The city of Goodman had a hand of kindness reach out to them in light of their lawnmower being stolen last month, as stated to aldermen of Goodman City Council Tuesday night.
Goodman’s Dixie Chopper lawnmower was reported stolen June 19 after parks director Stewart Pace noticed the doors to the ballfield shed were left open and the tractor gone, as previously reported in the Neosho Daily News.
The mower, purchased three weeks before it was stolen, was used to mow the city's ballpark where a record number of softball and baseball teams signed up this year for the newly revitalized program. This spring volunteers raised funds for their program, painted fences and worked to get the nearly-abandoned program ready for a big start. What hurt the most about the theft was that Goodman children raised $5,000 to buy the missing tractor — approximately half of the cost of the mower.
Gary Morgan, president and CEO of Dixie Choppers, mailed a letter to the city council recently and said he came across the news article that reported the mower was stolen.
“As I read about the volunteers having raised the money, and many of them being children, I thought about how extremely discouraged they must feel, all of their efforts being wiped out in a few minutes by someone without any thought of how their actions might affect someone else,” Morgan wrote in the letter.
Originally, Morgan had intended to send the city of Goodman a new Dixie Chopper. However, since Goodman’s insurance had already covered the cost to buy a new lawnmower, Morgan donated $500 to the city to pay for the insurance deductible.
“By the way, it is really not anyone’s fault it was stolen,” he added in the letter. “Our mowers are just so good that people want them by hook or by crook. Unfortunately, in this case it was by a crook.”
Council members announced their intentions to send Morgan a “thank you” letter.
In other news from Goodman City Council:
- City clerk Paula Brodie advised that money be moved from the water account into certificates of deposit instead of sitting in the savings account, which has a low interest rate. The council voted to buy two $95,000 CD’s at First Community Bank to draw more interest than in their current account.
- At any time, the council can cash in the CD’s and resume work on their water project.
- David Brodie, city supervisor, informed the council that the city had a sewer line clog this past week. A man with an estimate to fix it will come in and ask for reimbursement at a future council meeting.
- McDonald County is drawing up a hazard mitigation plan and requesting input from cities in the county about the best way to do so.
- Goodman will hold a public hearing to inform its residents of the plan in the fall. In order to receive money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in cases of disaster, the city must have a hazard mitigation plan in place by November, Paula Brodie said.
- Laci Whitehill and Debra Testerman, residents of North Highland Street in Goodman, attended the council meeting to ask for help in clearing out a thick patch of poison ivy and poison oak behind their houses.
- The council responded that the poison ivy and poison oak was not located on city property and was the responsibility of their landlord. David Brodie also advised the women on which weed killers work best.
- The council voted to cash a $113,000 CD, reimburse the city general fund for the purchase of a Ford Expedition (a $16,500 expense), and use $95,000 of the remaining money to purchase another CD.
