By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
A local group organized to devise a watershed-management plan for lower Shoal Creek has been awarded a $30,000 state grant.
The grant, from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, constitutes the first funding that the Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee has received, said Craig Jones, a planner for the Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council, which secured the grant for the committee.
The funding will be used to develop a survey that, in part, will “gauge perceptions of local water-quality issues and support of various types of local programs aimed at restoring and protecting local waterways,” according to DNR.
Jones said the specific content of the survey will be devised by the committee, but it will likely use other surveys as a template and be distributed to property owners along the lower Shoal Creek watershed. Potential questions could ask those property owners how they use their land and what their perspectives are on the watershed’s future.
“We are not going to reinvent the wheel, to use an overused phrase,” he said.
The background
The Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties last year formed the Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee as a steering committee. The group’s mission statement designates not just the lower part but the entire Shoal Creek watershed — from its headwaters in Barry County to its confluence with Spring River west of the Missouri-Kansas line near Riverton, Kan. — as the area to be served by the plan.
The goal of the group is to “identify and implement voluntary, common-sense actions that will help to improve and conserve the water quality” of the lower part of the creek and its tributaries.
Local News
Shoal Creek group snags state grant
- Local News
-
-
Dog helps some get through the court process
Sophie, a mutt of a dog with draping ears and dotted brows, is helping people in St. Louis County court tell stories of crime to judges, investigators and attorneys.
-
Jasper County 911 administrative lines down
Though all Jasper County emergency 911 telephone lines are functional, administrative and non-emergency lines for the county dispatching service have been down since Monday night.
-
Study suggests continued population drop in Kansas
A decades-long decline in population is likely to continue in Kansas, particularly in the west of the state, and four counties could have fewer than 1,000 residents by 2040, according to a study by Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research.
-
Tornado victim’s recovery ‘miraculous’
Carolyn Mckinlay did not know much about baseball, but she knew it was important to watch the sixth game of last year’s World Series. It was important because her future husband, Mark Lindquist, had a ticket to see his beloved Cardinals take on the Texas Rangers in the seventh game at St. Louis.
-
Family of service honored at Memorial Day ceremony
Lt. Col. Robert Brock returned to his hometown Monday and told an audience of about 500 residents and veterans gathered at the Pittsburg State University Veterans Memorial that Memorial Day is a celebration of family — America’s family of service.
-
Master developer working on project possibilities
A Texas developer who Joplin officials intend to hire to help with the city’s post-tornado development says he has secured commitments for about $400 million in capital to fund about 20 possible projects.
-
Webb City High School honored in rankings of national magazine
Webb City High School is among 13 schools in Missouri to receive a silver medal designation among the best high schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
-
Grant to fund animal isolation area at Carthage Humane Society shelter
The Carthage Humane Society will use a grant from the Carthage Community Foundation to complete a room for isolating potentially sick animals at the shelter, according to Glenda Erwin, shelter director.
-
Mike Pound: Out-of-town adventures: texting while shopping
My wife sent me a text the other day. She and our 14-year-old daughter, Emma, were shopping. I was not. I was doing the exact opposite of shopping. I was watching a baseball game on TV.
-
Joplin summer school starts next week
Students in the Joplin School District will have had only two weeks between the close of the school year and the start of summer school. Summer classes will be held weekdays from June 4 through June 29.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Dog helps some get through the court process
