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by Kelsey AlumbaughStaff Writer

According to a news release, CLARCOR Inc.,

based in Franklin, Tenn., completed the acquisi-

tion of the air filtration business of General Elec-

tric Company’s Power and Water division for

approximately $265 million, on Dec. 16, 2013.

“With over 700 employees around the world

and trailing 12 month annual revenues of approx-

imately $230 million, the business is a leading

supplier of air filtration systems and filters used

in gas turbine applications, as well as industrial

air filtration products and membranes. Head-

quartered in Overland Park, Kan., and with manu-

facturing operations in Missouri, the UK and

China, the business will continue to supply gas

turbine air inlet filtration systems and filters to

GE, which has the world’s largest installed base of

natural gas turbines, under a multi-year supply

agreement,” the release stated.

“We are very excited about this acquisition and

the multiple opportunities it offers CLARCOR,”

Christopher L. Conway, CLARCOR’s chairman,

president and chief executive officer, said in the

release. “Each element of this business – gas tur-

bine filtration, industrial air filtration and mem-

branes – is attractive and fits within our core

strategies and competencies. This transaction cre-

ates exciting new vertical opportunities and rela-

tionships, affords us access to various new

technologies, broadens our already extensive

product portfolio and solidifies what we believe is

our standing as the most diversified filtration

company in the world.”

Lori Ragsdale, director of marketing communi-

cations at CLARCOR, said Slater has been, and will

continue to be, a key manufacturing facility for

CLARCOR, and they “expect for there to be new

opportunities as we continue to grow.”

“Our employees are excited about the possibil-

ities we expect to gain from working with a com-

pany that is focused on filtration,” she said. “This

change elevates the importance of their work and

has resulted in a lot of positive changes and ex-

citement. … Overall the transition has been seam-

less and without disruption to our customers. Our

focus continues to be putting our customers first

and providing great service.”

Ragsdale also said CLARCOR shares in the em-

ployees excitement about the new opportunities

they gain through the synergies and growth po-

tential that lie ahead.

“The Air Filtration business has strengthened

its operations and improved performance over the

past two years to create a world-class filtration

business,” Victor Abate, president and CEO, power

generation products at GE Power and Water, said.

“In the Power Generation segment, we are focused

on our core gas turbine technology, and we have

made the strategic decision to simplify the busi-

ness to better match our core strengths. We are

pleased that the transaction with CLARCOR will

allow air filtration the opportunity to grow and

thrive in the filtration industry.”

Contact Kelsey Alumbaugh at [email protected]

Contributed image

Chris Conway, chairman, CEO and president of CLARCOR Inc., welcomes the Slater team to

the CLARCOR family during a visit in December 2013.

CLARCOR Inc. acquires GE in Slater


On July 17, 2013, the Slater City Pool lifeguards held a fundraiser to buy a

new slide. Kaylee Holt and Bailey Griffith were two of the lifeguards who

helped with the fundraiser and presented the results to the city council.

“They raised around $3,000,” Assistant City Administrator Gene Griffith

said. “The slide was right at $2,700 so we bought a new shoot for the old one.

That was $400. We’re looking to get some lounges or something. We hope

they have another fundraiser.”

Both Griffith and the mayor were very proud of the lifeguards for plan-

ning the event.

“We’re really proud of the girls. It’s been a long time since any of the life-

guards took any initiative,” Griffith said. “… It was a very good sign, we

thought, that they were actually doing something.”

“These young lifeguards kind of put this thing on themselves,” Mayor

Stephen Allegri said at a July council meeting. “They came up with it. They

decided to do a fundraiser. It speaks well of our youth that they decided to

do it.”

Bailey Griffith said the fundraiser had a great turnout.

“We had an amazing turnout,” she said. “We were very appreciative of all

the businesses that donated to make the event a success, as well as all the

families that came to the pool for a fun night. You can look forward to seeing

Lifeguards raise money to improve Slater City Pool

All of the above photos were contributed from

Bailey Griffith from the lifeguard fundraiser held

on Wednesday, July 17, at the Slater Swimming

Pool. Griffith said they had a great turnout and

thanked the businesses who contributed to the

event.

see Pool, page 3B

Jesse Brown/Democrat-News

Above: Jeanna Tay-

lor (center) teaches

her first- and second-

grade students on

Thursday, Jan. 30 at

Miami school.

the new slide in the

2014 pool season.”

