Barton County Electric Co-op supports Lamar football’s winning tradition

Coaches from around the state have been trying to figure out what makes Lamar’s football team so good. Starting in 2011, the Tigers from southwest Missouri have dominated Missouri Class 2, with a record seven straight state championships.

The Brotherhood, as the team is known, is so strong that the Lamar High School Football Program was enshrined in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2018. Another testament to Lamar’s success is the fact that in 2012, 2016 and 2017 the Tigers won state in both football and cross-country, two sports that take place in the fall.

While rival coaches have failed to decipher the secret to their success, Barton County Electric Cooperative Manager Jeff Hull thinks he knows the answer. It’s not so much the powerful offense or the stingy defense. It’s the hard work that is second nature to team members, along with being part of a community that cares about their success.

“The coaches don’t just care about the score at the end of the game,” Jeff says. “They care about the kids’ character, how they’re going to grow up to be young men and women. It’s a community effort. Parents and organizations like Barton County Electric and other community leaders in town help make this all happen.”

On a sweltering day in late June, Jeff greets a third of the team and defensive coordinator Chris Wilkerson at the garage where the cooperative parks its trucks. This day is scheduled for the team to give back to the community that supports it, win or lose.

“We have been very fortunate to have really good kids that don’t mind getting up at four o’clock in the morning, and then they go back to work on the farm or out in our community for the rest of the day,” says Chris. “When people ask, ‘Hey, what do you guys do?’ Well, we get up at four o’clock in the morning, and we start weights at 4:45. There’s not a lot of schools in Missouri or wherever that can get 65 kids in a weight room at 4:45 — every single morning.”

With the coach barking orders like a sideline drill sergeant, the athletes set to work making the co-op’s trucks shine, inside and out.

It’s a tough job considering what these trucks go through to keep the power flowing for members of the cooperative. But the work is done the only acceptable way for The Brotherhood: perfection.

At one point the coach stops everyone and calls for a huddle. One truck has glass cleaner left on the dash. Another didn’t get its mirrors cleaned. They get fixed.

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I have attempted to hunt or catch my share of critters and fish in my day. Sept. 1 is my annual “changing of the guard” when I pull my fly rod out of my truck and trade it out for my shotgun. This date marks the annual opening day of Missouri’s dove season, one of the best times to be outdoors. 

Growing up, my brother and I would “liberate” one of dad’s shotguns, fill our pockets with shells and peanut butter sandwiches, then take a long walk down the train tracks by our farm.

While we didn’t always do what we were told back then, my dad did make sure we were properly educated on what was expected when you had the privilege of hunting.

One lesson was to make sure we always asked for permission before hunting on a neighbor’s land. Could be he suspected we were bagging our birds along the train tracks. I hope enough time has passed that I don’t get a visit from my local conservation agent or a railroad detective — there are a lot of issues with me telling this story.  

The other lesson was to never, ever, fire at birds sitting on the power lines. Dad explained that not only was this poor sportsmanship, but that those power lines represented the hard work of past generations who built those lines so that we could have things like running water, air conditioning and a deep freeze.

Dad also reminded us that some of our neighbors relied on the reliable flow of electricity just to stay alive. They might require a medical device that was critical for their health. 

Sept. 1 is a day some electric co-op employees dread. They would like to be out in the fields hunting doves. But instead, they have to be on call ready to make repairs when some so-called hunter causes damage. That’s especially true for those co-ops with fiber internet service.

Just one small pellet from a shotgun can cause thousands of dollars damage to fiber-optic lines. Just like with the power lines, damaged fiber can be hard to locate. And these days a fiber outage can be as big a problem as an outage on the electric side.

Many of you have youth who are about to experience their first dove hunt. Do me and your local co-op a favor: Sit your kids down and teach them the proper, safe way to hunt. It could save their lives, or the lives of someone dependent on electricity and a good internet connection.

I know most hunters won’t tell you where their favorite dove field is located for obvious reasons. But I will share this little tip: There’s no better place to find doves than in a watermelon patch that’s been disced after the good melons have been hauled away. I learned that the first time I went down to the Bootheel for a Delta Center dove hunt with my good friends and co-op directors Jake Fisher and Justin Rone.

Happy hunting. If you have a good dove recipe to share, send it my way. I’m feeling optimistic.

Caleb is the executive vice president and CEO of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and a member of Boone Electric Cooperative.

