SPEAKOUT

Shooting some hoops

Mike, this is a question for the Department of Public Safety, Drew Juden. People in his department have been informing people that it is not against the law to set a basketball goal at the curb and have them hanging over the street and play basketball in the street. If this is correct, the law needs to be changed. The street sweeper cannot sweep the curb. The leaves cannot be picked up at the curb. There are three basketball goals at the corner of 300 William. I don't see them in the better neighborhoods. Come on Sikeston, right is right and wrong is wrong.

We contacted Capt. Jim McMillen with the Sikeston Department of Public Safety with your concerns. His reply: It states in Sikeston Municipal Code (345.120) "no person shall within the city play a game of ball or throw a ball from one to another upon any street, alley, or thoroughfare..." If an employee of ours said otherwise, they would have been mistaken. We will look into the complaint on William Street and take appropriate action. Mistakes like this do happen from time to time. Any time you feel that you may have been given misinformation, please contact Capt. Jim McMillen at 573-471-6200. I will be happy to speak with you."

Cookie recipes

The cookie contest around Christmas time, if that ever was printed in the paper, apparently I missed it because of the weather. Could you rerun those recipes before Valentines Day? Everybody else is gripe, gripe, griping, but we would like to have some good fun and bake some cookies.

The recipes ran in the Sunday, Dec. 15 issue of the paper. We do have back issues of that paper at the office that are available for purchase.

At the breaking point

We're paying over $3 a gallon for propane now. We're paying over $3 a gallon for gasoline in Sikeston when the rest of the area is cheaper than that. And now they are wanting me to pay a big tax on the school bond. They are just wanting to break anybody and everybody in the Sikeston area. We've got some real winners running the show on this one. People, we've got to get it together and make sure we vote this bond down. Please get out there and vote no. I know there's a lot out there like me that can't afford to pay any more taxes. Vote no.