Gene Griffith said the

slide will be installed

before the next pool

season.

“We ran the water

line already so all we

have to do is set the

new slide,” he said. “We

figured the water line

would be the biggest, or

the hardest part, so we

ran it after the pool

closed.”

Because the slide is

over 6 feet tall, the city

is required to put 3-

inch pads around it.

“The new one is 6-

foot 7 inches to the

top,” he explained. “It’s

not monstrous. … It’s

just a curl and being

over six-foot we had to

have the three-inch

mats.”

Griffith said they

hope for a grant for the

mats.

“We have put in a

grant for the three-inch

pads that go around the

slides to make insur-

ance happy,” Griffith

said, explaining the

grant was for pads

made of scrap tire ma-

terials through the De-

partment of Natural

Resources.

He also said they

would find out in mid-

February if DNR is

going to accept grants

for things like park

benches or lifeguard

stands. Griffith said

they would like to apply

to get new lifeguard

stands.

The stands Griffith

said they would like to

apply for are made of

PVC wood with ladders

on both sides and he

said they cost approxi-

mately $1,900 a piece.

“I looked at some

metal ones too with the

plastic covered seat,” he

said. “They were a lot

cheaper too. If we don’t

get the grant we will

probably go with the

metal ones.”

Griffith said the only

other improvement

project planned at the

park is a new roof on a

shelter house because

the shingles are curling

up.

Contact Kelsey Alumbaugh [email protected]

3BFRIDAY, FEB. 21, 2014MARSHALLNEWS.COM

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Gilliam School prepareseighth graders for EOC testing

by Jesse BrownStaff Writer

Gilliam School is taking steps to

prepare its eighth graders for high

school. The state is requiring a new

mandate next year in which eighth-

grade students will take a test to judge

their level of preparedness for high

school. Principal Cindy Beltz is work-

ing to get a step ahead.

“Our eighth graders are going to

have to take EOC, which is end-of-

course testing. It’s a high school-level

class, but they’re not really instructed

in it,” Beltz said. “It’s high school-pre-

paredness is what DESE is calling it.

They take it as eighth graders to show

where they’re at.”

Eighth-grade students will take

these tests and also MAP (Missouri

Assessment Program) tests.

Beltz said Gilliam will also be tak-

ing MAP tests electronically, so the

school has made an emphasis in im-

proving and upgrading its technology.

While the school has bought all-new

textbooks for math and communica-

tion arts, the school has also bought

new SMART Boards to bring their

total up to four, one for every class-

room. The classrooms are paired to-

gether as kindergarten and first grade,

second and third grade, fourth and

fifth, and sixth, seventh and eighth.

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-

grade class received the first SMART

Board and after seeing the positive in-

fluence it had, Beltz said the school

decided to install them in every class-

room.

“The kids love them. It’s education

and it looks like a game,” Beltz said,

with a laugh.

While the school is small, Beltz ap-

preciates the closeness of relation-

ships the school facilitates.

“It’s a very family-oriented atmos-

phere,” Beltz said. “Everybody takes

care of everybody.”

Contact Jesse Brown at [email protected]


One of the four SMART Boards Gilliam School uses to teach its stu-

dents.


Gilliam School is located on the corner of North and Bartlett streets in

the town of Gilliam, off of Hwy 240 in Saline County.


Miami School District Principal and Superintendent Lori Price is provid-

ing the opportunity for students to prepare for the future.

“One of the things that’s new with Miami School District is we have in-

corporated a class for our fifth through eighth graders after lunch that in-

corporates the STEM education, which is science, technology, engineering

and math,” Price said. “It’s something that the kids are thoroughly enjoying

and it’s challenging and it helps them think critically.”

The class began in August, and Price said the school is doing what they

can to prepare their students for the high-school level. Next year, the school

is planning for fifth through eighth graders to each have a laptop as the

school continues to push towards next-generation standards.

“I just think it’s going to be beneficial for them in the long run whenever

they go onto high school and society as a whole,” Price said.

