News

Sentencing set for 68-year-old man

A 68-year-old homeless man who has been on the run for several years ended up in the Andrew County Jail last week.Probation and Parole said he makes their job "impossible" and they want his probation revoked.Kim Jay Douglas, could barely walk straight, but he did coming from jail handcuffed and shackled to appear before Associate Circuit Judge Emily Bauman.He is charged with the felony of failure to register as a convicted sex offender and misdemeanor trespass. Douglas entered a guilty plea in April 2022 and got probation at that time.

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Lifelong Savannah resident still loves his town

Curtis Taylor has lived in Savannah all 83 years of his life.It is his home.It is where he was born into a family that would yield 13 children.His mother was a homemaker and his dad worked in construction.His family grew a big garden that he and his siblings would help take care of.Savannah is where he went to school."I remember my brother and I hiding in a closet on our first day of kindergarten," recalled Curtis.He and his older brother ran track in their high school years.After high school, he started work with an auctioneer for a $1 an hour."I learned a lot from them about animals," said Taylor.Six years later, Taylor went to work for the Missouri Department of Transportation where he made his career.For 34 years, Taylor maintained roads. For 22 of those years, he was the highway maintenance supervisor for Savannah.When asked how Savannah has changed for him, Taylor brought up people were more sociable in an old-fashioned way."Growing up back then you knew everybody," said Taylor.

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Taxpayers kept the Andrew County Collectors Office busy

Back in November, Phil Rogers, the Andrew County Collector, was getting worried.It seems people were not paying the real and personal property taxes like they did in 2023."We were down by about a million dollars," said Rogers.Rogers said this concern went on through the first half of December, too."I realize a lot of folks are stretching dollars to buy groceries and gas," he said.Then things started to pick up as more and more people paid before the Dec. 31 deadline.

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Governor Kehoe signs six executive orders

As his first official act in office, Governor Mike Kehoe took decisive action to prioritize public safety by signing six executive orders on Jan. 13 and officially launching his comprehensive Safer Missouri public safety initiative.Developed in close collaboration with law enforcement partners and representatives across all levels of law enforcement within the state, the Safer Missouri plan sets the stage for immediate and impactful action.

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