Wonder Where The $$$ Went?

Ameren just releases a list of projects from the $5 million FERC fine that was spent in Reynolds and Iron counties.

Long Time Concern

The Springfield news paper has a good article about one of my long time concerns. In the 24 years I lived in Lesterville there were too many deadly crashes that involved young people. If you sat in the parking lot of Lesterville school, as I did many afternoons waiting for Pam, you saw most student drivers (and most parents) leaving the lot without wearing seat belts. Life just didn't seem to be valued.

Trick or Treat

Article on the latest in the State vs. Ameren.

This Is News?

As some of you may know the Missouri PSC is out with its report.

Here is Gov. Blunts news release.

"The Public Service Commission’s report affirms Ameren acted inappropriately and that they are responsible to the state.
"Unfortunately, the one person who had all the tools to get to the bottom of this and potentially punish any wrongdoing decided not to use those very tools. That the investigation was closed without asking basic questions of those involved while they were under oath continues to defy reason.
"I have consistently maintained that Missourians should not pay for Ameren’s misconduct and that Ameren has a responsibility to fully compensate the state for loss - both financial and recreational, and we have been working diligently on a settlement that is in the best interests of Missouri, tough on Ameren and provides fair compensation for the people of Reynolds County."

Here is what I'd like to know, how many of my tax dollars did the PSC spend on this process. Is there really any news here? There isn't in Springfield, Gov. Blunts home town news paper didn't have anything on the their web site, I had to do a search for "Ameren" to find it on the News-Leaders web site. I'll even bet that this is a "Ho Hum" event back in Lesterville. This is just another Jeff City game.

So Long Lesterville

As I think all of you know we closed the pottery yesterday and are in the process of moving to Springfield. I'll be back a few days each month over the winter to get our property ready to sell in the spring. So I'll keep checking the internet news sources and talk to the locals when I'm back in town to let you know what is happening. I do know that someone contacted Wilderness Lodge to see if they could rent a cabin for 16 months because they were going to be working on the reservoir. So while there has been no official announcement, all sorts of work is starting in preparation of the rebuild.

Ozark Roads

Some of you have probably seen the news reports about a bad school bus crash in western Reynolds County. I have traveled this road many times this year in the process of moving to Springfield. What is ironic is that it may have been caused by a good road. Most rural roads in this part of the Ozarks are narrow, curvy, and have no shoulder, but KK is like a freeway. It was built to serve a number of the lead mines in Iron and Reynolds counties and it is wide, fairly straight, and a good deal of the road has good shoulders. It is also all downhill from highway 32 to the left hand turn to highway J. I'm always going to fast when I approach the J turn and I would be willing to bet that this was a factor in this crash. Just glad to hear that no one died.

Any News Out There

Someone ask me if Ameren was rebuilding the reservoir. I answered "yes and no". There is a lot of work going on at the plant and they are relocating the junction of Highway 21 and Highway AA . AA goes to the Ameren site, so why would you pay to have some highway work done if you were not going to rebuild. A couple of weeks ago there was a rumor going around that a settlement was close and that the rebuild would start soon, but if you check Google News you will only find 3 old articles about "Ameren Taum Sauk".

For those of you that don't live in the St Louis area you can now go to the Ameren Taum Sauk web site and see the TV show that Ameren ran on the St Louis NBC station a few weeks ago.