Wishes from area businesses for a wonderful 2014 inside!
©2014 Serving Lamar, Golden City, Lockwood, Jasper, Sheldon, Mindenmines and Liberal for 143 years. Incorporating The Daily Democrat, Golden City Herald & Lockwood Luminary.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2014
1 SECTION, 8 PAGES
Don’t miss Winterfest! Winterfest, a Barton County Community Fund Benefit with music by Sober as a Judge will be held Saturday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., at Memorial Hall in Lamar. The Barton County Community Fund is a newly organized entity that will be raising funds that will, in time and as the fund is built, be awarded to non-profit organizations throughout Barton County. Tickets to Winterfest are $25 per person and include light refreshments. Tickets and more information may be obtained from event sponsors, Pat and Carol Barr, Barton County Chamber of Commerce, Charles and Nancy Curless, Heritage State Bank, Dr. Jeff and Jane Moyer, Nichols and Nichols/ Barton County Title Company, Seed and Farm Supply in Liberal, Nelson and Kelley Nichols and Jim and Jane McKinney, or by calling 2620844.
Golden City seeks correction of low bid before awarding wastewater treatment contract By RICHARD COOPER Democrat staff writer richardcooper@ lamardemocrat.com GOLDEN CITY-The Golden City Board of Aldermen met in special session, December 20, to authorize the city to file a suit in Barton County Circuit Court to revise a bid by a Mountain Grove contractor for construction of a wastewater treatment system. Upon careful examination, city officials found a $143,210 error in the base bid of Smith and Edwards Construction, the apparent low bidder for the project. The original bid had been $2,831,381. With the addition of the error, the base bid would be raised to $2,974,591, which would still leave Smith and Edwards the low bidder. Before Golden City can accept the bid and award a contract, a judge must sign a petition adjusting the amount of the bid. The petition was filed in Barton County Circuit Court, December 23. Mayor Henry Lopez says he expects it will require about 30 days for a judge to act on the petition. Bids were opened on November 26, and they were valid for 90 days. Lopez was confident that the amount of the bid could be corrected and the contract awarded well inside the February 24, 2014 deadline.
INDEX
SECTION A Friends & Family ...................... 2 Friends & Family ...................... 3 Friends & Family ...................... 4 Records/Legals .......................... 5 Legals.......................................... 6 Legals/Classifieds...................... 7 Area News ................................. 8
Lamar Democrat/ Richard Cooper Lamar City Lake has been a favorite resting place for migrating geese for many years. When the above photo was taken, December 26, approximately a thousand disturbed snow geese had just taken flight. Snows spook very easily. In the right photo, about 150 Canadas watched quietly from the northwest corner of the lake, most of them on the dam. Canadas rarely fly from an intruder (such as this cameraman) unless they sense genuine danger.
Lamar Democrat/ Richard Cooper Until a thaw set in Christmas day, most any place in Barton County and surrounding area was a winter wonderland.
Lamar Police Department participates in Shop With A Cop 2013 By LT. JOHN DAVIS Lamar Police Department
If you were awakened on December 14 around 7 a.m., to all kinds of sirens sounding along Highway 160 and wondered what was happening, I am here to tell you. What you heard was a large group of police officers from Lamar, Barton County, Cedar County and Joplin PD, giving a group of 105 kids a police escort to the Lamar Walmart Super Center for the Seventh Annual Lamar Police Department Shop With A Cop program. The program started off at the First Baptist Church in Lamar, where the kids and officers were fed a breakfast by Melinie Smith and her family and friends. Then the kids were loaded on to the Oakton Methodist Church buses and given that escort to the Lamar Walmart where they met Santa, who was delivered in style by Bonnie and Gailand
Johnston of Lamar Travel Plaza and Lamar Truck and Tire. As in years past Gailand brought Santa to the kids in style in his 18 wheeler dubbed “Inferno.” Once inside the store the kids were paired with their officers and a shopping they went.
Most of the kids, ages five through 12, were given a $100 dollar gift card to spend on themselves. Those children in the family not in that age group and below the age of 16 were given a $50 dollar gift card. There were a lot of smiles on the kids and even bigger smiles on the officer’s faces. The pro-
this year through the generous donations from the people of Barton County, we were able to give each family, all 44 of them, a food basket as well. Each year I try to thank each and every person who donates to this program because without their generosity we would not have some of the relationships that we have today with the youth of Lamar, Liberal, Golden City, Lockwood and Jasper. Yes, you understood me correctly, we not only take children from the Lamar area, but we also include every town in Barton County, as well as Photo courtesy of Jeremy Brand Lockwood and Jasper. The reason given a picture to remember we include Lockwood and Jasthe day by the Walmart Photo per is due to some of the donaLab. Some of the kids bought tions coming from those compresents for their parents or munities when their citizens other loved ones and were in come to Lamar and shop and need of Christmas gift wrap- donate when we are collecting ping. This year the First Baptist money on Black Friday in front Church of Lamar donated this of the Walmart Store. as well. Since we were able to We also collect funds for those raise enough money once again see SHOP, page 3 gram is designed to take children shopping for Christmas and allow them to become better acquainted with police officers and know that they can trust us in times of need. The kids and officers also had their photo taken with Santa and
Lamar Elks assist with funding for Shop With A Cop Once again the Lamar Elks Lodge assisted the Lamar Police Department with funding for their annual Shop With A Cop program. Richard Kentner, third from left, with the Elks Lodge, presents a $2,000 check to Cpl. Steven Shaw, SRO Oliver Cornell and Detective Robert Lawrence, Jr.