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Energy in Today’s Classroom celebrates 10 years energizing educators

For 20 teachers from Missouri and Iowa, the 2022-23 school year started a few weeks early at the University of Missouri-Columbia for Electricity 101 — cooperative style. Their class marked the 10th year of Energy in Today’s Classroom, a two-day course organized by Central Electric Power Cooperative and the University of Missouri designed to prepare elementary, middle and high school teachers for teaching energy and electricity to the next generation.

The class not only provides teachers with lesson plan ideas but also an hour of graduate course credit. Presentations by Central and Associated Electric Cooperative cover methods of power generation, transmission and distribution. University professors and representatives from Ameren Missouri cover topics including energy sources, efficiency, production and economics. 

Teachers received a demonstration of electric vehicles and completed a circuitry project. A highlight of the class is seeing different methods of power generation in action. Attendees toured the power plant at Mizzou, where the power portfolio is made up of coal, natural gas, biomass, solar and wind energy. Teachers returned home with a box of teaching aids provided by Central Electric Power and 16 other sponsoring electric co-ops.
Educators are excited to take what they’ve learned back to their classrooms. “We’ve been putting together a physical sciences course for our incoming freshman, so we really needed material and ideas for that course,” says Suzanne Kercher, a biology and chemistry teacher sponsored by Laclede Electric Cooperative who is part of the curriculum team for the Camdenton R-III School District. She added that she learned a few things about the energy industry from the program. “I liked the focus on Missouri and learning about the co-ops versus the investor-owned businesses. I didn’t know all of the details of that coming into the class.”

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Young leaders return to the Cooperative Youth Conference and Leadership Experience 

When Twin Rivers High School student Hannah Patterson found out she’d been selected by her local co-op to spend part of her summer vacation in Jefferson City, she admits she didn’t know what to expect. At the end of the Cooperative Youth Conference and Leadership Experience, known as CYCLE, the Qulin native recalled when the words of NFL mascot Dan Meers made everything click into place.

“The first thing he taught us was that every day you get a choice on how you’re going to spend your coin,” says Hannah, who was sponsored by Ozark Border Electric. “‘Are you going to invest it and better your life, better yourself and better your relationships?’ That has changed my life.” And those kinds of moments are why Missouri’s electric co-ops send students to unlock their potential as the next generation of rural leaders.

“This is one way electric cooperatives show commitment to their communities, by investing in the students who are going to be the leaders of tomorrow,” says Chris Massman, vice president of member services for the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives and CYCLE coordinator. 

“CYCLE provides an opportunity for students to find leadership themselves, learn about government and cooperatives, and make new friends from across the state in a fun, fast-paced environment.”

Celebrating its 19th year in 2022, CYCLE brings students from around the state to Jefferson City for three days of activities, learning and fun. In between motivational speakers, team building and excursions to local landmarks, delegates learn about state history, government and electric cooperatives. This year’s delegates comprised 91 high school sophomores and juniors sent by 33 electric cooperatives, AMEC and the Missouri Institute of Cooperatives. In the first year back to a traditional format an old adage about CYCLE proved itself true again: Nearly 100 strangers formed fast friendships with one another.

“I joined because I thought this would help with college, and as the event got closer I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to meet so many people here,’ ” says Mia Hunter, sponsored by Three Rivers Electric. “I really loved all of it, and I know for sure I’m going to miss everyone I met.”

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Citrus Salsa:
1/3 cup jicama, chopped
1/3 cup orange, chopped
1 tablespoon jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon orange peel, grated

Avocado Cream:
1/2 cup avocado, mashed
1 tablespoon low-fat sour cream

Rub:
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon orange peel, grated
Two 8-ounce beef flat iron steaks
12 corn tortillas, 6- to 7-inch diameter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

For Citrus Salsa, combine salsa ingredients in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper to taste, then set aside.

Next, place Avocado Cream ingredients in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper to taste, then set aside.

Combine cumin and orange peel; press evenly onto steaks. Place steaks on grill over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 10 to 14 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees) to medium (160 degrees) doneness, turning occasionally. Transfer steaks to carving board. If using a gas grill, cook over medium heat, covered, for 12 to 16 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut one mini tortilla from each tortilla with 4-inch diameter cookie cutter. Discard tortilla scraps or save for another use. Lightly brush both sides of mini tortillas with oil. Grill over medium heat 1 to 3 minutes or until lightly crisp, turning once.