Miami has welcomed seven new staff members to their rank this year:

Diane Sullivan, secretary and bookkeeper; Lucy Taylor, cook; Amy Young,

third-grade teacher; Laura Riley, fourth-grade teacher; Brenda Heilman, eng-

lish, language and arts teacher for the middle school; Edie Taylor, math

teacher for the middle school; and Bobbie Jo Kraft, special education and

physical education teacher.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better school honestly,” Heilman said. “It took

me awhile to get where I’m at and when I landed this job, it has been won-

derful – the whole experience.”

In agreeing with Heilman, new teacher Amy Young said she’s felt very wel-

comed and she doesn’t even mind the 45-minute drive from Pilot Grove,

where she lives currently. Both Young and Riley said they appreciate how the

school itself is like family.

“This is the most comfortable place to work,” Riley said. “... I feel like if I

need anything, somebody is always there to help. I can’t brag on it enough.”


Miami school starts to preparestudents for high school


Above: From left to right, Miami students Karley Land, Holly Barney,

Tyler Driskell and Haylee Scheid learn about robotics for the school’s new

STEM class after the lunch. Principal and Superintendent Lori Price said

the class is to help fifth- through eighth-grade students prepare for the

high-school level.

Poolcontinued from page 2B


Malta Bend R-V School

has brought on seven

new staff members this

year. Five of the schools

19 teachers are new,

along with new

nurse/secretary Whit-

ney O’Brian and Superin-

tendent John Angelhow.

Ryan Armstrong,

physical education and

athletic coach; Susan An-

derson, kindergarten

through 12th-grade spe-

cial education; Samantha

Palmer, sixth grade; Ryan

Adkins, seventh- through

12th-grade English; and

Rebecca Huston, pre-

school aid are filling inte-

gral parts of the staff

over the course of the

school year.

Angelhow returned to

Malta Bend after spend-

ing the past decade in

the Marshall Public

Schools system.

“It’s just been a really

nice transition for me,”

he said. “I was here from

1999-2003 and the ma-

jority of the students

that are here now, I had

their parents when they

were here in school. …

I’m really glad to be here.

It’s been a really nice

transition for me and I

hope that things will re-

main that way.”

Angelhow said from

2003-2013 he was in

Marshall as the assistant

principal at the high

school for five years and

then the principal of

Eastwood Elementary

for five years.

“I’m learning a lot of

new things. It’s just been

a wonderful year as far

as getting to watch the

progress that the district

has achieved from three

years ago to now,” he ex-

plained. “We were a

focus school and have

worked our way out of

that position and we are

proud of that.”

Focus schools are

schools that aren’t doing

well academically, which

is determined by MAP

assessments.

“We have changed our

teaching style. … We are

using differentiated in-

struction to meet the

needs of all students and

that has been a big part

of our moving forward

and becoming a fully ac-

credited school,” he said.

The new staff mem-

bers are not the only

new additions at Malta

Bend R-V. Secretary Deb-

bie Kiser noted the

school has undergone

maintenance and re-

ceived a new roof and

windows.

“They were the origi-

nal windows. It’s made a

huge difference,” she

said.

Kiser also said several

classroom advancements

have taken place over the

past couple of years.

“We updated the sci-

ence lab. We bought new

microscopes. We bought

a new science lab table.

We added an elementary

computer lab in the li-

brary,” she said. “They re-

ally use that a lot.”

It was also noted that

each classroom, along

with the library and art

room, has a smart board

now, which are used fre-

quently as an educa-

tional tool during

instruction.

“We also partnered

with State Fair Commu-

nity College we are doing

duel credit with them

this year,” she said.

The SFCC classes are

online. Online classes

through University of

Central Missouri are also

available. One student at-

tends classes at Missouri

Valley College and sev-

eral juniors take voca-

tional technology

classes.

“This is the first year

that State Fair Commu-

nity College has made

themselves available to

us to use their duel-

credit program,” Angel-

how said. “What we’re

trying to do is give our

kids as much exposure

as we possibly can due to

our limited resources

here, so they have to get

out and see some things

and do some things with

other organizations to

help them in their educa-

tional journey.”

