Presentation on Joplin's mining history scheduled at Joplin Public Library

(From the Joplin Public Library)

Join Kelly Reddin, member of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum Board, as she shares stories from Joplin’s expansive mining and mineral past!

This presentation is designed with adults in mind.

Thursday, June 25, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Joplin Public Library

Joplin High School Class of 2026 students graduate with honors

(From Joplin Schools)

Congratulations to the Class of 2026 graduates who earned Honors recognition this spring! These outstanding students earned Summa Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Cum Laude honors as a result of their hard work, dedication, focus, and grit throughout all four years of high school. They set an example for excellence, and we are so proud of their accomplishments!

SUMMA CUM LAUDE (4.2 GPA or higher)
David Bhend
Hayden Doll
Jakobi Doss
Micah Holden
John Jasper
Zoey Leow
Lauren Scheurich
Taylor Schlag
Jacob Tatum
Ava Werberger-Doll
Isaac Yust

MAGNA CUM LAUDE (4.0 - 4.19 GPA)

Jackson Arnold
Vivi Blair
John Briggs
Ilannah Burtrum
Thomas Dao
Carly Dunn
Lehman Gavin
Brittnay Heim
Brady Honeycutt
Carlie Howard
Canyon Kimbrough
Mary Linford
Daniela Ndukwu
Kendall Nyarango
Astha Patel
Lucy Perez
Ayden Rhymer
Madelyn Roberts

Layne Royle
Annabelle Rutledge
Scarlett Satterlee
Dayna Smith
Andrew Snider
Adara Soderstrom
Ava Southwell
Aubrey Strickland
Ava Wolf

CUM LAUDE (3.85 - 3.99 GPA)

Lydia Barwick
Nicolas Brady
Maya Craven
Eli Dogotch
Brecken Green
Tobyn Ipsen
Anthony Kirk
Sophie Krumsick
Henry Meeker
Julia Reyes-Alvarado

Missouri judge strikes down nearly all state abortion regulations

By Anna Spoerre
Missouri Independent

Many of Missouri’s abortion regulations, including laws that Planned Parenthood said made it impossible for providers to prescribe medication abortion, were struck down in a ruling Thursday by a Jackson County judge.

One of the regulations most widely condemned by abortion rights supporters, a 72-hour waiting period between an initial consultation and an abortion, has been unenforceable for several months under a temporary ruling. The 20-page decision from Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang makes that decision permanent.

One of the few laws upheld Thursday by Zhang is a requirement that patients meet with a doctor in-person before being prescribed medication abortion. Zhang also upheld a requirement that only physicians can perform abortions.

In the ruling, Zhang alluded to the long and contentious political fights over abortion and her “limited constitutional role in this much broader discussion.”

The ruling comes after a 10-day-long bench trial played out in January in Kansas City in which Zhang heard from abortion providers, Planned Parenthood employees and women who underwent abortions they later regretted. And it comes more than 18 months after voters passed a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability.

“Debate and litigation around the topic of abortion has occurred for several decades. It is a deeply personal, philosophical, and moral issue to many on both sides of the argument. It has also played a significant role in elected politics,” Zhang wrote in her decision Thursday. “ … It is clear to this court that the beliefs surrounding abortion are, and will continue to be, an ongoing conversation and debate in American society.”

The ruling opens up access to medication abortion for Missourians for the first time since 2018. Medication abortion is the most common method to end a pregnancy in the United States, used in about two-thirds of abortions. Planned Parenthood in a statement Thursday said it will begin offering medication abortion appointments next week.

“This decision brings compassion and common sense back to Missouri health care,” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains said in a statement. “For too long, politicians forced patients to leave the state for an evidence-based and trusted form of abortion care. Now, that care is coming home and with it, we move closer to fulfilling the promise of reproductive freedom Missourians demanded.”

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement Thursday that she plans to “expeditiously” appeal the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court.

“This radical decision gives abortion providers a free pass to police themselves,” Hanaway said. “Women are no longer entitled to the same level of care in an abortion clinic that they would receive in other healthcare settings: providers are no longer required to maintain complication plans or insurance, and the state cannot even conduct basic health and safety inspections to ensure patient safety.”

