by RAYMA BEKEBROCK DAVIS
Democrat editor


(May 14,2008) LAMAR - The horrible storms that converged on Southwest Missouri this past weekend caused some problems in the Lamar area as well. First the thunderstorms on Friday morning and then the winds and storms on Saturday afternoon caused power outages for the city.
At approximately 3:30 on Friday morning when the thunderstorms moved in, lightning struck the water tower and a power pole north of Wal-Mart causing a power outage for the storm twice in the course of a short period of time. According to Lynn Calton, city administrator, the first strike brought city electric workers to the scene, and they got power restored. No sooner had they left the area when lightning again struck a pole north of the store in the hedgerow. This strike split the pole and caused the crossarm to come down, again shutting down the electricity.
When electric workers arrived on the scene this time, they could not get the trucks into the area where the pole was down because of all the mud. They began inching their way to the pole. Finally, Barton County Electric came to the rescue with a track vehicle which is not a vehicle with tires but ones with tracks much like an army vehicle. They got the workers to the scene, and the power was restored again. In all, Wal-Mart and Murphy Oil were out of power for at least three hours.
The power outage caused the store to be closed until 1:30 p.m., and even after it reopened, employees were busily restocking the frozen and refrigerated foods for some time afterwards. Some refrigerated foods had to be thrown away.
Phil VanKirk, manager at Wal-Mart, said the power actually was on again off again during the morning up until almost 1 p.m. It first went out at approximatley 6:45 a.m. for about 40 minutes, went off again at 7:30 a.m. and was back on at 8:30 a.m. It went off again at 9:15 a.m. and was off until almost 1 p.m. He said there were reefer trucks on the scene, and all the perishable foods were moved to them. He said he asked employees to leave at least one of each of the perishable items on the shelves to make restocking easier, and all those items were thrown away, but the loss was minimal. He says he thinks the store may have lost approximately $900 in food items.
He added, “This was, fortunately nothing like the December ice storm when the store lost more like $12,000 worth of food,”
He told the Democrat in December the store had looked into bringing in a large generate, one like the carnival uses which is on a semi, but just to drive the generator here would have cost $35,000. Wal-Mart decided reefer trucks are a better solution.
Barton County Memorial Hospital was not without power because they have a generator.
Then, on Saturday while tornadoes were striking Southwest Missouri, the south half of Lamar lost power. Calton says KAMO was down, so the feed to the south substation which is located near O’Sullivan was down. The south half of the city was without power for approximately an hour and a half to two hours beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Calton says there is speculation there was a tornado between Lamar and Jasper at that time, but it has not been confirmed.
If there were no tornado, it was at least straight line winds because Doug and Rayma Davis were on the highway south of Jasper at that time, and the wind was blowing so hard and the rain coming so furiously, they had to leave the road and drive down into a low area to keep the car upright.
The power outage forced city police to man the stoplight at Gulf, and city hall was operating on a generator during that time.
Fortunately, it was a Saturday evening, and there was not a lot of traffic, and it was still daylight.

By Richard Cooper

(May 14, 2008) LAMAR - Twenty-nine storm spotters from Barton County were in the field roughly from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, as tornadoes raked the counties south and southeast of Barton causing massive amounts of damage and the deaths of 17 people. The counties experiencing fatalities were Jasper, Newton, and Barry. Barton County was on the northern edge of the affected area, and National Weather Service (NWS) doppler radar tracked a potential tornado in the southern part of the county near the community of Boston (SE 60th Road & SE 10th Lane) at 6:10 p.m. moving northeast. Since its path would take it across the community of Kenoma and the 10-mile corner (U.S. 160 & Routes E & F), Emergency Management sounded the warning sirens for the entire county. Barton County is divided into two sectors of sirens, north and south, and the 10-mile corner is in the north sector.
No significant damage nor any injuries were reported in Barton County. However, Emergency Manager Tom Ryan said that golf ball sized hail fell in and around Kenoma.
Barton County Electric Co-op experienced an interruption of service to between 200 and 300 customers, mainly from Jasper and southward. According to Chuck Wolfe at the co-op, a number of factors contributed to the interruption including lightning strikes and fallen tree limbs. The biggest factor contributing to the outage was the loss of a feeder line by KAMO Electric going into its substation near Jasper. KAMO is a utility that supplies power via transmission lines to rural electric cooperatives.

(May 14, 2008) BLUE SPRINGS - A recent change in federal tax law requires all organizations with 501(c)(3) status to file annual tax returns, regardless of income. In the past, only nonprofits with annual revenues over $25,000 were required to file federal tax returns, said a University of Missouri Extension community development specialist.
The good news is that form 990-N is available online and easy to fill out, said Georgia Stuart-Simmons. To file, go to http://www.irs.gov/charities/ and click on the link "Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations." The form is reported to be so simple to complete that the Internal Revenue Service is calling it an "e-Postcard."
Required information includes the organization's Employer Identification Number (EIN), the tax year, the organization's legal name and address, the name and address of a principal officer, the organization's Web site address (if there is one) and confirmation that gross receipts were less than $25,000.
The e-Postcard is due every year by the 15th day of the fifth month after the close of the organization's tax year.
For organizations with a fiscal year that ended on December 31, the filing deadline is May 15. So if you work for, volunteer for or serve on the board of a small nonprofit organization, ask if your organization has filed with the IRS - and do it soon.