.
Shouldn't this be done by the mayor? If not, what are we paying him for? What exactly does he do, other than sign proclamations about Ronald McDonald House and throw tantrums at city council meetings?
. . . you might not hear about this, because neither
Kkountry 95 nor the
South Missourian News had a reporter present at last night's city council meeting.
A disagreement erupted about
kickbacks "administration fees" that city
manager administrator employee Gary Barton might be getting for filling out grant applications.
Some highlights:
Bob Grimes expressing his desire that "people just shut up about it." He seems to forget that the people write his paycheck and have a right to know what the city is doing.
The mayor throwing yet another tantrum, calling out a member of the audience for having the nerve to talk to his state representative.
That's all I want to say on the matter until I have a chance to talk to some of my sources.
Look for an article in the
West Plains Daily Quill in the upcoming days. Unlike our "local" media, they actually had a reporter at the meeting.
In other business, new rules for safety equipment on ATV's on city streets were enacted.
And the taxpayers of Thayer will now be providing animal shelter services for the city of Koshkonong, apparently with no reimbursement whatsoever from Koshkonong. Isn't that nice of us? Why should WE be paying for THEIR city services? Why can't they do what Thayer did, build their own pound?