The laws declared unconstitutional by Zhang include:Special licensing requirements for abortion providers.
A ban on telemedicine that requires a physician be present when a patient takes abortion medication.
Hospital admitting privileges for physicians performing abortions.
A requirement for physicians prescribing medication abortions to have a state-approved complication plan.
That medication abortion providers carry insurance covering physicians after they leave employment.
Tissue removed during a surgical abortion be sent to a pathologist
That patients be given material created by the state Department of Health and Senior Services, including a pamphlet that reads “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”

Medication abortion appointments will be available at the Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City and St. Louis on Monday and in Columbia on Wednesday, spokespeople said Thursday.

In post-trial briefings filed in April, the Missouri attorney general’s office argued that Planned Parenthood “brings this case to eliminate nearly all of Missouri’s health and safety abortion laws in one fell swoop.”

The ACLU of Missouri and Planned Parenthood, who filed the lawsuit immediately following the November 2024 election, argued that the abortion regulations were designed to ensure abortion was “regulated out of existence” by creating logistical nightmares for patients and ethical dilemmas for providers without making procedures safer.

In 2022, Missouri became the first state to ban nearly all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In 2024, Missouri also became the first state to overturn an abortion ban by the vote of the people.

In response, lawmakers sent voters a new proposal that would ban abortion with limited exceptions for survivors of rape and incest. Missourians will vote on the measure listed as Amendment 3 in November.

“The role of the court is to apply the law in any given case,” Zhang wrote, “and to base its decision solely on its interpretation of the law as applied to the evidence before it.”

A new set of distractions? Missouri's school cellphone ban still divides

By Maria Benevento 

Beacon: Kansas City

Students at Northeast Middle School in Kansas City used to run into one another “just like bumper cars” as they navigated the halls with eyes fixed on their cellphone screens, said school librarian Paula York.

That changed after a 2025 Missouri law banned students’ personal electronic devices such as cellphones during the entire school day, York said.

“They’re actually looking at people and not running into people. Their focus is much better in school. Their attention span is much better, and they’re learning that … they have to have manners, because they can’t hide behind a screen,” she said. 

 
The most recent school year was the first under a 2025 Missouri law that prohibits students from using cellphones and other personal electronic devices during the school day. 

Some educators say the law helped students focus in class and socialize with their peers during lunch and breaks. 

Others say a more balanced approach would allow students some access to personal devices, as long as it doesn’t distract them from instruction.

In contrast, Ruskin High School Principal Ernest Fields couldn’t think of any positive effects of the new law.

“Cellphone usage during instructional time is what the main problem is,” he said. “To ban it even during personal time, I think that's an overreach.”

Fields said enforcing the law during class time has itself become a distraction. He said some students beat the ban by bringing multiple phones, distracting themselves with laptops instead or hiding in the bathroom to check messages.

“Students do have real tasks outside of school,” he said. “They end up having to take care of their little brothers and sisters. They have jobs they call. … It’s just not as easy as saying, ‘Just take it away.’”

You would be hard-pressed to find someone who thinks students should be distracted by technology during class. 

 

But after the first school year under Missouri’s new law, there’s no firm agreement on where schools should draw the line on electronic devices, or whether the state was right to make that decision for them.

Some teachers and administrators said they appreciate the legal backup to existing school policies and see benefits to students socializing instead of scrolling during lunch and other breaks.

Others described downsides. They say that the law can unnecessarily restrict helpful uses of technology such as communicating with parents or employers or using personal devices to make up for the shortcomings of school-issued technology.

Christy Moreno, the national organizing director for the National Parents’ Union, said the policy and advocacy group polled parents and found that most support “balanced approaches” that allow students some access to their phones in case of emergency or during breaks.

“It's not like parents want their kids to have access to playing games on their phone or sharing memes on social media,” she said. But “we’re not in a place where we can trust schools to communicate with us in a timely and effective manner.” 

How the cellphone ban works

Missouri’s law restricting cellphone use in school doesn’t actually include the word “cellphone.” Instead, it refers to “electronic personal communication devices” and defines that as “a portable device that is used to initiate, receive, store, or view communication, information, images, or data electronically.”

