Stories from Sunday, December 16, 2012

SIKESTON -- Stanley Moore, 49, died Dec. 14, 2012, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born Dec. 16, 1962, in Sikeston, son of Jerry Moore of Sikeston and the late Wanda Lena Hicks Moore, he was a veteran of the U.S. Army and worked in the maintenance department for Pope Properties...

SIKESTON -- Ronald C. Polley, 67, died Dec. 13, 2012, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born Oct. 25, 1945, in Poplar Bluff, to the late R.L. and Ida May Abbott Polley, he was a veteran of the U.S. Army. He had worked as a machine operator for Essex Wire and was of the Baptist belief...

DEXTER -- James Richard Algood, 56, died Dec. 13, 2012, at his home. Born Sept. 19, 1956, in Paducah, Ky., to the late James Harrison and Altheline Harper Algood, he was a member of the Stokelan Drive Christian Church in Malden. He had been employed as a licensed practical nurse at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff and as a foreman at Noranda Aluminum in New Madrid...

I'm guilty of worrying disproportionately about the housing concerns in Sikeston. Call it a personal crusade or a personal obsession. But, as I have tried to explain in this column countless times, we have had and continue to have far too many condemned properties and far too little money to address the issue...