Another new way the

students are encouraged

to learn is with incentive

programs, either through

their individual class-

rooms or, for the sev-

enth- through

12th-grade students,

with Decision Dollars.

“We’ve had Santa

Bucks for the last nine

years and that’s pre-K

through sixth, and that’s

just right before Christ-

mas so then the kids get

to go shop for their par-

ents,” Kiser said. “The

older kids kept saying

what about us, and there

were issues with kids not

getting their homework

done or turned in (so we

started Decision Dol-

lars.)”

Students are awarded

dollars for good behav-

ior, like turning home-

work in on time, and can

buy things at an auction

later. Students are also

given checkbooks, regis-

ters and deposit slips to

learn about banking.

Kiser said the school

is working to generate

more parent involve-

ment, and one way they

are doing that is with a

monthly family night.

“This is the first year

that we’ve done family

nights every month.

That’s going really well

and we have a lot of pos-

itive feedback about

that,” she said.



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In Feb. 2013, Melissa Hall filled the vacant site administrator position left by

Connie Grisier the previous September.

Receiving her bachelor’s degree studying wildlife ecology and conservation at

Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Hall is looking forward to get-

ting the visitation numbers up.

“Van Meter State Park has a lot of potential of becoming a better known place

to visitors in the future,” Hall said in an August interview. “This park has recre-

ational opportunities and education opportunities that can expand and be better

known to the public.”

Hall said she hasn’t had much time to get things going yet, but she has started

implementing some things for the future.

“In the future, there will be some kayaks, a kayak paddle program, where peo-

ple can rent kayaks (and) they don’t have to bring it on our 18-acre lake,” Hall

said.

Hall said to expect the kayak paddle program to start at the end of 2014 to the

beginning of 2015 for Lake Woolridge. Usually, in order to get on the lake, the

park asks everyone to bring their own supplies, but Hall is hopeful the kayaks

will bring more people to the lake.

Another new addition Hall said she hopes will be ready this coming summer

is to be able to offer ice should a visitor want to purchase some.

“We also got funded to sell ice in the campground and we’re working on build-

ing a platform to hold the ice machine,” Hall said. “Hopefully, sometime this sum-

mer, we’ll have (bags of) ice in the campground that people can purchase... They

don’t have to drive all the way (to) Marshall to get bags of ice.”

Hall said about 20,000 visitors come to Van Meter State Park every year. But,

without giving an estimate, she said she would like to see a lot more come expe-

rience the park.



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The Slater Depot that sits at the end of Main

Street has long been a part of Slater’s geography,

but as old buildings sometimes do, it outlived its

purpose for Kansas City Southern. KCS has since

built a new depot right next door.

“The old depot needed extensive repairs and

upgrades, so we opted to build a new modular

building to house local employees,” C. Doniele

Carlson, assistant vice president of corporate

communications and community affairs with KCS,

said.

Carlson said employees began occupying the

new depot in Dec. 2013.

“Adjacent to the old brick depot at the end of

Main Street, the new 30-foot by 56-foot modular

building is equipped with six offices, new systems

furniture, a storage room, restrooms and a large

break room, as well as energy-efficient utilities,”

she said. “A new 12x24 outside storage building is

also planned for the site. … The new single-story

building is well-insulated and has a high-effi-

ciency heating and cooling system structure, mak-

ing it more cost-efficient to heat, cool and secure.”

According to Carlson, no decisions have been

made on the disposition of the building if the City

of Slater is unable or unwilling to take it over.

The city council has discussed taking over the

building, but only if the costs aren’t too extreme.

Mayor Stephen Allegri said at the meeting he

would hate to look down Main Street and not see

the depot.


Kansas City Southern builds new depot in Slater

Kelsey Alumbaugh/Democrat-News

Above: The new Kansas City Southern Depot located on Front Street. The depot sits next to the

historic depot at the end of Main Street.

Below: The old KCS Depot sits at the end of Main Street in Slater. Neither KCS nor the city of

Slater have set plans for the building yet.

Site administrator looking to attract more visitors to Van Meter State Park

Rachel Knight/Democrat-News

Melissa Hall poses at Van Meter State Park. Hall took over the position

in Feb. 2013.