That definition could also apply to other devices including smart watches, tablets and laptops not issued by the school.

Public school districts and charter schools must make policies about those personal devices that stop students from using or displaying them during the whole school day, not only during class but also during study halls, meals and breaks.

The policies must include exceptions if the devices are needed to accommodate disabilities, health issues or special education needs. They can also include exceptions for emergencies and when students are directed to use the devices for an educational purpose.

The law doesn’t say the devices have to be left at home or locked up. 

Individual districts and charter schools can set stricter policies, and some have experimented with keeping students’ phones in locking Yondr-brand bags. But several local districts are simply requiring that devices be silenced and kept out of sight, meaning that many students would still have phones accessible in case of an emergency or if needed before or after school.

Missouri’s ban on personal electronic devices is part of a nationwide wave of legislation.

According to a report card from a coalition of groups that support cellphone restrictions in schools, 24 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted “bell to bell” bans on using cellphones.

Kansas’ 2026 ban is one of the newest and one of the strictest. It’s one of only four states to specify that cellphones can’t be accessible to students at all during school, according to the report.

An additional eight states prohibit cellphones during class time only, and nine require a cellphone policy but don’t specify what it should include. Cellphone bills have failed in four states and are pending in four others. Only Montana has not introduced a bill. 

 
Backing up existing policies

Before Missouri’s law went into effect, schools were grappling with how to handle cellphones.

In 2023, a Kansas City charter high school, DeLaSalle Education Center, decided to lock up students’ cellphones in Yondr pouches during the whole school day.

The following year, the school said the policy had been a success but that it was considering making it less strict outside of class time in response to student feedback.

Other schools were less strict. Some let teachers set policies for their classrooms. Some allowed students to use their phones during lunch and/or breaks between classes. But while Missouri’s law goes further than some policies, it also helps reinforce existing measures.

York, the KCPS librarian, will enter her 40th year as an educator this fall. She said some younger teachers at KCPS were more open to incorporating phones into assignments, but then struggled to get the students to put them away.

“We had kind of a war between the younger teachers and the old crusty ones like me,” she said.

York — who was referred to speak to The Beacon by the district’s director of communications, Shain Bergan — thinks most teachers came around to the stricter rules after the ban went into place.

“They call it ‘the backup,’ because we tell the kids, ‘Well, it’s a state law. That’s just the way it is,’” she said.

Independence School District teachers and a student described a strictly enforced ban on phones except during lunch before the state law. Students who didn’t comply could be “Yondr-ed” or have their phones confiscated.

Jorjana Pohlman, president of the Independence National Education Association, the district teachers union, said the state law brought a “sigh of relief” from many teachers because they could refer back to the state law rather than feeling like the “bad guy.”

Nathan Muckey, principal of Lee’s Summit High School, said that before the law passed he already had a strong stance that cellphones should not be impeding learning, though they were allowed during breaks between classes and lunch.

Having the cellphone ban in state law made conversations with students more straightforward, he said, and helps teachers hold the same firm line on technology.

“Teachers don’t have to play good cop, bad cop anymore. It’s everyone’s on the same page,” he said. “If kids are saying, ‘Well, Mrs. X, Y and Z (are) allowing us to do this,’ well, they’re violating the law at that point.”

Fields, the Ruskin High principal in the Hickman Mills School District, also thinks teachers appreciate having the law as backup when telling students to put their phones away.

“It pushes it back on someone else instead of the teacher having the power,” he said.

But Fields said that goes against his philosophy that teachers are more likely to enforce rules they make themselves. He previously allowed teachers to set their own cellphone policies and promised to back them up on discipline as long as they’d made expectations clear.

If rules are imposed from above, “they don’t want to enforce it with fidelity, because it’s not really their thing, it’s someone else's rule,” he said. “If it’s your rule, you have a passion about it, and you’re going to enforce your rule in your classroom.” 

Tighter restrictions

After the ban on personal electronic devices in school went into effect, Jacob Gragg found a practical application for his debate skills.

