southeast Missouri Archives

Ameren Missouri warning about scammers threatening to disconnect your service

November 30, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A St. Louis-based utility that serves 64 of Missouri’s 114 counties is warning residents about increasing utility scams, where scammers are posing as Ameren employees and threatening to disconnect your service if you don’t pay them.

Ameren Missouri corporate security supervisor Maria Gomez urges you to be vigilant. She says the best way to combat scams is to understand the tactics that criminals use to trick customers into providing personal information.

“They (scammers) call from a masked number which means the number on your caller ID will look like it’s from Ameren customer service, but it’s not so people will pick it up,” Gomez says.

Ameren serves the St. Louis metropolitan area and almost all of mid-Missouri, northeast Missouri and southeast Missouri. They have 1.2 million electric customers and another 130,000 natural gas customers.

Ms. Gomez is also emphasizing not to trust anyone who calls you, requesting or demanding immediate payment.

Gomez says scammers are using fake case numbers and fake truck identification numbers.

“They (scammers) have also copied our outgoing voice message, so you’ll probably hear something that sounds like an Ameren voice message. Or it could be the same one,” says Gomez.

She says other scammers are calling residents, saying they’ve overpaid on their Ameren bill. The callers request your personal bank information for your “refund.”

Gomez urges you to hang up and to contact Ameren Missouri if you have any questions. That phone number is 1-800-552-7583.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with Ameren Missouri corporate security supervisor Maria Gomez, which was recorded on November 23, 2020:

Flood watch issued for much of southeast Missouri; Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff in watch area (AUDIO)

October 28, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Most of southeast Missouri will be under a flood watch from 7 o’clock tonight until 10 Thursday morning. National Weather Service (NWS) Paducah meteorologist Sean Poulos tells Missourinet that Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Dexter are in the watch area.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Paducah has issued a flood watch for southeast Missouri from 7 p.m. on Wednesday until 10 a.m. on Thursday (October 28, 2020 map courtesy of NWS Paducah Twitter page)

“We’re anticipating rain moving up into those areas here later this afternoon and continuing pretty heavy this evening into the overnight hours, and then gradually trying to lessen in intensity as we get through the day tomorrow,” Poulos says.

New Madrid and Doniphan are also included in the flood watch area.

The NWS warns southeast Missouri could see three to four inches of additional rain, with the ground already saturated. Flooding is likely in low-lying and poor drainage areas.

“We’re concerned with flooding, especially in areas that get over three inches,” says Poulos. “In southeast Missouri we have a lot of low-lying, hilly terrain out there.”

The NWS is urging motorists who are traveling in southeast Missouri tonight and overnight to be careful, noting flooded roadways are hard to see in the dark.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with National Weather Service (NWS) Paducah meteorologist Sean Poulos, which was recorded on October 28, 2020:

UPDATE: New $25 million hospital planned for southeast Missouri’s Bootheel; old facility to be demolished

June 21, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

(Reporters Steve Patton and Monte Lyons at Missourinet Kennett affiliate KBOA contributed to this story)

A Georgia-based company now says it will build a new $25 million hospital in southeast Missouri’s Kennett, rather than renovating the former Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center. It closed in 2018.

Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in southeast Missouri’s Kennett closed in 2018, and the old facility will be demolished (May 14, 2020 file photo courtesy of Jim Grebing at Kennett Economic Development)

Consultant Kerry Noble, a former chief executive officer at the Pemiscot Memorial Hospital in Hayti, is working with Main Street HealthVentures. He says that the new plan is to tear the former hospital down, and replace it with a state-of-the-art 49-bed full service facility.

“So we’ll be demolishing the old building and putting up a new structure, a new state-of-the-art, it will be a very high-efficient facility,” Noble says.

Noble and Main Street HealthVentures say brand-new heating and cooling systems will be installed, which will mean lower utility costs and greater patient comfort.

The company originally planned to renovate Twin Rivers, when they announced their plans in May. Mr. Noble now tells Missourinet Kennett affiliate KBOA (AM 1540) that building a brand-new facility is best for safety code requirements.

“There were a lot of conditions, standards that were going to be difficult to meet and we had requested waivers, or exemptions, from some of those standards, and of course now that’s no longer going to be an issue,” says Noble.

Kennett, which has about 10,000 residents, is located in the Bootheel, which is the state’s poorest region. Nine of the state’s ten poorest counties are in southeast Missouri.

Kennett Mayor Chancellor Wayne describes the plan as a big step forward for health care in Kennett and southeast Missouri. Supporters of the new hospital say it will impact about 70,000 residents across southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas.

The city has a large elderly population. Kennett residents have had to drive to Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Arkansas for emergency room care and for hospitalization.

The state Hospital Association (MHA) says ten rural Missouri hospitals have closed since 2014, including Kennett. Five of the ten closings happened in the southeast Missouri district of U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem.

Congressman Smith has described those hospital closings as unacceptable, saying people die when hospitals close.

Court: Missouri lake that’s seen nine deaths since 1989 must remain closed (AUDIO)

April 19, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The Missouri Court of Appeals’ Eastern District has upheld a circuit judge’s ruling that shut down a popular recreational lake in southeast Missouri that’s been the site of at least nine deaths.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City in September 2019 (Missourinet file photo)

The Court of Appeals has affirmed Madison County Judge Wendy Horn’s 2019 ruling, which ordered “The Offsets” near Fredericktown to be closed until several safety measures are implemented.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) praises the ruling, saying that at least nine people have died at the Offsets since the 1980’s.

