Longtime Radio Personality Marv Luten interviews guests, shares community updates, National and Local sports and more.
The Marv in the Morning Podcast is a production of O’Quinn Media. For guest or sponsorship opportunities, email tracy@oquinnmarketing.com or marvinthemorning53@gmail.com
— Automated Transcript —
Welcome to the Marv in the Morning Podcast. Now, here’s Marv.
Yes, it’s me again and welcome to another episode on the Fort Not Lost in the Woods Podcast site. Brought to you by the Pulaski County Health Center, STR Glass of St. Robert, VFW Post 3168 of Lake Way, TK’s Pizza, Bale’s Construction, The Bank of Crocker.
Paul’s Furniture, Shelter Insurance Agent, Dave Holler of Richland, St. Barb Auto Supply, and Seger Toyota. Well, it’s been a week of some summerish weather as the first day of spring arrived last Friday on the 20th. I heard one of the weatherman on the two say we skipped spring and went straight to summer. Well, that may have been a current prediction but we are going to get some spring weather eventually, at least that’s what we hope because we could sure use some rain.
I did get the mower running last week as promised, at least to myself, and at my wife’s request, I hooked up the brush hog on the little tractor. Thought that was a bit premature, but she said there were some spots she wants to take down before the good grass really starts growing.
Well, I would not want to be an airline traveler these days. Long lines, thanks to the government shutdown, of getting the TSA agents paid for their services at the airports. You would think the Democrats and Republicans could agree on something that could alleviate the problems at some of the nation’s airports. But, we’re right back to the gridlock in DC. We’ve heard and seen many times before.
Now, you have to get to the airport four hours before your flight leaves, and it’s still no guarantee you make your flight. Since the war with Iran started, I have tapered off my TV watching, well, somewhat. I’ve said this before, since my so-called semi-retirement, I’ve had more time, especially in the mornings, and watched some of the morning shows while sipping some java and getting ready for the day. But I was still watching way too much of the news.
March Madness helped, but so has the nicer weather which gets me out of the house. My main concern with this conflict overseas, or whatever they’re calling it, is the gas prices here in the States, and the increase in prices that has everything to do with the rising cost of fuel, which unfortunately is just about everything. Cutting costs in our household is nothing new, and I have to credit my wife because she’s very good at that.
Nobody knows what’s coming in the Mid-East because our president doesn’t know either. I just hope our military, which I have the most respect for, knows what’s going on. But as we began this week, wishy-washy was the best way I can describe what this administration was doing. One thing that was not wishy-washy was a comment President Trump ripped off on his Truth Social account about former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who passed away over the weekend.
Mueller was the head of an investigation on Trump during his first term, and there’s no love lost between the two. If the post I saw was real, I thought it was disgusting and very uncalled for. I won’t even go into it. If you have not seen the post, you can find it on Google, I’m sure, but I was totally disappointed in our Commander-in-Chief. There’s some things that just need to be left unsaid, no matter what you think.
And this was one post he did not need to make, and even the Republicans are pissed at Trump, or shall we say, disheartened.
This would have been a perfect lead-in to what was coming up on the podcast this week. We were going to talk about social media, and what it’s doing to our society in general. However, due to some more pressing matters coming up, which includes an April election, we’ve bumped the social media interview to another time.
And we’re joined this week by the Waynesville Deputy Fire Chief Ben Fowler, and we’re going to talk about a bond issue coming up on the April ballot you need to know about if you vote in the Waynesville area. That’s coming up next.
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On the podcast this week, we have Ed Fowler, who is the Deputy Fire Chief of the Waynesville Rural Fire Protection District. And Ed, first off, thanks for joining us. I know it’s a busy time of the year for you guys.
Ed: We have been pretty busy. We’re up about 15% this year than what our normal calls for service are. So, um, but thank you for having me. I appreciate you.
Marv: A lot of a lot of wind fires this year?
Ed: A little bit of everything. A little bit of everything. We’re just it’s just it’s a hodgepodge, you know, so
Marv: Well, we’re we’re glad you’re there. Um, we’ve got a bond issue.
Ed: We do.
Marv: Uh, coming up, and we’re going to talk about that, but first, I’d like to get a little background of my guests. Uh, where are you from and how did you get here?
