In his latest article following up on the Anderson Guest House fire, Joplin Globe reporter Derek Spellman examines those violations and the state's inaction:
A review of more than 3,200 pages of state records shows that despite problems, the state didn't pull the trigger on DuPont or organizations affiliated with him. He and they continued to obtain licenses and permits, although often on a probationary basis. Existing state laws and regulations enabled DuPont and/or his companies to continue running homes despite a history of problems, so long as they implemented corrective plans for violations within several months from the date of the citations.
Globe reporter Andy Ostmeyer interviewed local legislators to see what steps they plan to take during the 2007 session to address the problems revealed by the Guest House tragedy:
"This is my No. 1 priority for the year," state Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, said Friday, after the Globe learned that state investigators were tipped off in 2005 to the fact that Robert DuPont was allegedly running the group homes despite his previous felony conviction, and yet state officials did not follow up on it.
Anderson is in Wilson's district.
"I am dismayed that this has fallen through the cracks," Wilson said.
Kevin Wilson:
ReplyDeleteYou should be ashamed. It is in your district and you should know or have known what is going on.
Instead of you and the Blunt boys getting paid your fat checks for nothing but harassing a local Carthage plant do something constructive for us.
Speaking of the Carthage plant that keeps getting slapped with violations why don't you have your buddy Blunt...both of them...come do a walk through or by of Moark.
And doing something constructive for us does not mean working for big business to help keep local doctors in the state (heck they are flying out of here faster than we can see) by limiting the amount of compensation by lawsuits when they don't do their job properly. It doesn't mean coming up with the new workers comp law. It doesn't mean not taking care of Moark's stench problem. (Why is Carthage so much more important to the Blunts than Neosho?) And it doesn't mean taking away Medicaid from the elderly, mentally ill, handicapped or the poor.
ReplyDeleteI resent you being in the office you hold. You do nothing for us little people but everything for the big business people to help pave your way to where I don't want to go.