Southwest Missouri News

Joplin

Empire District to sell new shares

The Empire District Electric Company has announced plans to sell 1.75 million newly issued shares of its common stock.

The shares are registered under Em-pire's currently effective shelf registration statement. The managing underwriters for Empire's common stock offering are A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., Jefferies & Company Inc., and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc.

Empire District Electric Company is an investor-owned utility providing electric service to approximately 150,000 customers in southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas.

McDonald County

Sales tax may replace property tax

The McDonald County Commission will place on the Feb. 5 ballot a proposal to replace the countywide property tax with a sales tax.

If voters approve the tax measure, the current 30-cent levy on real and personal property would be eliminated and re-placed by a half-cent sales tax designated for law enforcement. The issue is ex-pected to produce $600,000 to $650,000 annually.

The vote would not affect the Mc-Donald County R-1 School District, ambulance and fire districts, or the public library, as each levies taxes on real estate and personal property.

The county already has a half-cent sales tax for general revenue, another half-cent tax for roads and bridges and a half-cent sales tax for 911. Approval of the measure would bring the county sales tax total to 2 cents. The state imposes a 4.225-cent sales tax.

Neosho

Movie Gallery under construction

Construction is under way on a new retail business in Neosho. Movie Gallery, a national video business located in Dosen, Ala., expects to open a store by March 1.

The facility is under construction at the corner of Neosho Boulevard and Daugherty Road. The landlord will be Gebhard and Gebhard Inc., Springfield.

There are approximately 1,100 Movie Galleries in the United States. Each store typically employs five to 10 people.

Truck-driving program gets funds

Funds from a federal appropriations bill will benefit the truck-driving program at Crowder College.

U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-7th District, recently announced that the appropriation measure contains the $700,000 needed to fully establish the $1.2 million Missouri Center for Advanced Highway Safety at Crowder.

The plan, which has been in the works for several years and for which about $500,000 was previously appropriated by both the state and federal governments, calls for construction of a skid pad upon which drivers could learn, among other things, how to regain control of their vehicles after going into a skid on wet pavement.

The original design called for a concrete pad 1,000 feet long and 750 feet wide north of the college's truck-driving center.

It is to have a ramp leading to a surface where sprinklers would maintain a wet roadway.

The college plans to offer training in accident avoidance over a one- or two- day course to drivers of tractor-trailer rigs, school buses and emergency response vehicles. Both behind-the-wheel and classroom instruction is planned.

Crowder has received help with the project from privately owned trucking companies in the area.