Carve steaks in half lengthwise, then crosswise into thin slices. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Top each mini tortilla with equal amounts of avocado cream, beef slices and salsa. Serve immediately.

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Augusta artists use new skills to craft giant sculptures

Visitors to Augusta find the giant duck hanging out in one of the yards in town an irresistible selfie stop. If they think the duck’s 23 1/2-foot wingspan is intriguing, they should have been around when Bigfoot made his appearance.

Like the duck, the 12-foot-tall metal sculpture dubbed “Tom’s Samsquach” began life here in the tiny garage studio of Augusta Missouri Metal Arts. He currently stops traffic on Highway 100 east of Washington, where employees of 5th & Oak Auto Body roll him out each morning to greet customers.

Then there’s the cutaway Martin guitar titled “Heritage,” also 12 foot tall and faithful to the iconic design of the original. It took three years to make this piece, which was crafted from repurposed scrap metal found in Augusta’s Missouri River bottoms. This sculpture was discovered in the front yard by a patron of the arts, purchased and donated to the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center.

These and other monumental metal sculptures are the work of metal artists Ben Boyher and Brian Watson. The two friends began their partnership not as artists but as owners of B Flash, a metal roofing company.

After a career that included serving in the Navy on nuclear-powered submarines and doing plasma gas research in Idaho, Brian moved to Augusta. Ben, who is a cousin to Brian’s wife, had spent a lifetime doing construction in east-central Missouri.

“It was slow for me and we started doing roof flashings for a buddy’s company,” Ben says. “Then we got the opportunity to start doing some architectural sheet copper. After that we dropped everything else and we just did that.”

Over the years they developed a solid reputation based on their skills at installing copper roofs and flashing for windows, chimneys and other architectural details. In time they were called on to roof million-dollar homes being built in St. Charles and St. Louis counties.

The jobs got bigger, their skills grew and the demand for their services pushed them to the limits. “We bit off a big chunk,” Brian admits. “We chewed hard to get through that. And we were successful in it. We did huge roofs, we did big turrets, weathervanes, very complicated stuff.”

That’s when the demands of copper roofing lost its luster for Ben and Brian. They considered other opportunities, with Ben’s wisdom always bringing Brian’s dreams back to reality. “We’ve made some decisions along the way not based on money, but on what we want to be doing,” Brian says.

Ben nods, adding, “In the last couple years we started making some smaller copper stuff. Weathervanes. Sculpture. Relief in copper sheets. We had a lot of scrap from these houses.”

Those early efforts at artistic expression were beat into the soft copper using a hammer and a sandbag. “That was our first attempts at shaping the copper,” Brian says, pointing to a stylized face, a frog and a hollow fish. “It’s called repousse and chasing. What you are doing is pounding the back of the panel, flipping it over and then pushing it back to kind of give it that relief.”

Soon the work grew larger. The two were commissioned to build a series of outdoor-themed panels for a cabin. They built a weathervane featuring a 5-foot-tall cowboy riding a bucking bronco, mounted to a 6-foot arrow. Their work included furniture, range hoods, fireplace screens and lamps.

“We started pounding on this copper and it was all pretty experimental,” Brian recalls. “I was doing this on the side mostly. Then Ben stepped in and we began to take it really seriously as a team. And it was so much more fun than a real job.”

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“Mother Nature rules it all,” says Keith Bennett, seed harvest and restoration technician. “She decides if plants will produce seed, how much and whether you can do a burn or not. She runs the show.”

The ranch’s bison herd was reintroduced in 2011 specifically to help maintain this grassland, increasing species diversity and creating habitat for wildlife such as nesting birds. But the prairie’s biggest attractions aren’t the only stars of the show. Bobolinks perch amid the stalks. If a visitor wanders too close to a hiding place, they’re likely to flush a pheasant. The boom of greater prairie chickens echoes across the hills, and out on the high open spaces males congregate in a lek to put on a show for prospective mates. Whether visitors stop by the ranch office and observation platform, located on Grundy Electric Cooperative’s lines, or check out the ranch’s YouTube channel and Facebook page for videos captured by webcam, you can see some of those unique moments of nature.

