Fall and winter at Lake of the Ozarks usually means a lull in activity and a break on the roads. That's not so this year. In the next few weeks, new roads will open to traffic, detours will reroute vehicles and fresh projects will get underway. Combined, more than $200 million has been spent by the Missouri Department of Transportation in the lake area. The projects have transformed the landscaped, redefined how residents and tourists get from one destination to another and even made it a little safer to travel.

Gary Braman has taken to Facebook to help boost the drive for a disc golf course in Camdenton. The local resident has created a Facebook page entitled "Camdenton, Mo. Disc Golf" as he continues his quest to bring the sport to town.

A Camdenton man was arrested on drug charges after an Aug. 31 search of his home yielded suspected marijuana plants, weapons and other paraphernalia.

The School of the Osage held the line on its 2010-11 tax levy for the fourth consecutive year.
The board of education last week voted to set a tax levy of $2.72 per $100 of assessed valuation after a mandated tax levy hearing.  The hearing preceded the board’s regular monthly meeting.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has referred several cases to the Missouri Attorney General's Office for allegations of violating the state's Clean Water Law.

From Bach to Rock.

As an infant, Craig Wingate was rocked to sleep nightly listening to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or Vivaldi.

As  a toddler, he loved to bang on Mom's aluminum mixing bowl with wooden spoons while listening to classical music. He began taking piano  lessons from his mother at the age of seven, practicing at 6:30 in the morning or in the evening after baseball, basketball or soccer games.

After school, the house was always full of the music of numerous piano students parading in and out of the Wingate home in Camdenton, according to his mom, Judy. A self-described music junkie and now groupie as her son's musical career takes off.

Craig is a 1998 graduate of Camdenton HIgh School and the son of Mike and Judy Wingate and brother of Kyle Wingate. Mike was the former director of the Lake Area Vo-Tech prior to his death in 1997.  Judy just retired from teaching elementary music in the Camdenton schools.
This weekend Craig will be returning "home" to visit with family and friends who are headed to the Shootout  to hear him and the band known as Shaman's Harvest on stage performing their hit "Dargaonfly."

According to AAA Midwest Traveler magazine, the Lake of the Ozarks is home to two of the top three state parks in the Midwest.

Table Rock Lake State Park in Branson claimed top honor amongst AAA Midwest Traveler readers. Lake of the Ozarks State Park settled for second place silver, and Ha Ha Tonka State Park finished third in the voting.

The magazine asked its readers to vote for their favorite places to visit, eat and shop. This spring, more than 2,500 readers cast ballots for their favorite places to visit in the Midwest.

Three people were arrested on Tuesday and charged with possession of drugs after officers responded to a residence with reports of suspicious activity.

Taxpayers in the Camdenton school district will see no change in the levy for the upcoming year.
The Camdenton R-III Board of Education met last week to discuss and set the district’s tax rate. A total tax rate of $2.87 per $100 of assessed valuation was adopted, the same as last year.

With Camdenton and School of the Osage students heading back to class this week, all public schools are now in session for the 2010-2011 academic year.

We want to see your pictures, too. If you took pictures of your child, grandchild, niece and/or nephew, etc., as they headed back to school, share them with us!

Four Camdenton Laker football team members scarfed a victory Saturday, Aug. 21 over three Osage Indian football players and one very brave dance team member at the Ozark Bar-B-Que in Sunrise Beach. The Laker and Indian booster clubs held a pork eating contest, “Packin’ in the Pigskin,” at the restaurant to raise funds. 

Months of waiting for an answer over who will pay the bill and how much it is going to cost to move sewer lines may soon be over.
Camden County commissioners, Stan Schulz, the project engineer, and  a representative of Sterling Excavation, the company that built the Camelot wastewater treatment plant, are making a site visit  to determine just how much it is going to cost to move hundreds of feet of sewer lines that ended up on Mike and Mickey McDuffey's property. The county hopes to have it resolved by sometime next week.
The McDuffey’s dilemma has been stalled at the county level while the commissioners worked on a solution.

The final two schools in the lake area — Camdenton and School of the Osage — begin their terms Monday. Officials at both schools have been furiously putting the finishing touches on various projects as school opens for students in both districts Monday, Aug. 23.

For 35 years, his name has been synonymous with winning, wisdom, and Camdenton football. While many will still refer to the Lakers' house as the Jaws of Death, the home turf now officially rests in Bob Shore Stadium, Home of the Lakers.

The Sonshine Ranch in Camdenton sits on 32 sprawling acres of Missouri wilderness complete with a spring-fed creek, in a peaceful valley near Ha Ha Tonka. The camp’s mission is to offer free, weeklong Christian summer camps for at-risk children ages 8 to 12 where they can experience love, find hope and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Most of the children have one or both parents in prison and some come from abusive situations. These children are not at fault – they are the innocent ones.

The fortunate ones have a loving family member step in to care for them, but many are placed into the state system and are sometimes moved around from one foster home to another. They are at-risk to join a gang and participate in criminal behavior.

The Sonshine Ranch is specially designed to meet this need. Campers sleep in an 8-by-20 foot covered wagon in the open air. The camp has swimming, fishing, games, songs, puppet shows, arts and crafts, an obstacle course, and other traditional camp activities. However, the camp’s main emphasis is to present the Gospel and train the children to live their lives according to the word of God.  Each child is given a Bible and taught how to use it.

Before Camdenton Lakers football fans get their first taste of the passes, blocks, and big hits of autumn, they will honor their longtime head coach with the official rededication of Laker Stadium.

Dylan Bryant has set lofty goals for himself. He wants to be a corporate lawyer. In order to do that, the 18 year old has laid out the next five years of his life: which schools he’ll attend, classes he’ll take and activities he’ll participate in.

The path to this point was filled with achievements as well.
Bryant, a 2010 Camdenton High School graduate, left behind a name for himself by taking home a national award through Future Business Leaders of America, an organization Bryant joined two years ago as a junior.

That’s when Bryant got to work.

Back-to-school serves as a time for kids to reunite with friends after summer vacation, get excited for the upcoming year of learning and compete in fall sports. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, this time of year also makes kids more likely to be involved in an auto accident.

In Osage Beach, police officers will watch for risky behavior from drivers of all ages, especially in the area of School of the Osage High School and middle school in the afternoon.

In Lake Ozark, the police department takes a proactive approach in the school zone surrounding Mills Elementary.

Troopers remind school zone travelers that all drivers must stop on a two lane road when a school bus displays stop signs and flashing lights. On a four lane road, drivers behind the bus may not pass when stop signs and flashing lights are displayed.

Gert Roets is the pastor at Lake Family Church in Camdenton.
Roets is from Ermelo, South Africa, and is among the new trend of missionaries who are being assigned by God to America.
“The light that shines the furthest shines the brightest at home,” Roets said, calling the congregation at Lake Family Church a shining, bible-believing, family-orientated church that loves to worship and has a heart for missions.

A fire in the back of a home on Camden Ct. in Camdenton caused heavy smoke and fire damage.

The homeowner escaped injury and rescued a dog. Three other pets died of smoke inhalation.