While cellphones were the primary target of the bans, Gragg and his friends at William Chrisman High School in Independence were dismayed to learn that they were also barred from using laptops that weren’t issued by the school. 

 

A 2026 graduate who is headed to debate nationals this summer before starting at Washington University in St. Louis in the fall, Gragg said the policy particularly affected high achievers.

Many tasks related to Advanced Placement or dual-credit courses, extracurriculars or college applications aren’t possible on the school-issued Chromebooks, he said.

For example, students might need to view YouTube lectures from a college professor, use dual-factor authentication to log in to the College Board website, open large files for college applications or run Mac-based programs for debate preparation.

“Pretty much all of the students who try to push themselves really hard, they just don’t use” the school computers, Gragg said. “Even on a cheap personal device, it’s just 100 times better than the stuff that they give us.”

Gragg said after students advocated for themselves — including some who spoke at a school board meeting — the issue was resolved about six weeks into the school year.

The district didn’t apologize, he said. It simply reiterated its existing policy and quietly began interpreting it more flexibly.

In response to an interview request, the Independence School District sent a statement.

“The Independence School District has long supported a balanced approach to student electronic device use, prioritizing both safety and learning before the State Legislature’s cellphone restrictions,” according to the statement.

“Under ISD policy, students may use electronic devices for educational purposes when authorized by a teacher or school official as part of planned instruction. This has not changed and preserves teacher autonomy in supporting student learning while ensuring devices remain available when needed for safety and communication.”

After the personal laptop issue was resolved, Gragg said he saw both positive and negative effects of the law. He thinks socialization increased during lunch, but having to go to the office to get an important message from a parent felt like a burden.

Other restrictions — in Independence and elsewhere — have remained tighter than some educators and parents prefer.

Sarah Nelson, a high school English teacher in Independence who also serves on the Missouri National Education Association board and as the high school at-large representative for the Independence National Education Association, said the more complete ban from the state is an adjustment for families who were used to being able to communicate during the day.

“It requires discipline on the students’ part and the parents’ part not to rely on them being able to access that technology all day,” she said, “and sometimes that’s just not feasible. It also creates a hardship on the office when you have to send students down to the office to call a parent, or the parent has to call the office to send a message to their kids.”

Moreno, the National Parents Union advocate, said it’s important for students to be able to contact emergency services or stay in touch with parents.

She suggested phone companies could develop a “school mode” — similar to airplane mode — that automatically limits distracting apps within the bounds of a school but still allows students to make 911 calls, access educational programs and reach a few important contacts. 

Socialization

When Carter Taylor sees “cheesy posts” from people who stepped into a school and were delighted to hear the voices of children no longer engrossed by their phones, she’s skeptical.

“First of all, I do not believe that you actually spend any time in a school if that’s your reaction, because these kids are always talking,” said Taylor, an elementary teacher for Kansas City Public Schools and legislative chair of the district’s teachers union. 

 

It reminds her of overblown claims that “the world is healing” during pandemic-era reports of wildlife sightings — some of them false — such as dolphins in the Venetian canals.

When they “scapegoat” phones, “It feels like someone trying to preach to me instead of actually engaging in the issues that cause the deficits that they saw in the first place,” she said.

Taylor said she opposed the ban because teachers already restricted phones during class time, and she thinks phones can be used for prosocial behavior at other times.

She said politicians are trying to use the phone ban to address issues such as low test scores and gun violence rather than tackling the issues directly through funding and legislation.

“They’re the ones who have the power to make sure we have resources … and they won’t do that,” she said. “They blame everything on these phones, but these were problems before the phones, and there’s still problems after the phones.”

National research shows the intended benefits of cellphone bans haven’t panned out so far, Moreno said. She pointed to a study comparing 40,000 schools, some of which used Yondr bags to lock up phones. It found strict phone bans did reduce cellphone use but didn’t lead to higher test scores, better attendance or changed perceptions of online bullying.

The bans were initially linked to increased suspensions and worse student well-being, though those areas improved with time.

Moreno said parents and caregivers often didn’t get adequate input into bans, and now “the evidence is not there to support academic gains or any student well-being marker.”