“This watering hole is an old flooded lead mine,” Schmitt says. “There’s very difficult ingress and egress for people to get in and out of the water. There are no lifeguards on duty, there’s just no precautions taken.”

Former Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office filed the lawsuit against the Offsets in July 2018. Hawley described the Offsets then as a “serious danger to the public, as evidenced by the repeated tragedies that have occurred at this commercial location.”

The Court of Appeals’ Eastern District ruling says nine people have died at the Offsets since 1989. The ruling says four of the victims died while swimming in the quarry, while the other five died from injuries sustained from jumping or falling into the quarry from the bluffs above.

The Court of Appeals’ decision means the facility must remain closed, until numerous safety measures are implemented.

Schmitt describes the facility as a public nuisance. He tells Missourinet that the court’s decision will likely save lives.

“Look, over the years this has been a place where people have drowned, and not just a single tragic incident, but nine separate times,” says Schmitt.

The quarry at the Offsets is surrounded by 40-foot bluffs, where people have jumped into the lake below. The Offsets also offered swimming, scuba diving and hiking. Visitors camped there as well.

The court ruling says “upwards of hundreds of people visited the Offsets” on a given day, when it was open. It says that when guests arrived, they had to sign a waiver “notifying them of general dangers on the property and that they swim and dive at their own risk.” The court ruling also says an employee would warn guests not to jump off the high bluffs into the quarry.

In its 19-page ruling, the Court of Appeals’ decision prevents the Offsets from re-opening until they submit an emergency response plan and require all patrons jumping into the water to wear Coast Guard-approved life vests. The Offsets must also place a lifeguard in a boat to be available to rescue swimmers. And jumping would only be allowed in certain areas, with lifeguards stationed in those areas.

The owners of the facility disagreed with Judge Horn’s ruling, and filed an appeal. They argue the activity took place on private property, and that Judge Horn erred in her ruling.

The appellants also say Judge Horn erred in concluding that their operation of the Offsets constituted a public nuisance, because “the evidence does not support a public nuisance because nine deaths over thirty-two years is not a public nuisance.”

In their ruling, the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Eastern District slammed that argument.

“This statement seemingly diminishes the deaths of nine people, which we find appalling, and is also somewhat inaccurate,” the court writes. Their ruling says swimming and diving at the Offsets only happens during warm seasons, which is less than half of the year.

“In reality those nine deaths occurred over a period of time closer to 16 years,” the Court of Appeals writes.

“In essence, appellants ask this court to turn a blind eye to the several deaths of members of the public that have occurred in the course of appellants’ operation of the Offsets over the last three decades. This we will not do, especially considering the substantial evidence supporting the trial court’s findings and conclusions regarding appellants’ systematic failures spanning over 30 years to sufficiently warn invited members of the public of inherently dangerous conditions present on the Hensons’ property and to adequately attempt to prevent or prepare for injury caused by those dangerous conditions,” the Court of Appeals writes.

Schmitt tells Missourinet the case is likely over. He believes the Offsets will remain closed, because he doesn’t think the owners will make the plans ordered by the court.

Click here to listen to the full four-minute interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, which was recorded on April 16, 2020:

MoDOT replacing 91-year-old bridge in southeast Missouri; first project in “focus on bridges” plan

January 3, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

State transportation officials say the first project in the governor’s “focus on bridges” program is now open to one lane of traffic. The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) says a new Highway 72 bridge over Stouts Creek in southeast Missouri’s Iron County opened just before Christmas.

The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is replacing the old Highway 72 bridge over Stouts Creek in southeast Missouri’s Iron County. It was built in 1928. (December 2019 photo courtesy of MODOT’s Sally Oxenhandler)

The bridge, which is south of Farmington, connects Ironton and Fredericktown. It’s used by residents and farmers and also people heading to recreate in the area.

MoDOT says the 91-year-old bridge was in such poor condition that they didn’t want vehicles to cross it this winter. The construction contract called for a new bridge, which is being built alongside the 1928 bridge, to be open to one lane of traffic with temporary signals by December.

MoDOT Southeast District spokeswoman Nicole Thieret, who’s based in Sikeston, tells Missourinet MoDOT was able to switch traffic from the existing structure to the new structure in the morning hours on December 20.

MoDOT says the new bridge is expected to be fully completed by spring. Poplar Bluff-based Robertson Construction is the project contractor.

Governor Mike Parson (R) and Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz (R-Sullivan) made the bridge bonding measure a priority during the 2019 legislative session. The $350 million measure, which had bipartisan support, will repair or replace 250 of the state’s poorest bridges.

During a February 2019 Missourinet story, Pro Tem Schatz credited Governor Parson for traveling to his district in eastern Missouri’s Franklin County in early 2019 to see one of the 250 bridges, adding that the need for investment in Missouri infrastructure is great.

“Very important, very critical for farmers to be able to get their crops, to get their animals to the market and making sure that those bridges are safe and secure,” Schatz said in that story.

MoDOT says the Highway 72 bridge is one of six in the “focus on bridges” program that’s currently under construction. 43 others are under contract.