“We want to make this very interactive for the public and to engage with the local community,” says Grasslands and Sustainable Agriculture Strategy Manager Kent Wamsley. He points to infrastructure additions such as new restrooms, ADA-accessible parking, electric vehicle charging stations and improvements to the ranch’s signage and walking trail as reasons people make the drive to northern Missouri to see a place unlike any other. The fall is a particularly popular time for visiting the prairie or watching for prairie chickens and bison on the viewing platform. “Having those things has been a win-win getting people on site to tour and see it.”

It’s easy to feel lost in the expanse of the prairie — in fact, that’s the experience some visitors come here looking for — but the Dunn Ranch crew never loses sight of the strategic goals for the land. Projects here are aimed directly at the vision of uniting people and nature within the Upper Grand River Grasslands. The Nature Conservancy, MDC and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources protect roughly 10% of the 83,000-acre watershed where farming is a way of life. Far from a challenge, Kent sees the relationship as a unique opportunity for all involved to become better stewards of the prairie.

“We can’t own it all, so the question is how to best work with those around us to build out this vision of a resilient, connected landscape,” Kent says. “Not telling them what to do, but engaging with them and saying, ‘Let’s be partners in this together.’ ”

Some solutions are found in common conservation practices such as seeding native plants, controlling invasive species and improving timber stands. Other projects are unique to the livestock-meets-wildlife landscape, including controlled stream access at cattle crossings, rotational grazing and stabilizing and improving streambanks to prevent erosion. This spring at Dunn Ranch’s Little Creek Farm, crews completed a stabilization project to improve spawning conditions for the endangered Topeka shiner — a rare minnow native to small prairie streams.

One of the most unique projects at Dunn Ranch is the grass bank, two pastures in the ranch’s northern section comprising 400 acres of predominantly native grasses. Ranchers willing to engage in some conservation work on their own land can apply to graze portions of Dunn’s grass bank while they wait for their own to become established. In the early spring, cows help control the fescue and cool season grasses, and in the late summer return for a high-quality buffet of lush native plant species. The net result is not only improved forage for cattle but also additional and improved habitat for wildlife that call the prairie home.

“For this 400 acres, we’re leveraging nearly twofold that in conservation benefit and value on neighboring land directly adjacent to here,” Kent says of the grass bank.

“That’s part of changing the broader landscape, rather than just the part we own, and it’s a great example of nature providing a business solution so that it was economically viable for them to stay on their land,” Adam adds. “More great habitat, whether it’s public or private, is a good thing for everybody.”

For more information on Dunn Ranch Prairie and The Nature Conservancy in Missouri, visit www.nature.org/missouri.

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For the better part of 135 years, the mouth of Hearrell Spring has fed millions of fish to the nation’s streams through the Neosho National Fish Hatchery. Established by an act of Congress in 1888, it’s the oldest federal hatchery in operation today and since that time has played a key role in fueling one of Missouri’s signature recreational industries as well as recovering endangered species.

“As fish hatcheries go, we’re unique in the respect that the vast majority are in the country, off the beaten path,” says Assistant Manager Nathan Eckert. “The local public views us a park, so we have tens of thousands of visitors every year.”

The hatchery’s close ties with Neosho stem from its location. The town, once a few miles away from the grounds during the 19th century, now surrounds them. Train tracks that once carried freshwater species by milk can and fish car still run past the buildings, but modern transportation methods have made way for specialized tanker trucks. The original feed preparation room now serves as a museum to the bygone era when Nathan’s predecessors would have worn woolen suits, even in summer. The water that supplies the hatchery still runs from Hearrell and three other area springs, but it no longer flows through wooden pipes wrapped in iron bands and tar. The federal hatchery system celebrated its 150th anniversary on June 10, and for much of that time, despite the changes, the mission at the Neosho facility has remained the same: Raising fish, which visitors can see and feed during a guided tour, to stock Missouri’s waters.

Chief among the hatchery’s residents are rainbow trout one day destined to swim the waters of Lake Taneycomo near Branson. Neosho contributes about 180,000 or roughly one-third of the 560,000 rainbows stocked in the lake every year with the Missouri Department of Conservation providing the remainder. The partnership has created an enduring lure for anglers hoping to catch the next record lunker. Blue Eye resident Bill Babler’s state record — a 40-pound, 6-ounce brown trout caught in 2019 — fell less than 2 pounds short of the all-tackle world record caught in New Zealand. 

