2009 - A year in Review

January

* 1 - Newly elected Stoddard County Commissioner Carol Jarrell and Public Administrator Pamela Lape were sworn in at Bloomfield. Also sworn in were incumbent Commissioner Frank Sifford, Sheriff Carl Hefner, Coroner Morgan Sifford, Surveyer Dan Fisher, Assessor Jody Lemmon and Treasurer Carla Knowles Moore.

* 4 - Dexter's Lady Bearcats made it three stright Lady Royals Holiday Classic tournament titles Saturday with a 68-45 win over Portageville.

* 4 - John Brehmer died in the early morning hours at his rural Dexter home after a long battle with cancer.

* 6 - A large cutback in federal funding for 2009 was announced for the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force based in Sikeston.

* 7 - The Associated Press poll ranked Dexter High School's Lady Bearcats basketball team No. 1 in Class 4. It was the first time a Dexter team had received a No. 1 ranking.

* 8 - Construction of new hangars at the Dexter Municipal Airport were completed at a cost of $475,757.

* 9 - DHS Senior Katelyn Heil was crowned DHS Winter Homecoming Q*

* 12- SCAD EMTs Jake Sailer and Travis Qualls were honored for helping save the life of Randrick Caruthers, 15, a Kennett player in the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

* 13 - After over 30 years in Dexter, Town and Country Cinema announced it would cease operation.

* 15 - Thirty-nine-year-old James Donald Hopkins, 20-year-old Daniel Ryan Greer and 20-year-old Jeffery Keith Barker were arrested following a rash of break-ins over the past year at local businesses.

* 15 - Curtis Pickering, 29, of South Fulton, Tenn., was found not guilty by a Dunklin County jury of two felony counts of dog fighting.

* 17 - Public Water Supply District #7 Directors awarded a contract to Young's Construction of Hornersville at a cost of $1,523,118.09 to construct a public water supply system.

* 27 -The first round of a major winter storm slammed Southeast Missouri knocking out electrical service, closing roads and schools and businesses.

* 28 - Thousands of Southeast Missouri residents struggled to keep warm as an ice storm crippled parts of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, leaving more than 80,000 powerless. Many would be without power for weeks. Temporary shelters for victims of the ice storm were set up in Dexter, Bernie, Bloomfield and Essex.

* 29 - Gov. Jay Nixon today mobilized the Missouri National Guard to help residents of southern and southeast Missouri recover after a winter storm caused widespread damage and power outages.

* 29 - Countless trees were reduced to matchsticks, scattered in virtually every neighborhood within the city and throughout the county, following what could be the most devastating winter storm in modern history.

* 30 - Power was restored to just over 20 percent of Ameren UE's electric customers in the Bootheel.

* 30 - Community leaders, emergency workers and utility representatives gathered Friday afternoon at the Stoddard County 911 office to coordinate relief efforts and receive an update on how communities are dealing with the ice storm that hit the area.

February

* 3 - Ameren estimated there were 2,070 in Stoddard County without electricity. Ozark Border Electric reported that there were still 5,200 outages in their service area. SEMO Electric said they had 2,600 poles down in a six-county area.

* 3 - Five fire departments responded to a massive structure fire on County Road 219 north of Bloomfield. The home belonged to James Hendley.

* 4 - Emergency shelters in Dexter, Bloomfield and Bernie closed as residents began recovering from the ice storm. Cities and townships began focusing on clean-up efforts.

* 4 - Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives obtained cost estimates from damage in the ice storm in Stoddard County that totaled $1,596,783.

* 5 - Dexter's Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards event was postponed.

* 6 - Town and Country Cinema announced it would reopen under new management in early March.

* 8 - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced he's seeking a "major disaster declaration" for the state of Missouri in response to the late January ice storm.

* 12 - John Boyd, a Poplar Bluff native, was named the new superintendent of the Bernie Public School System.

* 12 - Owen Welty, 15, of Bloomfield, was found not guilty of second degree murder by a jury in St. Louis County. Welty was charged with the murder of Don McCollough, 64, in 2006. He was 13 years old then and among the youngest ever in the state to be charged with murder.

* 13 - 70 high schoool referees in the region took part in an effort to raise funds for 18 Fore Life, a local effort that assists victims of cancer.

* 16 - The Lady Bearcats defeated Poplar Bluff to clinch the SEMO Conference title and extend their unbeaten streak to 22 games.

* 17 - President Barack Obama declared Stoddard County to be among several Missouri counties officially declared disaster areas from the ice storm.