Some educators, especially in older grades, say the reputed benefits for socialization and focus are real to an extent.

York said conflict used to be heightened on Mondays after students had spent the weekend insulting each other online, but that is no longer the case.

“I think it’s because they’re not on their devices almost eight hours a day when they’re at school,” she said, “so they’re learning how to talk with people, they’re learning how to interact with each other.”

In Independence, Nelson said she doesn’t know what disciplinary issues look like from the administration’s perspective but that she has observed a reduction in conflict.

“For students who really struggle with it, if they’re on their phone, they’re either addicted to it, or they’re usually stirring the pot of drama that they don’t need to be stirring during the school day,” she said.

But Nelson and other sources said students also need to be taught how to use — or not use — technology responsibly, even when they do have access to it.

When adults are excited about students playing card games after the personal devices ban, Moreno said, she wonders, “Why were they not doing that before?” 

“We need better classroom management training. We need to make sure that our teachers are equipped to teach responsible use of technology,” she said. “It’s not just about banning something, it should be about embracing it positively and regulating it wisely.”

Nelson said she intentionally started encouraging interactive activities like playing Uno before the law change, as students returned from COVID-19 social distancing.

Merely taking away cellphones does have some effects on socialization, she said, but isn’t the whole picture.

“If you don’t have phones at lunch, what are you going to do? Sit there and just stare at each other in silence?” she asked. Students are “in a way forced to talk to people … But I think a part of it is also teachers finding ways for students to interact with one another that doesn’t require technology.”

This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Public Service Commission approves new Liberty Utilities facility in Joplin

(From the Missouri Public Service Commission)

On Wednesday, June 17, 2026, the Missouri Public Service Commission issued an orderapproving an agreement and granting a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) to The Empire District Electric Company d/b/a Liberty to construct, install, own, operate, maintain, and otherwise control an approximately 250-megawatt simple cycle F-class combustion turbine facility at Liberty’s State Line Power Station in Joplin, Missouri. The Staff of the Commission, Liberty, the Office of the Public Counsel, and Renew Missouri Advocates were the only parties to this case and were all signatories of the unanimous agreement.

The Commission found that the proposed gas generation facility is needed to support Liberty’s resource adequacy obligations as required by Southwest Power Pool. The Commission also found that Liberty has the operational experience and financial ability to construct and operate the facility, and that the project promotes the public interest with the conditions set forth in the agreement.

The project would be Liberty’s first to utilize construction work in progress (CWIP) as authorized under Senate Bill 4 (2025) approved by lawmakers last year. As the agreement was approved by all parties, including the Staff of the Commission and the Office of Public Counsel, CWIP will help save customers on the total costs of the project by reducing interest costs that would otherwise make the project more expensive. The utilization of CWIP will also help ensure the project stays on time and on budget, and if deviations occur, Liberty could face administrative and financial consequences. Any costs related to the project, including CWIP, would have to be fully reviewed and approved by the Commission in a separate future rate case before any costs could be recovered from customers.

Key points of the agreement are as follows:

Liberty must seek to enhance low-income customer participation in energy programs;
Liberty must utilize applicable sales tax exemptions for equipment used in the construction of the new electric generation facility;
Liberty must evaluate opportunities to minimize property taxes associated with the project;
Liberty must provide quarterly updates on the development and execution of its Request for Proposals (RFP) process for subcontractors;
Liberty must provide quarterly updates on the progress of upgrades to natural gas pipeline facilities needed to deliver gas to the new generation facility;
Liberty must provide quarterly budget reports and projections of potential cost impacts related to fuel, materials, or equipment that may exceed any estimated contingency accounts; and
Liberty must seek to include guaranteed not-to-exceed cost provisions in the procurement and Engineering, Procurement, and Construction agreements with its primary contractor.

Liberty provides electric service to approximately 180,000 customers in southwest Missouri.

State auditor issues closeout audit on Kehoe's time as lieutenant governor

(From State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick)

A new report from Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick gives the Office of Lieutenant Governor while it was under the watch of current Governor Mike Kehoe a "good" rating. The audit is one regularly conducted by the State Auditor's Office when a statewide officeholder leaves office.

