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.

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.

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.

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’.

Get ready to sport your school’s colors — the fall high school sports season is right around the corner. Athletes have already been hard at work over the summer in offseason workouts, and official preseason practices began just last week.

Cheers to those who chose to shop locally during the past weekend, to the St. Louis Cardinals in the pennant race and to Citizens Against Domestic Violence.

Jeers to the lack of a grant for CADV and inattentive vessel operators.

Visitors at the annual Missouri Wine Festival, large crowds turning out at one of the many area golf tournaments this weekend, ducks purchased for the upcoming Duck Drop, a dwindling number of campaign signs and safety around the lake.

When deciding our endorsements for Camden County candidates in the upcoming Aug. 3 primary election, the Lake Sun editorial board took into consideration who the people in our area are.

Cheers... to firefighters like Terry Dabney, to the parents, coaches and others keeping an eye on local prep sports athletes and to opening the lines of communication. 

Jeers... to parents who allow their children too much freedom on the water and to drivers who don’t watch for oncoming traffic.

Safety in fall sport training. As prep-sport athletes go start preparing for the fall sports season, we'd like to see, particularly in this heat, safety among the players who are training outside.
 

Cheers to the safe boaters at AquaPalooza, youth exhibitors at the Miller County Fair in Eldon and construction workers suffering through the heat to keep the expressway project going.

Jeers to the lack of sufficient oversight by Camden County and engineers on the Camelot Sewer project and to campaign workers who don't follow the rules.

THE ISSUE Local municipalities opt out of sales tax holiday. 

OUR VIEW Consumers should stay home, still shop in the area

Elections. There's no easy day guaranteed for any newsroom on an Election Day. It's a given that reporters will be in for a long night, waiting for votes to be tallied and for results to get in.

In the Lake Sun print edition, we are limited to what we can get in time for the night's deadline. We struggle and bicker with printers to let us push back our deadlines even just one hour in order to get more and accurate results, particularly, of higher impact races.

It's a day highlighted and circled on our calendars.

However, covering elections isn't just limited to reporting the voting results on one day. No, it's much more than that, and as a local paper, there is a methodology used in the way we report what is happening with elections that affect the community.

A safe weekend on the roads and on water, for the courthouse to stay out of politics, loads of attendance at the Miller County Fair parade this weekend, an information officer appointed in Miller County and answers for Sunny Slope.

THE ISSUE Lake Sun reader letters and Lake Views   OUR VIEW Part of getting an opinion heard is getting it out there.

Cheers to police in New Mexico, clean up volunteers, community-minded candidates.

Jeers to Mother Nature and people who complain about the government, but don't register to vote.

July 4th, 1969 I wished upon a star and on July 4th, 2009 my wish came true.
I was five years old when the excavation began for the Arch in St. Louis. Every local newspaper and news station ran stories and pictures boasting of the national monument that was to be the “Gateway to the West.” On October 25, 1968, our entire city celebrated its completion, and our first Independence Day celebration under the Arch was nine months later. I was nine years old.