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Slater Public Schools Superintendent Terry

Lorenz has implemented a leadership team in

which a selected person covers a specific subject

to determine what needs to be improved upon

and changes that would enhance academics.

“The mindset of the district is the biggest

thing. It’s just in a process of change, a leadership

of change,” Lorenz said. “I put a leadership team

together (and) they hadn’t done something like

that before.”

The leadership team Lorenz assembled con-

sists of Sarah Marriot, Jessica Clements, Heather-

lee Ryals, Becky Drummond, Debbie Gonzalez

and Lorenz. The team covers subjects such as sci-

ence, math, english and social studies, to name a

few.

Lorenz said the team has been instrumental in

helping him. He said they’re divided by content

area to focus on that particular subject for its

needs and guidance.

“We are much more organized now than we

were a year and half (ago) when I started,”

Lorenz said. “... We’re starting to get some focus

and direction. We’re a lot more organized about

how we look at a situation or an area for im-

provement and how we divide that, tackle that

and make improvements in those areas.”

Lorenz said while their help has been benefi-

cial to him, he insists there’s more work to be

done and he’s confident this team will help him

in the future.

Some of the improvements and changes the

team has made are new textbooks for science and

math, 17 Amazon Kindle devices for high school

language arts classes and 25 Apple iPads used in

elementary.

While Lorenz has put an emphasis on improv-

ing academics with leadership and upgrades in

technology, he has also strived to improve ath-

letics. New scoreboards have been bought for

football and basketball, wall mats have been re-

placed in the gymnasium and a new section of

bleachers will be installed for the gymnasium

this coming summer.

When both scoreboards started shorting out,

Lorenz talked to a couple of investors and busi-

ness people.

“We had enough money for the basketball

scoreboards and then I had a couple of other

banks and businesses that wanted to support so

we went ahead and pushed into both the football

and basketball scoreboards,” Lorenz said. “We’ve

got about $35,000 invested from these local busi-

nesses and banks.”

The sponsors who supported basketball were

Exchange Bank of Missouri, Messer Machine

Shop, Inc. and GE. The football sponsors were

Wood & Huston Bank, City of Slater, Shelter In-

surance-Russell Kirby, Central Mo Ag Services

and City Pharmacy.

Lorenz said he thinks sports are important be-

cause they help give pride to the community and

can offer a lesson to participants.

“For me, sports (are) just an extension of the

classroom. There’s a way to act, work and carry

yourselves that extends into athletics and it’s one

of the primary reasons for athletics,” Lorenz said.

“I think our coaching staff has done a great job of

impressing that on our young students – that

what you do matters and where you’re at mat-

ters. Wearing that Slater Wildcat jersey matters

and I think they’re starting to take that to heart.”


Slater superintendent implementingchanges to improve school district

Contributed by Julie Jacobson

Above: The new basketball scoreboard for Slater Public Schools displays the score at the junior

high boys game vs. Paris on Monday, Nov. 11, 2013

Below: The new football scoreboard for Slater Public Schools displays the score at the varsity

game vs. Milan on Friday, Sept. 13, 2013.

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Orearville School emphasized secu-

rity over the last year with the addition

of cameras and upgrades in technology.

“One of the things we did over the

summer, we added four security cam-

eras to our existing ones which gave us

two more outside cameras,” Principal

Gene Neff said.

The new outside cameras cover the

south side and the west side of the

building. The new inside cameras

cover both ends of the main hallway to

the kitchen, Neff said. The four cameras

add to the other 12 cameras for the

school, now totaling 16. The addition

of these new cameras are merely a step

to also upgrade its technology and

boost its security further.

“Our next step is we are interfacing

it with the Sheriff ’s Department,” Neff

said.

Neff said all cameras will be view-

able 24/7 at the Sheriff ’s Department

so if something should go wrong or

there’s an intrusion, the department

will know right away.

“Unbeknownst to the people who in-

stalled this, and to the people at the

Sheriff ’s Department and all the tech-

nology people, with all the computer

systems we have, plus adding (the

added security system), our bandwidth

isn’t big enough,” Neff said.

The school is looking to double its

current bandwidth to accommodate

the additions and upgrades in the se-

curity system, Neff said. Some renova-

tions are also being made in the office

to suit the technology being installed.