* 19 - Katelyn Heil set a new Dexter High School single-game scoring record with 43 points and the state's No. 1 ranked team in Class 4 finished an undefeated regular season.

* 19 - A legislative effort to consolidate 911 call centers into five regional districts in Missouri prompted opposition from local 911 personnel.

* 23 - The FBI opened a case in Stoddard County in an effort to identify the body of a woman found in New Mexico through ribbons that originated from the Stoddard County Fair.

* 24 - Diana Lanpher was selected to attend Missouri's Fine Arts Academy on the campus of Missouri State University in Springfield.

* 24 - Charlie Glass, 66, of Bloomfield who once served as elementary principal at Bloomfield Schools was charged with the Class C Felony of statutory rape in the second degree.

* 26 - State Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, was renamed to the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Education by Senate Leader Charlie Shields.

* 27 - Amy Aker was named Chief Executive Officer at Dexter's Missouri Southern Healthcare. Akers had been Acting CEO for almost three months.

* 27 - The Dexter Lady Bearcats won the Class 4, District 1 championship game against Notre Dame 63-54, remaining undefeated for the season.

March

* 1 - Weber's Ben Franklin marks 100 years in downtown Dexter.

* 3 - DAR Good Citizen Award winners, Bethany Childton, Dylan Dejournet, Kayla Joiner and Blake Burger honored.

* A Bloomfield woman charged in connection with a March 2008 beating was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday. Erica Cain, 23, pled guilty to the Class B felony of attempted murder in the second degree in December and has been awaiting sentencing.

* 4 - Bernie City Superintendent Charles Dean told the Board of Aldermen that the city has about 80 percent of the debris from the January ice storm picked up within the city.

* 5 - Dexter man charged in conjunction with a December standoff in Dexter pled guilty Monday.

Judge Stephen Sharp sentenced Toby Lacy to serve six years in prison after he pled guilty to the Class C felony of felonious restraint.

* 6 - Bernie's advantage over its opponents all season long has been a balanced offensive attack. Thursday's Class 2, District 3 championship game proved to be no different as they slipped past Advance for the district championship.

* 9 - The Dexter Lady Bearcats defeated the Sullivan Lady Eagles 46-39 to advance to the Final Four in Columbia.

* 10 - Edward Sanchez, 48, and Christine Esquivel, 46, Texas, entered a plea of guilty to one felony count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Both appeared before U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. on Friday, March 6, 2009 in Cape Girardeau.

* 11 - Dexter's Lady Bearcats basketball team left this morning for Columbia where they will be looking for two more wins and a Class 4 state title. Dexter, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4 with a perfect 28-0 record will take on a talented Webb City (25-4) team at 6:40 p. m. Thursday at the Mizzou Arena on the University of Columbia campus.

* 12 - Darell Crow is stepping down from the Bernie School Board, having served the district for the past 12 years, much of that time in the president's role.

* 12 - In a game full of clutch shots and heroes for the Bernie Mules, Jake Owens saved his best for last. Owens' field goal with one second to go snapped a 58-all tie as the Mules rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit to down the South Iron Panthers 60-58 here Wednesday night in MSHSAA Class 2 sectional playoffs.

* 12 - A big night by Webb City's Kaitlin Jaeger put an end to Dexter's Lady Bearcats dreams of a perfect season and a state championship Thursday night. The Lady Bearcats fell from the undefeated ranks, 58-47.

* 13 - Officials from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and Stoddard County emergency responders agreed at a meeting Thursday morning that many areas of the response to the January ice storm went smoothly.

* 13 - The Lady Cats finished 4th in the state after falling to Miller Career Academy 54-50 today at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.

* 17 - Elvis A. Mooney, Sr., well known Bloomfield attorney and civic servant in the community, died Monday at the age of 97.

* 18 - Almost four years to the day after Highway Patrolman Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham, Jr., a Dexter native and DHS graduate, was shot down in the driveway of his VanBuren home, the trial of his accused killer is about to begin in Howell County.

* 18 - Nelson Lamon Hickman, 38, and Bobbie Jane Hickman, 32, of Bernie were each sentenced on one count of conspiracy to possess chemicals knowing it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine.

* 19 - Bloomfield R-XIV Schools will be closed Friday according to Superintendent Dr. Nick Thiele becasue of a flu outbreak.

* 24 - An official groundbreaking ceremony took place Monday morning, but work is already underway on construction of a four-chair dialysis center on the North Outer Road in Dexter.