Ed: Oh, boy. Uh, so, I was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. Um, joined the military and ended up here in 2000 as a civilian instructor on Fort Leonard Wood. Uh, I did law enforcement most of my life, then transitioned over to this in 2018. Uh, did some fire investigations for the fire department, did some some fire stuff as well. And then now here I am.
Marv: Did you always want to be a fireman? Was that always in the back of your mind?
Ed: No, no. I I I come from a family of of public service. Um, my my dad was a police officer in Asheville, North Carolina, my grandfather was a firefighter up there. I so I have uncles in in both both businesses. So, uh, this was just something that I I I kind of started to like in about 2007 and just kind of built it on it from here.
Marv: And you are, uh, Doug Yoricko’s Chief Deputy.
Ed: I’m his number two, yes.
Marv: And of course, uh, Doug is the Fire Chief of the Waynesville Rural Fire Protection District. There is no Waynesville City Fire Department.
Ed: There is not. They they contract with the City of St. Robert for their fire service. We do do automatic and mutual aid for them. So, we’re we’re down there if they have any type of of building fire or something like that. We’re automatically down there to help them anyway. So,
Marv: How how do you get your money? I mean, how how do your firefighters get paid?
Ed: So, so first thing, we we have a hundred and so one of the things that we always have to do is kind of dispel some myths. And like you just said, you just brought that up because people see Waynesville and they think we’re associated with the city or they think that we’re associated with the county in some way and we’re not. We cover 162 square miles outside of the incorporated cities. So, we have a we have a very large a large area. We are our our tax-based organization. So, we get our money from personal property and real estate tax. That’s how we that’s how we’re funded. Uh, we have our own elected Board of Directors. So, we have a five-person Board of Directors that is elected from the from the folks and outside or inside of our community. They have various stages of of their length of terms of service and such like that. So, that’s the only way that we’re funded. The only the only funding that we get is is from that.
Ed: We have uh four stations that we operate out of and a training center. Our Station One is in Waynesville, that’s our headquarter station. That is where our full-time and our career staff is. So, we have uh a minimum of four people on duty at all times at our at our fire station in Waynesville. That doesn’t include the the the leadership, the career, you know, the Chief Officers and stuff like that. So, like today, we’ve got nine people there. Um, but we also have an interns and volunteers and such like that that that come in and help supplement that.
Marv: And that would be the station at the top of Frog Hill.
Ed: Yes, yes. That’s our station at Frog Hill. It’s pretty well centralized in the district even though it is in the City of Waynesville. It lets us get north, south, east and west and and to the interstate pretty easily.
Marv: And where’s your number two station?
Ed: Our number two station is in Buckhorn out by our training center, right off of uh Red Oak Road. Uh, there’s just a little small station out there. It’s typically a volunteer station that we have. Uh, Station Three is on Highway 28 uh before you get to the river, right at Raleigh Road.
Marv: Okay, so those four stations, I want to go back to the one in Buckhorn. A couple years ago, you really improved, uh, that made an actual training area back there. It might have been more than a couple years ago. My my time flies when we’re having fun.
Ed: It was about 2017. It was before I I came on board full-time that they bought that uh area, the old um Buckhorn Meat Market. We transformed it into a training center. We had uh I think uh we have eight acres there now. We’ve gained a little bit away to the county for a couple of of buildings. We’ve got eight acres. Uh, we’ve got our training center. We spend a lot of time out there. Other people in the community come use our training center. Um, the station is just down the road from that. But the training center is our highlight out in Buckhorn.
Marv: So, this bond issue that is coming up on April the 7th.
Ed: Yes.
Marv: We’re going to talk a little bit about this. This is not the time probably uh that you want to go to the taxpayers and say, hey, you know, we need more money, but because the gas prices and everything else.
Ed: Oh, absolutely.
Marv: You know, and I’m sure you guys are well aware of this. But this is not going to raise taxes that much and plus, can you get a a break on your insurance, your homeowner’s insurance because of the tier?
