It appears to me that many people try to quote the Constitution, but have never read any part of it.

In Article VII, this Constitution was ratified by the representatives of the 12 states as follows, “the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven.”

Cheers to Lake Ozark's Board of Aldermen, the first day of September and to those who are out there looking for jobs on Labor Day.

and Jeers to "mystery shopper" scammers and to speeders and uncourteous drivers in the midst of all this road construction.

THE ISSUE Safety issues are a concern for Labor Day holiday weekend 

OUR VIEW Taking precautions is the best prevention

THE QUESTION With all the kids going back to school about this time of year, what's your favorite school memory? Did you have a particularly favorite teacher? Participate in a lot of school activities? Sports?

Great game nights for all the high schools, and lots of parents out cheering on all the fall sports teams and marching bands. A move by Missouri Department of Natural Resources to source test the public beaches to find a solution to the reocurring issue with elevated bacteria levels. Lots of people out watching the Shootout races. A quick return on the investment from an anonymous Lake Ozark couple. Shootout pictures submitted to the Lake Sun from area readers.

I have the pleasure of working with over a dozen merchants on the Bagnell Dam Strip and must take issue with the recent letter you published from Tony Hobgood.  I have no idea what his problem is, but evidently he has some kind of "ax to grind.”   Bars on the strip?  Casablanca is a restaurant, entertainment venue; and yes, they do serve drinks.  JJ Twigs is also a restaurant and they do serve drinks. That leaves two bars on the strip.

Once or twice a week, we’ll send out a question of local importance or interest and ask E-board participants to respond with short answers, typically from 50-75 words on up to 200-250. In other words, the kind questions that will produce a “I think such and such” answer as opposed to an essay-type response.

It’s no secret that Lake Ozark has had its share of challenges and dysfunction. Council meetings and elections in the town have regularly made for interesting reading. Discord is more the rule than the exception when it comes to leadership at Lake Ozark. It’s also no secret that the town has financial challenges. With little sales tax revenue and development to benefit financially from, this prime piece of lake real estate struggles to make ends meet.

But that could change in the very near future when the new Horseshoe Bend Parkway extension is completed. Improvements to State Route MM and adjacent roads should drive more people through Lake Ozark. In theory, the extension and road improvements will open up the town for more business development, greater traffic through the area and, thus, more tax revenue to the city. Yes, business could be booming in a few years for Lake Ozark — potentially putting the town on solid financial ground for the first time in a long time.

It’s a rare opportunity and one that, hopefully, Lake Ozark will be ready for.

Cheers to School of the Osage Superintendent Mary Ann Johnson, anyone attendied a weekend fundraiser and to lake-area football fans.

Jeers to To speeders in school zones and bad accounting practices.

World Cup fans rejoice — vuvuzela is now a recognized word.
It, along with about 2,000 other words, was part of the latest additions to the Oxford Dictionary of English (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Other words to make the cut include staycation, chillax, turducken, bromance and frenemy.

Wait, what?

Admittedly, some of these words are part of my “under age 30” vocabulary. It has become helpful and not for my parents, who have no idea what I’m saying, yet also use me as a translator.

Thus, it’s time for a vocabulary lesson. (By the way, I’m paraphrasing these definitions.)

I am writing this in response to Bob Kadel’s rant in the Aug. 4 Lake Sun and the Aug. 11 edition of Focus.
Mr. Kadel, like you, I, too, am angered. The difference between us, sir, is that as a life-long resident, whose family goes back three generations here at the lake, I am angry at you, your accusations and assumptions.
You claim we, as a community, should be “ashamed” to be debating the current “hot topic” that is, what I like to refer to as, “The DWI Enforcement Debacle.”
You said “shame on you” to local business owners, most of whom, like myself, were born and raised here.

What in the world is wrong with the USA and Congress? We just sent out $150 million to Pakistan, and yet, we can’t take care of our own people or schools. We are trillions of dollars in debt. Where are we getting the money to help other countries? Please, help our own!

I am so pleased to hear that the Horseshoe Bend Expressway extension will be done by the end of 2011. That will mean that I will never again have to drive down “The Strip” to get out of town. I will not be forced to look at the abandoned motel, the tattoo parlors, the run down arcades, the vacant stores and other assorted junk. 

Lake Ozark get back into governering the city, motorists slowing down in school zones, local dollars spent to raise lagging sales tax revenues, Camden County to solve a sewer problem and a great turnout from area football fans at the lake area jamborees this week.

THE QUESTION What do you think of the Missouri Attorney General's water quality symposium this week? Is it too little, too late? Just what we need? or something else? (Remember, we're talking about the symposium, not so much as water quality in general.)

With deepest gratitude I wish to thank the many supporters who worked tirelessly in the RoegerforRep campaign for the 155th House District.  If not for your endless toil in the heat of summer, we would not have come within a whisker of winning.

A few thoughts as summer starts to wind down, and we head into the last weekend before all the schools at the lake have started...

Finally the United States is withdrawing the last of our combat troops from Iraq. Everyone seems pleased, the entire country is proud of our soldiers. Soldiers seem to be happy to be coming home and families all across the country are breathing a giant sigh of relief knowing their loved ones are out of there.

But what about all of the families that lost their loved ones? What about all the soldiers who were maimed and disabled for life? What about the estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians who lost their lives?

What about the 4,000 young American lives forfeited in Iraq while serving their country?

I must always catch myself before ever saying, "I'm old," or anything of the like. Fact is, I'm not old, but there are times when something happens, and the general thought can be applied to others who may be more entitled to utter the phrase.

The most recent case of this was from this past weekend. The oldest of my "little cousins" — those who are the children of my first cousins — moved to college. It wasn't that long ago that I was a college freshman. It is still crisp enough in my memory that I don't think the experience is relatively different. It's just the thought of the next generation of the family going to college. It makes me feel... old.

Cheers to lake-area parents for getting the kids ready and up for school. Jeers to the ridiculousness in Lake Ozark. Terminated, not terminated. Vote, no vote. Municipal governments tend to work better when plans are set and the wheels get movin’.