By Jeff Thompson
    LAKE OZARK - Two new businesses will soon be opening on the Bagnell Dam Strip and a major franchise restaurant will follow suit at Eagles Landing.
    The Board of Aldermen approved city and Sunday liquor licenses for all three establishments at the board’s regular meeting last Tuesday Night.
    The new businesses include Buffalo Wild Wings at Eagles Landing; and El Gallito Authentic Mexican Restaurant and Trappers, both to be located on the Bagnell Dam Strip.
    In addition, Trappers applied for - and received - a package beer license.
    Buffalo Wild Wings - headquartered in Minneapolis - is a nationwide franchise with restaurants in 49 states and Canada specializing in Buffalo, New York-style chicken wings.
    It began in 1982 in Columbus, Ohio.
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‘Timely Justice’ bill filed

By Jeff Thompson
    JEFFERSON CITY - State Sen. Dan Brown recently introduced Senate Bill 945 - the “Timely Justice Act” - which seeks to streamline the process by which a condemned killer is brought to final justice.
    According to Brown, who serves in District 16 and represents Camden, Crawford, Dent,
Phelps and Pulaski Counties, the senate bill is in response to the recent kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Hailey Owens in Springfield.
    “The suspect in this case, Craig Michael Wood, has pleaded ‘not guilty,’ even though little Hailey’s body was found in Wood’s home, shot with a .22 caliber rifle in the back of the head, and discarded in a plastic tub like common trash,” Brown stated in a news release.
    Brown said that many criminals convicted of such crimes are sentenced to death but sit on “death row” for decades.
    “I feel it is time to change this situation, both to bring closure to the families and to honor the victims of these heinous crimes,” he stated.
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By Jeff Thompson
    CAMDEN COUNTY - The county’s Road & Bridge Department (R&B) was the primary focus of back-to-back meetings of the County Commissioners Feb. 20 and 21.
    The commissioners discussed the possible placement of a box culvert on Flippin Road on Feb. 21. The presiding commissioner said the commission needs to come up with a plan to address the flooded-damaged roadway.
    “We’ve got a road that’s closed,” Presiding Commissioner Kris Franken said. “Weather’s killed us this year as we all know (referring to the torrential rains and flooding during the first week of August 2013).”
    Franken acknowledged that Flippin Road has a low traffic count - “I know the road doesn’t see a lot of cars” - but balked at bringing the road back to simply a low-water crossing.
    “I just think that everywhere we can, we need to go with all-weather crossings,” the presiding commissioner said. The cost would be approximately $80,000.
    First District Commissioner Beverly Thomas said she spoke with County Highway Administrator Rich Pieper earlier about the road.
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MDC has good news for paddlefishers

    LAKE OF THE OZARKS - With paddlefish season fast approaching, the Missouri Department of Conservation has encouraging news for snaggers.
    Missouri’s paddlefish snagging season runs from March 15 through April 30. The state’s paddlefish snagging waters include the Osage River below Bagnell Dam, Lake of the Ozarks, Truman and Table Rock lakes, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and their larger tributaries. Artificial stocking sustains the reservoir fisheries. The quality of fishing varies from year to year because the Conservation Department stocks more paddlefish some years than it does in others.
    That happened in 2001, when the Conservation Department’s Blind Pony Fish Hatchery produced its second-largest crop of paddlefish in history. More than 145,000 young paddlefish found their way into Missouri waters that year. Blind Pony had a moderately good year in 2007.
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