Ed: So, let me back up just a little bit. Back in in 2023, we did our first tax increase that we had ever done in 13 years, right? And we made some promises that we were going to do with that. And that was to get our staffing back up to um a a recommended standard. We were going to increase our wages because we were the lowest starting paid career fire department in the state of Missouri at that time. Our our firefighters started out at $25,000 a year. That’s in 2023. We needed money and we just it was time, right?
Ed: So, we asked for a tax increase. We got that. The other thing that we the promise that we would that we would diligently work on is trying to lower the insurance service office fire rating. That is where insurance is affected, right? So, so what we were a 6-10 fire rating at that time, which is not bad for rural because 50% of that is based on the fire department, our grade. 10% is based on the dispatch center, which we have no control over. And the other um 40% is based on the water supply. We can’t control that either. That’s based on the the two water supply districts, right? So, we were fortunate enough to to get that that past.
Ed: We did what we said we were going to do. We raised our our salaries. We hired some folks to get back up to four people on an engine when it rolls out the door. We got our salaries. Our starting firefighters now make $39,000 a year. We are still the lowest starting pay in the region and still one of the lowest starting paid fire departments in the state, but we’re competitive now. With our ISO rating in 2025, we had an ISO inspection. They come about every five years, right? So, we were able to lower in our rural district based on just the fire department’s operations. We lowered from a six to a five. We are a very just a very couple of points away from a four. And we have a plan to absolutely get that four. It’s going to it’s going to take a little more staffing. It’s going to take some other things. Unfortunately, the bond issue will help with this very minimal because we can’t use that for staffing. It’s all based on capital improvement and uh equipment. But um the goal is we’re going to be a four next time.
Marv: Well, when your homeowner’s policy goes from a six to a four, you save money on your homeowner’s policy, right?
Ed: In theory, yes, the insurance companies that pay attention to the ISO rating and stuff like that. Uh and and you know how insurance companies are. Uh but in theory, yes, you your insurance rate should go down.
Marv: Okay, so how much is this bond issue? Because right now from what I’ve seen on your Facebook page, you guys can’t afford capital improvements.
Ed: Well, we can’t. Um, our budget this year is just over 1.5 million. That’s our total budget. We don’t get any funding from anywhere else, right? We’ve been very successful with grants over the years to get some equipment and stuff like that. But the things that we’re looking at, we’re not going to be able to get the grants for. We’re always trying to put in for grants. We’re always working that issue. And again, we’ve been pretty successful. Um but to do some of the things that that we need to do, um to improve our services for the district, we just simply can’t do it without additional revenue stream. That’s it.
Ed: So, our bond issue is set for $11 million. We can actually borrow more than that, but we’re not. We’re going to $11 million is what we’re saying is going to be our max. We do not anticipate that we’re going to borrow the entire $11 million. We feel that we’re going to try to do this. I don’t want to use the word cheap, but we’re going to try to do it as frugal as we possibly can because we believe that we absolutely have to be good stewards of of our of the, you know, the community’s money, right? Like we are now. I mean, we’re like I said, our budget is about 1.5. Just our salaries and benefits package together, it costs us just about a million dollars and a little more. Uh, it’s probably going to be a little more this year. But, um, so we only have a very limited amount that we can actually operate on.
Ed: So, again, we’re asking for $11 million on the bond. We don’t anticipate that we’re going to to use $11 million at all. Uh, we can have the bond up to 20 years, right? So, whatever we borrow on that $11 million, uh, in 20 years, it has to all be paid off. We have a very, uh, as you said, you’ve been looking on our Facebook, we have a very precise plan on timelines, on when we will borrow money, what we will spend that money on. Estimates on those things are are high. We had to go high on some of those things, especially the building stuff because we we don’t think it’s going to be that high, but as you said earlier, everything is going up. And that’s our also part of our problem. Everything is going up.
Ed: Uh as an example, we do have a new fire truck that, uh, should be delivered sometime this early summer, right? Uh, it’s replacing a 1999 truck. hear that? 1999. It’s replacing this truck. We had to we had to get something to replace.
Marv: That’s 27 years old right now.
Ed: Absolutely. And they say life spans about 20 years, but that’s on pavement. Most of our stuff ain’t on pavement, right? We get out and beat those gravel roads. We’ve replaced engine mounts. We’ve replaced springs. We’ve replaced uh uh transmission bell housings. You know, just things like that because we get so much vibration and so much bounce on these gravel roads.
