southwest Missouri Archives

New $42 million hospital opens Friday in southern Missouri; rural residents urged to support local hospitals (AUDIO)

January 21, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

A ceremony is scheduled for Friday evening in southwest Missouri’s Monett for a new state-of-the-art $42 million hospital. Monett, which has about 9,000 residents, is located between Joplin and Springfield.

A drone photo above the new Cox Monett hospital in southwest Missouri (December 2020 photo courtesy of Springfield-based CoxHealth)

Springfield-based CoxHealth broke ground on the facility in 2019, and it’s taken about two years to finish. Cox Monett President Darren Bass is grateful to be part of the CoxHealth system, noting other rural Missouri hospitals have closed.

“That really affords us the ability to streamline and centralize and have a lot of the nonpatient function areas covered by a system,” Bass says.

Bass says being part of a system allows the Monett hospital to focus their revenues on infrastructure, growth and on employee retention.

The Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) says ten rural Missouri hospitals have closed, since 2014. The new 70-thousand square foot Monett hospital will replace the current facility, which opened in 1953.

Bass says patient transition to the new hospital will begin Friday at 6 p.m.

“We’ll actually open our emergency department in our new hospital at 6 pm and we will maintain the emergency department at our old hospital until the last patient is moved out,” says Bass.

COVID-19 patients will be the last to move, and Bass says they’re working closely with the local ambulance district. CoxHealth says the new facility is part of their mission to ensure that rural Missourians have access to health care, especially critical, time-sensitive situations.

Mr. Bass tells Missourinet that rural health care is critical. He’s urging rural Missourians across the state to support their local hospitals and health care providers.

“Just be thinking about what happens if you’re not using your local health care services, your neighbor probably isn’t either. And there’s only so long that that hospital or health system can manage if they don’t have the volume coming in the doors to stay afloat,” Bass says.

Friday’s ceremonies will start at about 5 p.m. There will also be a moment of silence for the current hospital.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with Cox Monett President Darren Bass, which was recorded on January 20, 2021:

DHSS: Missouri’s coronavirus cases increase 1,138 from Monday’s total

July 21, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s coronavirus cases have increased by more than 1,000 in the past 24 hours.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams briefs Capitol reporters on July 14, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

The state Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) says Missouri now has 34,762 confirmed coronavirus cases, an increase of 1,138 from Monday’s number of 33,624.

Missouri had 22,830 cases, as of July 3.

DHSS Director Dr. Randall Williams will brief Capitol reporters Wednesday afternoon at the Statehouse in Jefferson City, along with Governor Mike Parson. The governor told reporters last week that 60 percent of the new cases have been in three main regions: the St. Louis area, Kansas City area and southwest Missouri

Governor Parson has also noted that more younger people are testing positive in Missouri, adding that the average diagnosed patient’s age continues to drop.

Dr. Williams has been urging Missourians to wear a mask, to practice social distancing and to wash their hands frequently.

DHSS says there have been 1,143 COVID deaths in Missouri.

Missouri governor: 250 new jobs coming to “small town pretty close to Bolivar” (AUDIO)

June 16, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s governor says 250 new agricultural-related jobs are coming to southwest Missouri.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on June 16, 2020 (photo courtesy of Governor Parson’s Flickr page)

Governor Mike Parson made the announcement during a briefing with Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on Tuesday. While the governor isn’t naming the town yet, he tells Missourinet that it’s a “small town pretty close to Bolivar.”

“I don’t know that I’m quite at liberty to say just exactly where that is down home, but it absolutely will be a great opportunity for people in a small town down there to do that,” Parson says.

The governor says he met this week with company executives from Oregon and Kansas, about this project. The meeting took place in Parson’s hometown of Bolivar.

Bolivar is about 30 miles northwest of Springfield.

Parson describes the 250 new jobs as a business expansion, adding that it’s good news for Missouri moving forward.

“It’s exciting news and it will have to do with agriculture, so it’s always a good thing for me when I see those new jobs coming in and especially with the situation that we’ve been in,” says Parson.

Agriculture is an $88 billion industry in Missouri, making it the state’s largest industry.

Missouri fully reopened for business on Tuesday morning and has entered phase two of its “Show Me Strong Recovery Plan.”

While there is no statewide health order during phase two, Parson emphasizes that COVID-19 is not gone. He continues to urge Missourians to practice social distancing and to continue with good hygiene.

Click here to listen to Missouri Governor Mike Parson respond to Brian Hauswirth’s question about the 250 new jobs coming to southwest Missouri. The governor spoke on June 16, 2020 at the Statehouse in Jefferson City:

Missouri’s Hawley: It’s time for the Coast Guard to act on duck boats (AUDIO/VIDEO)

May 28, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s junior senator says the deadly 2018 duck boat tragedy which killed 17 victims on southwest Missouri’s Table Rock Lake should never have occurred.

Missouri State Highway Patrol crews assist the U.S. Coast Guard during the duck boat recovery efforts on July 23, 2018 (file photo courtesy of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Twitter page)

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R) tells Missourinet that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made several recommendations to the U.S. Coast Guard after a similar 1999 tragedy in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

“If the Coast Guard had implemented the NTSB’s recommendations from the late 1990’s, almost 20 years ago now, 20 years from the time of the accident, then this (Table Rock Lake incident) would not have happened,” Hawley says.

The 1999 Arkansas incident killed 13 of the 21 passengers on board.

Senator Hawley has filed legislation that would require amphibious passenger vessels to be equipped to stay afloat, in the event of flooding. His bill would also require additional life preservers, and would require duck boats to remove canopies. It also requires additional ways to pump water out.

Hawley, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, says it’s time for the Coast Guard to act on the issue of duck boats. He says it’s critical to keeping Missourians and others safe.

“Over a year ago, I introduced legislation that would write these requirements and these protections into law,” says Hawley. “It is time for the Senate to act on that legislation, and I hope that they will.”

Hawley’s legislation is similar to one filed by former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D). Hawley unseated McCaskill in Missouri’s 2018 Senate election.

Hawley’s letter to Coast Guard Admiral Karl Schultz reads, in part: “It is in your power to ensure ‘duck boat’ is not synonymous with ‘floating metal death trap.’

17 victims died in the Table Rock Lake incident, including nine from one family. The victims drowned when the vessel sank quickly, during a storm.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Brian Hauswirth and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, which was recorded on May 21, 2020:

La-Z-Boy to resume partial operations at large southwest Missouri plant next week

April 24, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

(Reporter Ty Albright from Missourinet Joplin affiliate KZRG contributed to this story)

One of southwest Missouri’s biggest manufacturers will resume partial production at its Neosho plant on Monday.

Missourinet Joplin affiliate KZRG reports furniture company La-Z-Boy furloughed about 800 employees at the Neosho plant in late March, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company as a whole laid about 6,800 employees, or about 70 percent of its workforce.

KZRG reports it’s unclear how many of them will return to work on Monday morning.

Neosho, a town of about 12,000 residents, is the county seat in Newton County. The town is nicknamed the “City of Springs.” Newton County Presiding Commissioner Bill Reiboldt tells Missourinet that La-Z-Boy is Neosho’s largest manufacturer.

KZRG reports the products produced in Neosho will address a backlog, as La-Z-Boy looks to re-open their retail stores during the next several weeks.