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A possible Ozark County health ordinance related to concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, was the main topic of discussion at the Ozark County Commission’s regular weekly meeting on Monday. The ordinance is expected to be discussed again at next week’s meeting, to be held at 9 a.m....

Gainesville resident Jack Stone shows the Apollo 11 Flight Plan he used 50 years ago as a NASA employee whose job was to analyze all activities during the eight-day project minute by minute to predict the amount of fuel (hydrogen and oxygen) that would be consumed to power the spacecraft’s systems. Stone also worked on Apollo 8, 9 and 10. The flight plans are on temporary display at the Ozark County Historium.
With a population of fewer than 10,000 people in a remote and rural section of southern Missouri, it seems unlikely that two Ozark Countians would have been directly involved in the 1969 Apollo 11 project that first landed a man on the moon, but that’s the case.  After seeing the story in the July...

Curtis Ledbetter, left, is the county’s new emergency manager and also chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee. He was recommended for the jobs by outgoing emergency manager and LEPC chair Steve Ator, right. The two men have worked together in the past year to improve the county’s emergency preparedness and to facilitate training for the county’s first responders. Ator also expanded the emergency management team to become a core of volunteers who, when needed, will respond through this door of the Ozark County Health Department basement to set up an emergency operations center, with each person handling a pre-designated organizational role.
Curtis Ledbetter is the county’s new emergency manager and also the chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, accepting the emergency manager appointment last week by Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner. Ledbetter accepted the LEPC chairmanship in March.Ledbetter is the...

Gainesville Schools superintendent Jeff Hyatt tries out one of the comfortable chairs in the junior/senior high school’s new library center, which adjoins a new learning lab where students can take online classes.
As Gainesville students returned to school Tuesday, they discovered several improvements at the junior/senior high school, including a new learning lab and library center.“We wanted something different and more modern for the kids,” said Gaines-ville R-V superintendent Dr. Jeff Hyatt.The new...

Times photo / Sue Ann Jones Missouri Department of Transportation project manager Pete Berry, center, talks with Joe Easterday, left, and his wife Diane about the department’s plans to improve the Tecumseh curves on Highway 160, where the Easterdays’ Rocky Top Resort and Campground are located. MoDOT’s current plans will require the removal of five vintage native-rock cabins at the resort as well as a house and a shed. Structures must also be removed on two other properties along the 1-mile stretch of highway. In the background, Darla Sullivan, left, and Eugene Strong study project plans that were posted on the walls of the GHS cafeteria during the public information meeting Aug. 6. Others attending the meeting included Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner (back to camera) and Tecumseh resident Dan Israel, right.
Representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation fielded questions and listened to residents’ comments at an Aug. 6 meeting at Gainesville High School to present the preliminary plans for improving the Highway 160 curves at Tecumseh.Several property owners along the 1-mile stretch of...

Times photo/Bruce Roberts Dr. Allen Woods
Dora R-III School District’s new superintendent, Dr. Allen Woods, stepped into the job July 1 and says he’s ready for the new school year, which officially starts at Dora on Thursday. Woods, now beginning his 20th year as an educator and his sixth as an administrator, comes to Dora after spending a...

Missouri Department of Natural Resources photo. A concentrated animal feeding operation.
At their regular weekly meeting Monday, Aug. 19, the Ozark County Commissioners will consider enacting a health ordinance regarding concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as CAFOs, in Ozark County. The proposed ordinance comes in response to Missouri Senate Bill 391, which bars counties...

E.J. Hampton says his favorite part of being the preacher at Souder for nearly 60 years “is simply being able to be here.” Photos by Kaitlyn McConnell/ozarksalive.com
Editor’s note: This story by Kaitlyn McConnell is reprinted with permission from her blog, Ozarks Alive! To read more of her stories about “the gems of the Ozarks” visit ozarksalive.com Souder – Hidden at the end of a flower-lined, crunchy gravel road is a small country church — and a preacher who...

Times photo/Sue Ann Jones Dale Roberts has baptized new Christians in horse troughs, swimming pools, bathtubs, and in lakes, rivers and creeks, including this often-used spot in Lick Creek south of Gainesville on County Road 503. “I’ll do it any way I can to help someone be baptized,” he said.
Dale Roberts retired as pastor of Lilly Ridge General Baptist Church at the end of May, but he’s quick to say that his 36-year career in ministry continues. That means he’s no longer “over a church,” but he’s still marrying, burying and baptizing, continuing the work he has recorded in his well-...

Curtis Ledbetter, left, is the county’s new emergency manager and also chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee. He was recommended for the jobs by outgoing emergency manager and LEPC chair Steve Ator, right. The two men have worked together in the past year to improve the county’s emergency preparedness and to facilitate training for the county’s first responders. Ator also expanded the emergency management team to become a core of volunteers who, when needed, will respond through this door of the Ozark County Health Department basement to set up an emergency operations center, with each person handling a pre-designated organizational role.
Curtis Ledbetter is the county’s new emergency manager and also the chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, accepting the emergency manager appointment last week by Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner. Ledbetter accepted the LEPC chairmanship in March.Ledbetter is the...

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Ozark County Times

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