* 27 - The Stoddard County Sheltered Facilities SB40 Board of Directors met at Bloomfield's Justice Center recently to hear both sides of an ongoing dispute between the SB40 Board and the management of the Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop.

* 27 - Lance D. Shockley, 32, has been found guilty of killing Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham on March 20, 2005. The verdict from the Howell County Courtroom in West Plains came in moments ago, just after 1 p.m.

* 28 - It was learned Saturday evening that jurors in the Lance Shockley trial could not unanimously come to a conclusion as to whether the punishment for the 32-year-old man convicted Friday of murder in the case involving the death of Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham.

* 31 - Joe Weber, owner of Weber's Ben Franklin in downtown Dexter, along with the store's longtime manager, Donna West, were honored during the local Chamber of Commerce Award Dinner Saturday evening.

April

* 1 - Bloomfield- A trial for a Cape Girardeau man charged in conjunction with a Stoddard County dogfighting ring busted in 2007 had his trial postponed again. Jessie Don Short, 32 of Cape Girardeau, was arrested Oct. 21, 2007 and faces five charges of the Class D felony of dogfighting.

* 3 - The Dexter man charged with last Friday night's stabbing made his first court appearance Thursday morning and pled guilty. William Lee Smith, 35, has been charged with the Class A felony of assault in the first degree and the unclassified felony of armed criminal action.

* 3 - An Essex woman, Laura Heppe, 64, was rescued from under a fallen building and remains hospitalized this morning after the building in which she was working collapsed, trapping her under the rubble.

* 7 - The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) awarded the contract for improvements to a section of Highway Y in Stoddard County to H.R. Quadri Contractors, LLC, in Van Buren at a cost of $1,687,358.

* 7 Serina Goodale, the Dexter toddler who battled a rare cancer since she was diagnosed at eight months of age, has died in St. Louis, just one month past her second birthday.

* 7 - All eyes looked skyward Monday morning as the new Stoddard County Ambulance District's new radio transmitter tower was installed at the site of SCAD's facility just off Cooper Street across from West City Park.

* 10 - The Dexter Police Department will be joining with other law enforcement agencies in an aggressive mobilization to crack down on Missouri's safety belt violators during Occupant Protection Enforcement Day May 15

* 10 - It was anything but a typical high school baseball game Thursday when Scott City and Dexter squared off on the diamond. In a game that featured a little bit of some things and a lot of others, it was the Bearcats that prevailed at home, 19-13.

* 14 - Dexter High School put together a strong effort in less than desirable conditions to finish second at the 13-team Poplar Bluff Invitational played at Westwood Hills Country Club Monday.

* 14 - Max Allen Ellison, Jr., 61, is charged with the 1979 usolved murder of Deborah L. Martin in Cape.

* 15 - Coin flip decides Essex election.

* 16 - Dexter overcomes base running errors to down Charleston.

* 16 - NMCC's Robey shuts down LAdy Bearcats

* 16 - Bloomfield installs new mayor, aldermen

* 17 - DHS girls take first at Malden track meet

* 17 - DHS finishes 3rd at Dalhousie

* 17 - Michele Knight hired as Richland Elementary principal

* 17 - Gary D. Mann, 30, was sentenced to 34 months on drug-related charges.

* 18 - Satterfield sets new DHS school record in high jump event

* 21 - Fisk boy dies in swing set accident

* 22 - Dexter girls take first; McCoy wins 100 meter for Bearcat boys

* 23 - Five longtime Dexter teachers honored upon retirement

* 23 - The Missouri State Auditor has begun an audit of Stoddard County as part of the duties of the office.

* 24 - Richland awarded DESE grant

* 25 - Friday wreck near Avert leaves two with serious injuries.

* 26 - May welcomed in with downtown Art Festival

* 28 - Weekend wrecks near Bloomfield injure four

* 29 - Lance D. Shockley, 32-year-old convicted murderer of Dexter native and Missouri State Highway Patrolman Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham, Jr., will learn next Tuesday, May 5 whether he will spend his life behind bars or wll be put to death by lethal injection.

* 29 - Catherine Kinchen is selected for Mo. Scholars Academy

* 29 - March of Dimes nets $26,500 at weekend event in Dexter.

* 30 - An Advance man, Brian Charles Nalley, 42, has pled guilty to a federal drug charge in relation to a Nov. 2008 incident that landed three people behind bars.

* 30 - Police continue to search for I.D. of body found in New Mexico with ties to Dexter community.