The review of Kehoe's time in the Office of Lieutenant Governor found the office and the Council on the Arts did not establish comprehensive written policies or an employee manual for the operation of the office and council in accordance with state law. 

While the office maintained a partial set of policies, it did not transfer these documents to the Archives Division of the Secretary of State's Office as required by state law. Additionally, the office did not provide employee job descriptions to auditors when requested and only produced them following the audit exit meeting. 

The audit recommends the office develop comprehensive written office policies and an employee manual covering the employees of the office and the Council on the Arts, and ensure official records of the office, including office policies and employee job descriptions, are properly maintained. Additionally, the office should ensure required documents are transferred to the State Archives at the completion of the Lieutenant Governor's term.

The closeout audit for the Office of Lieutenant Governor is available here.

FEMA, SEMA to assess public infrastructure storm damage in Jasper, Newton counties

(From Gov. Mike Kehoe)

Today, Governor Mike Kehoe announced that the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will participate with local officials in joint Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDA) of public infrastructure in 29 counties following a stretch of severe storms that have heavily impacted several regions of the state beginning June 4.

“For the last two weeks, local emergency management teams across Missouri have responded to dangerous flash flooding, several tornadoes, and intense straight-line winds resulting in serious destruction to their communities,” Governor Kehoe said. “Upon initial assessment, our local partners and SEMA believe the emergency response costs and damage to roads, bridges, and other important public infrastructure meet the levels required for a federal disaster declaration for FEMA Public Assistance and warrant a formal review by FEMA.”

Joint PDAs have been requested for the following counties: Adair, Andrew, Callaway, Camden, Cape Girardeau, Dade, Gasconade, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Holt, Jasper, Knox, Lewis, Macon, Marion, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan, Newton, Nodaway, Polk, Putman, Scott, Shelby, Sullivan, Vernon, Webster andWorth. Additional counties may be added as damage continues to be documented by local officials.

Joint PDA teams are made up of representatives from FEMA, SEMA and local emergency management officials. Beginning Tuesday, June 23, five teams will verify documented damage to determine if Public Assistance can be requested through FEMA. Public Assistance allows local governments and qualifying nonprofit agencies to seek federal assistance for reimbursement of emergency response and recovery costs, including repair and replacement of damaged roads, bridges and other public infrastructure. Both state and county thresholds would need to be met in order for a county to be included in the request.

On May 22, Governor Kehoe requested FEMA approve a major disaster declarationfor April 23-28 severe weather that impacted a total of 12 Missouri counties. That request is still pending approval from FEMA.

Missourians with unmet needs are encouraged to contact United Way by dialing 2-1-1. If you have experienced storm-related damage to a residence, vehicle or property, contact your insurance company and file a claim as soon as possible. For additional resources and information about disaster recovery in Missouri, including general clean-up information, housing assistance, and mental health services, visit recovery.mo.gov.

Stotts City mayor calls special Board of Aldermen meeting

(From Stotts City Mayor Tracy Knight)

Mayor Tracy Knight has called a Special Meeting of the Stotts City Board of Aldermen for Friday, June 26, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. at the Stotts City Fire Station.

The meeting has been called pursuant to Ordinance No. 22-002, which authorizes the Mayor to call special meetings when deemed necessary and provides that at least one regular or special meeting be held during each calendar month.

The Special Meeting is being called to address essential municipal business requiring Board consideration and action, including approval of bills and claims, financial oversight matters, audit compliance efforts, consideration of the vacant alderman position, governance and operational continuity matters, public comments, and personnel matters authorized by Missouri law.

Residents have expressed understandable concerns regarding the City's ability to conduct business, address financial matters, and continue implementation of corrective actions identified by the Missouri State Auditor. The purpose of this meeting is to provide the Board of Aldermen an opportunity to address those matters in an open and lawful public meeting.

"Residents deserve a government that is present, transparent, accountable, and capable of conducting the public's business," said Mayor Knight. "My responsibility as Mayor is to ensure every reasonable opportunity exists for the Board of Aldermen to meet, address community concerns, and make decisions necessary for the continued operation of the City."

