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The Lake Ozark City Administrator faces reprimand from the city's government after sexual harassment allegations surface.  The Lake Ozark Board of Aldermen reportedly voted to send a letter of reprimand to City Administrator Charles Clark after another employee of the city filed a sexual harassment complaint. 

The Board of Aldermen voted to send the letter in a Tuesday night closed session meeting, which two aldermen walked out of.  Jeff Van Donsel and Bill Bolin were not present for the 3-1 vote to reprimand Clark because they felt that the Board was not handling the situation properly. 

Aldermen Robert Davis, Judy Neels, and Larry Buschjost voted for the action against the administrator, while Alderman Donald Langley cast the lone dissenting vote.

Turmoil ignited at Macks Creek City Hall this morning when two aldermen walked out of a closed session meeting. 

The Board of Aldermen held two closed meetings this week. Results of Monday's closed session have not been released.  Mayor Joel Stoner says City Attorney Mel Gilbert recommended that the records be closed.

"Based on legal advice from the city attorney, the minutes from that closed session have been sealed due to possible litigation," Stoner said.

Alderman Jack Daniels disagreed, and voiced his concerns in the few minutes of the Friday meeting that were open.

"According to state statute, within 72 hours those minutes should have been on record," Daniels said.

Daniels and Alderman Ruth Stephens walked out of the closed session meeting just after 10:00 a.m.  Daniels said that the meeting was being conducted illegally because City Clerk Louise Willis was excluded and not allowed to see the minutes taken by Alderman Jhayne Schiff-Rodriguez. 

"A chosen few do what they do with tiebreakers and this-and-that and not wanting to listen to others and work things out.  I think there are some problems across the board and they need to be worked out," Daniels said.

The walkout put a stop to the closed session meeting minutes after it began because there were not enough aldermen to continue. 

Half an hour later, Stoner persuaded Stephens to return to the meeting, which adjourned at 11:45 a.m.  Stoner did not attempt to persuade Daniels to rejoin the meeting. 

Mayor Stoner did not offer any timeframe for when information from the closed door meetings could go public.

The city of Osage Beach has a deer problem.

According to city figures, last year there were 200 vehicle accidents involving deer.  On Bluff Drive alone, 40 deer bodies were taken from the street after being hit.  Last night the city took an initial step to address the issue by creating an ordinance to outlaw feeding deer.  The law reads citizens shall not supply, provide, or make food available for deer, groundhogs, possums, racoons, beavers or other wildlife. Mayor Penny Lyons says this is the beginning of a solution.

"If you encourage them to come eat they are going to stay around and not really go where they should," Lyons said. "Maybe into areas where the habitat is probably more conducive to deer instead of staying in your back yard and feeding off your feeder."

"It's the first step."

Laurie citizens may be seeing an increase in their water and sewer rates. 

A proposed rate structure change would raise water rates from $6.50 per thousand gallons to $8.50 per thousand gallons, an increase of 31%.  Laurie Mayor Chuck Chorpening says the city is losing money providing water and sewer services with the current rates paid by residents and businesses.

"We looked at our present expense structure for our salaries and all the different things and came up with the numbers and divided into it,"  Chorpening said, "and quite frankly we were losing money and we don't have any choice but to go up 30%."

On the back end, the new proposal would change sewer rates from $5.30 per thousand gallons to $7.26.  This is the first increase for citizens since the system came on line.

"We never had a way to do it," he said. "We just set a rate arbitrarily and never had a way to do it."

Two men were injured after a two boat collision early yesterday afternoon on the water. 

The Missouri State Water Patrol was called to the 3 Mile Mark of the Big Niangua in Camden County at about 12:15 for a report of a boat crash.  A 25 foot Regal cruiser driven by 39 year old Gary Huff of Rocky Mount was headed upstream. The cruiser was hit in the starboard side by a 20 foot Generation bass boat.  The bass boat was being driven by 62 year old Steven Hooper of Union, Missouri.  Mr. Huff suffered minor injuries, Mr. Hooper suffered serious injuries.  

The cruiser sank in about 18 feet of water and had to be raised after the accident.  The patrol says that both boats were a total loss.     

Eldon Police are offering a reward after vandals damaged police cars and windows at the Eldon Police Station and Fire Department.

Vandals used rocks to break windows on three police cars and several office windows at the building on Oak Street.  City Administrator Gary Marriott says eldon is offering a $500 reward for anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction on the crimes.

"That's a little excessive to have that done," Marriot said. "So we want to offer a $500 reward and see if we can catch the culprit who did it."

As a result of the incident, Dr. Marriott says the city is considering adding more security cameras on the property.  Currently there are four cameras being used at the Oak Street facility. 

"We're going to try to get one for the backside of the building and another area that might need to be covered," he added.

The Lake Ozark Board of Adjustments will have plans for a new retail addition to the city before them at their next meeting. 

The board will be looking at preliminary plans for a Menard's Building Supply Store as part of the development at the intersection of Highway 54 and Business 54.  The city planning and zoning commission approved two zoning changes on Wednesday to create a uniform commercial corridor along Highway 54 and the future Highway 54 Expressway.  Representatives of Cochran Engineering showed the P and Z commission early designs for the Menard's store wich will be part of the Eagle's Landing development. 

Developer Gary Prewitt plans to build a series of buildings with a rustic, Colorado motif along the new expressway.