The Neosho trout are raised to about 10 1/2 inches before they are released, growing at a rate of roughly 1 inch per month once the eggs hatch. Eggs are brought in five times per year spaced a few months apart so the restocking numbers coincide with the peak of fishing action on Taneycomo. The 18,000 to 20,000 trout stocked during the winter months ramps up to as much as 80,000 in the summer. Growing fish to the prescribed size is a constant numbers game of graduating food sizes and organizing the cubic feet of water required for thousands of rainbows.

“Ultimately, we’re a trout hotel, but I’ve already rented the hotel room out, so you’re here for an inch a month,” Nathan says. “If you don’t eat or get stressed out and don’t grow for two weeks, I don’t lose two weeks: I’ve lost the two weeks you weren’t growing plus the two weeks it takes to catch up.”

Hatcheries also raise federally endangered species and those which have difficulty repopulating in the wild. The Neosho hatchery assists with a multi-state effort geared toward improving numbers of the pallid sturgeon on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and is presently rearing lake sturgeon as well. Other species of note include the Topeka shiner, a native of prairie streams in Missouri, and the Neosho mucket. Roughly the size of a baked potato when fully grown, this freshwater mussel will spend two years growing to the size of a golf ball before being released in the wild roughly two hours in any direction from the hatchery.

“The Neosho River basin is largely what its range is,” Nathan adds, noting the hatchery also raises the fish — freshwater drum, flathead catfish, largemouth and smallmouth bass — that Neosho muckets and other mussels use as hosts to reproduce. “We’re very well positioned to be one of the major players in recovering that mussel.”

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Maples Repertory Theatre brings the arts to small towns

On a brightly lit stage in Memphis, Missouri, a group of young actors and actresses come to grips with the fact that they are monsters. As they trod the boards they will trade blood for lettuce, hold the world’s first werewolf howl off, search for long-lost human friends and learn it’s OK to be different.

The scene is one of five summer theater camps put on in small Missouri towns — Memphis, Macon, Salisbury, Shelbina and Princeton this year — thanks to outreach from Macon’s Maples Repertory Theatre. The weeklong camps are designed to introduce small-town youth to the stage says Maples Rep Education Director Emily Long.

“Maples Rep has always wanted to have a program like this,” she says. “They’ve successfully been able to do it certain summers, where we do a performance camp in Macon. And then we take the exact same camp and do weeklong camps in different communities around central and north-central Missouri, as far away as we can get. This year has been the most prolific one. We have five camps that we’re doing.

Joined by summer interns Bailey Angel and Meghan McGehee, Emily works with local committees that organize tryouts, find a stage for the camp and work out funding. The three have been impressed by the turnout, ranging from 19 in Memphis to 40 in Macon. That’s up from the nine to 25 who turned out for last year’s camps.

The goal for the camps is to learn enough stagecraft to put on a play on the final day. In most cases the entire community turns out to see the performance.

“The town puts out the word that we’re coming, and then they all come on day one, and we audition them, give them their little parts and they start learning it,” Emily says. “And they learn the whole thing in five days.”

This year the play was “We Are Monsters,” a musical that required singing and dancing in addition to acting. That meant auditions included a little bit of howling along with working up the courage to get up on stage and sing.

“This group in particular has been braver than others,” Emily says of the Memphis troupe, who ranged in age from 9 to 18. “There’s something in the water in Memphis. They are not scaredy-cats at all. In fact, on audition day we asked them if they’re OK singing a solo, and I think we had one that was like, ‘No, thank you.’ But everyone else was like, ‘Yeah, give me a solo. I want a solo.’ Part of the magic of theater is getting them on the stage and teaching them to be confident in themselves.”

Once parts are assigned, the kids break up into groups comprised of werewolves, vampires and humans. “This show is really nice,” Bailey says. “Because there are three different groups. So we individually choreographed for each of those groups, and we took them separately so that we could all work at the same time.”

The actors rehearsed their songs, practiced their moves and took home scripts to learn their lines. All of the songs were uploaded to YouTube, a big help for the fledgling soloists. By Thursday the entire play is rehearsed and any rough spots smoothed out before Friday’s big night.

As the camps unfold, the trio of directors always see a lot of growth. Shy kids find their voice. Boys learn that singing can be cool. Friendships are made and more than one of the young actors and actresses finds the self-confidence to continue in theater. It’s an opportunity not all small-town kids have access to.

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