November -- Nevada city manager resigns; tragedies strike families

Wednesday, January 7, 2009
By Ralph Pokorny - Nevada Daily Mail

A house fire and a traffic accident cost three young people their lives during November.

Six-month-old Taylor Shane died from injures suffered in a house fire the weekend of Nov. 19. Taylor's father suffered burns to his hands while rescuing Taylor and two other children from the burning building.

Two weeks later Nevada High School students Emily DeBrine, 15, and Corey Martin, 17, were killed in a head-on collision west of Deerfield with a 2005 Ford pick up truck driven by 74-year-old Gale Pelser, Ethridge.

A week before Thanksgiving Nevada City Manager Bill McGuire gave the city council his resignation, which they formally accepted at a special council meeting on Nov. 25. McGuire left with the 2006 and 2007 annual audits unfinished and the 2009 city budget unfinished. The council, because of the unfinished financial issues looked to possible candidates for interim city manager who were familiar with the Nevada city government and financial system, interviewed Nevada native Sam Foursha, who had previously served as Nevada's economic development director and as temporary city manager after Craig Hubler resigned in April 2006 and Harlan Moore, who served as interim city manager from June 2006 until April 2007, when Bill McGuire was elevated from his position as city treasurer to city manager.

Foursha served as temporary city manager for two months until he left to take a position with the U.S. State Department in Iraq in June.

Moore, Grove, Okla., was retired from the Denver County, Colo. Sheriffs Department and also ran youth baseball tournaments around the country, including at Champion Diamonds.

Earlier in the month all of the Vernon County incumbents won re-election and Vernon County broke with the majority of the country and overwhelming voted for John McCain and Sara Palin for president and vice president. Kennon Shaw was re-elected as Vernon County Southern Commissioner and Neal Gerster won another term as Northern commissioner. In other local races, David Ferry was given another term as coroner and Rick Peckman was re-elected as sheriff. Cherie Roberts, assessor, Phil Couch, treasurer and Tammy Beach, public administrator, ran unopposed. Incumbent state representative Barney Fisher was re-elected to another term as was U.S. Representative Ike Skelton.

The Eagle Riders announced that they have chosen the Bar-H Boys Ranch as their headquarters and they will be bringing hundreds of members to Nevada for meetings each year. They plan to hold a major meeting here during Bushwhacker Days and intend to participate in the annual celebrations.

Local historian Pat Brophy's newest book, "Fire and Sword" went on sale in late November, just in time for people to give it as a Christmas gift. The book tells the story of the Civil War in Vernon County and western Missouri.

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So you are proud of being backward when you say you overwhelmingly voted for Sarah Palin and John McCain. So you are proud of the status quo of botched criminal investigations, of not prosecuting a man who killed two children at the start of their life. You are proud of a Coroner who admitted that he knew nothing about high veloscity bullet wounds which have no exit wounds and he calls it suicide. I tell you what I am not proud of being a Vernon County resident but I am proud of being an American again since we made a tiny dent in the racist culture of our country but again you have proven that Vernon County is not part of the rest Country and proud of it!

-- Posted by M4 on Wed, Jan 7, 2009, at 4:02 PM