With the inclusion of all this tech-

nology, the school conducted its very

first drill should someone intrude the

building on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013.

Emergency Management Director Russ

Donnell and Deputy Dave Meyer as-

sisted the school’s administrators in

the drill, where Meyer disguised him-

self as an intruder and made his way

around the school.

According to the press release about

the drill, Neff said “the drill went very

well, the security cameras were an

asset in tracking the intruder as he

made his way around the school and

inside the school as well.”

Superintendent Marilyn Ehlert

made a list of concerns to improve

upon and another drill is planned for

the spring.

“We learned some things with that,

like we should do,” Neff said. “Found a

few places we need to upgrade, some

doors that maybe don’t lock quite as

properly as they ought to.”

Orearville also employed a new spe-

cial education teacher, Kathleen Fra-

niuk. Graduating from Missouri Valley

College last May with her elementary

degree, Franiuk started in August for

the 2013-2014 school year.

“I took the practice in special educa-

tion and got recommended from Valley

actually for this job,” Franiuk said. “It

worked out pretty well.”

Franiuk has made the transition

quite easily due to the school feeling

like one big family and the space to

allow her to develop her teaching

methods.

“I came in and rearranged the whole

room and redecorated and really kind

of turned it into what I felt like was a

good learning environment,” Franiuk

said. “Everyone here has been super,

super helpful.”

Franiuk also finds it encouraging

that Orearville is heading towards

being more technologically savvy.

Ehlert confirmed that direction be-

cause like other schools in the state,

Missouri Assessment Program testing

will become a thing in the past and new

testing will take place on computers.

It’s also a factor as to why the school is

looking to increase its bandwidth.



Above: Kathleen Franiuk (center) teaches her students, Christopher

Stockman (left) and Keilan Topps (right). Franiuk is the new special edu-

cation teacher who started in August.

Below left: The monitor displaying the cameras allows Principal Gene

Neff and Superintendent Marilyn Ehlert a view inside and outside of the

school. Efforts are being made where Saline County Sheriff’s Department

will also be able to view the cameras.

Orearville School boosts its security and technology

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A Great Place for Growing

2013 has been another progressive year for the City of Slater. This past year, Slaterhas experienced significant job growth in a sluggish economy. General Electric hasadded approximately 200 jobs to their facility in Slater and with the sale of GE toClarcor, another 100 jobs are hoped to be added. One of the first things that Clarcordid to make a commitment to our community was donate $30,000 to the SlaterSchool District.

With the addition of these new jobs, it is our hope that this will grow our affordablehouses program for working families. This program offers quality, new or previouslyowned homes at low or no interest rates. The City of Slater is still offering freequality lots for those who would like to build a new home. A number of people havetaken advantage of this opportunity and have built quality homes on these lots. Assmall towns are striving just to survive, Slater continues not only to survive, but tothrive. Big companies such as Clarcor and now Dollar General, with tentative plansto build a Super Dollar General Store in Slater, excites me. 1 am excited that bigcooperations such as these see our potential and continue to invest in our community.In the past year, we have continued to improve our infrastructure with last yearsenhancement project that has added to our walking trail, now you can walk, run orstroll from the old garment factory, all the way through our beautiful City Park. Wehave continued to upgrade our sewer, water and electric facilities to provide ourcitizens with dependable and safe services.

As the ‘City of Festivals’ continues to grow, we invite entrepreneurs and familiesto come visit us and see what we have to offer. Once again, we are a full service,small town with churches of multiple denominations. An A+ School District, withAmbulance services, a top rated medical clinic, Dental services, Pharmacy Services,Veterinary Services, Chiropractic Clinic, Grocery Services, as well as InsuranceServices, two (2) tax preparation services. You could live in this small town andnever have to leave for the basic services we offer. This is a great town to live andraise your family. This is a town where kids can still ride their bikes to the pool orgo up town to get an ice cream cone. This is the town that believes in the old sayingIt take a village to raise a child’ we support each other and if you are a hard workingfamily we invite to be a part of our community.

Sincerely,Stephen K. Allegri, D.C.Mayor, City of Slater, Missouri

progress north 2014

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