Members of the Board of Aldermen, the City Clerk, and the City Attorney have been notified of the Special Meeting by email. Such communications are administrative notices only and do not constitute a meeting, discussion, deliberation, or vote of the Board of Aldermen.

The official Notice of Special Meeting and Agenda will be posted and distributed in accordance with Ordinance No. 22-002 and all applicable Missouri Sunshine Law requirements.

Residents are encouraged to review the official posting for complete meeting information and are welcome to attend.

 

Rediscovered historic cemetery preserved in Joplin's MOmentum Bike Park

(From the City of Joplin)

A rediscovered historical family gravesite will be honored this weekend in Joplin – and its specific location within the City’s new MOmentum Bike Park means it will be preserved indefinitely as a piece of Joplin’s history.

Lemon Cemetery, the burial location of Kenyon and Sarah Lemons (a Joplin miner and homemaker who died in 1889 and 1891, respectively) will be recognized with a ceremony at 10 a.m. this Saturday, June 20. The ceremony, which follows decades of search efforts by the Lemmons family (the spelling of the name evolved over the years) as well as local historians, is being conducted by the Jasper County Cemetery Preservation Society. 

Rikki Smith, president of JCCPS, has been at the heart of this interesting tale of preservation and will officiate Saturday’s ceremony. Smith has been involved in local cemetery preservation for years and shared the story of the lost Lemon Cemetery at a Peace Church Cemetery meeting in 2022. From that conversation, Smith was connected to City of Joplin officials who knew more about the location. Those details, as well as clues from limited historical records of the site, ultimately led Smith to connect with the Lemmons family, who had also conducted their own efforts to find the lost gravesites of their ancestors.

“From a genealogy perspective, a family history perspective, and cemetery preservation perspective, this story is absolute gold,” said Smith, who is also a schoolteacher in the area. “The stars aligned. To piece together a story like this just takes the right information being shared in the right settings.”

The story of Kenyon and Sarah Lemons – a married couple with five children who were both buried on the property upon their deaths – may not have been rare in the late 1800s. But when their young children went into the custody of other families and moved away, it left no one to oversee the Lemons’ gravesites. As the decades passed, the homestead dissipated and the land was engulfed by foliage.

As various parties searched for the gravesites over the years, the City’s work to develop the future bike park was also underway. And in fortunate timing, as MOmentum was being developed, the Lemons’ gravesites were finally found. The City installed a split-rail fence around the old property and cut back the foliage. The site can be found along the Missouri Loves Company trail in the northeast corner of the park. 

“It is a really fascinating story of how historical preservation is such an important component to our city facilities,” said City of Joplin Parks and Recreation Director Paul Bloomberg. “We learned so much along the way as the JCCPS worked to locate and protect this piece of history for the family and the City.”

Bloomberg says the Parks Department intends to partner with JCCPS to add signage marking the Lemon Family Homestead at the site within the park.

Smith, who has developed a close relationship with the Lemmons family through this experience, is also thrilled at the outcome.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than providing service to our community,” she said. “This work is all about relationships. It just takes passion for a project to get it going.”

For more information about the Lemon Cemetery project, contact Smith at 417-629-4914.

Town Hall for Amendment 5 to be held at Joplin City Hall

(From the City of Joplin)

Joplin’s City Hall will be the venue for a town hall meeting focused on Amendment 5, a proposal by the Missouri legislature that would replace the state income tax with increased sales and use taxes.

The town hall is not a City of Joplin event – rather, the 5th floor of City Hall (602 S. Main) will be used simply as the venue. The town hall will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 29, and is being organized by State Rep. Lane Roberts (District 161). The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Bishop Davidson (District 130) and Sen. Curtis Trent (District 20), will participate in the Q&A session. 

Amendment 5 is a proposal slated for the August 4, 2026, statewide primary ballot. The Amendment proposes a significant change in the state’s tax structure, requiring the gradual elimination of the individual income tax and the broad expansion of state and local sales and use taxes.

For more information on the town hall, contact the office of Representative Roberts at 417-540-8185 or 573-751-3791.