Marv: Well, gravel roads are hell on tires, too.
Ed: They well, so that’s another thing. We replace almost all of our engines. We replace a set of tires a year because they wear out. Those tires for us cost about $700 a piece. And there’s, you know, six on them on every truck. Um, but but things are going up, right? Pre-COVID, the same truck that we’re ordering or close to it was about a $700 to $750,000 truck, right? And we’re not getting fancy bells and whistles. We’re getting a a larger truck than what we we had because we have to start carrying more and more things, right? That truck today is costing us right at $1.3 million.
Marv: Well, that shot the hell out of my next question.
Ed: Yeah, so, so that’s how that’s how much those things have went up. Everything has gone up like that for example, ladders, right? We can’t just go to Lowe’s and buy a ladder to put on a truck. It has to be tested. It has to be certified. You know, that sticker that says it’s it’s certified man, that just triples the price on almost everything. Our self-contained breathing apparatus. We’re putting in for another grant for for those this year. Uh, ours were were purchased in uh 2003. They’ve reached their life cycle and then some to the point to where we can’t get parts for them anymore. So, we have to replace our self-contained breathing apparatus.
Ed: $11,000 a piece.
Marv: Holy cow.
Ed: Spare bottles are $1,000 a piece. And and again, those don’t have fancy bells and whistles like thermal. They’re just straight self-contained breathing apparatus. And those things we have to have. Set of our our turnout gear, which has has a life span of of by standard is five years, plus a life span just when they wear them out, costs us about six grand a piece. Those things we have to purchase. Back pre-COVID, SCBA’s were about $8,000. Gear was about $4,000. So, again, we understand things are going up because we’re we’re suffering with it as well.
Marv: Yeah, and when things go up, things have to be replaced and stuff like that. And my gosh, just the cost of what you’re talking about here is totally ridiculous.
Ed: Well, example to replace our our self-contained breathing apparatus because nothing is compatible with backwards compatible anymore. It’s going to cost us right at or just over $500,000 to replace that.
Marv: Man. So, I got to what’s the cost of one of those huge ladder trucks?
Ed: Wow. Um, so we’re not buying a ladder truck. Uh, they’re over $2 million. Yeah. For a ladder truck.
Marv: That’s amazing. You know, just like I said, the cost of this stuff is just it just blows you away.
Ed: Well and people, you know, people don’t necessarily understand that, right? You know, they don’t understand how much that that it really cost. And and unfortunately, we know the only place that we have funding. Like I said, we’ve been good with grants. Uh right now we’re in our volunteer recruitment and retention grant with two other fire departments. It’s three-quarter of a million dollars. We can buy some gear for for volunteers. We can send them to training. We can do those things with that money. Um, we got last year we got $75,000 for new handheld radios. You know, in the past we’ve got back in 2012. We got a a a grant for a truck. Uh but everything’s so competitive now with with the grants across the United States and the state doesn’t necessarily have grants for the fire service. They gave out they gave out some this year, but we’re not eligible because we have too much of a budget. Uh, you know, so we we we hit everything that we possibly can to try to get as much money as as we can. We just just is what it is.
Marv: We’re going to come back we’re going to come back and talk more with Ed Fowler in just a moment after we hear from some of our fine sponsors. Don’t go away.
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Marv: We’re with Ed Fowler, the Deputy Fire Chief of the Waynesville Rural Fire Protection District. And again, the uh capital improvement bond issue is coming up on the April 7th ballot. Who is going to be affected by the In other words, who gets to vote for this? Is it just the Waynesville people or is it the county?
Ed: It’s No. The only people that get to vote for this are the people that live in our 162 square miles. Uh again, the city of St. Robert doesn’t count, the City of Waynesville doesn’t count. It’s just the people that lives in our in our fire district. The easiest way to tell if if you live in our fire district is look at your your your tax stubs from the county and that’ll let you know who what fire district that you’re in. But they’re the only people that that can vote for it. Uh, we we again, we do provide automatic aid to the City of Waynesville and to St. Robert. So, we’re there. If they have a fire, we’re there anyway. And of course, we don’t get any compensation for that or nor, you know, would we ask for it because if we have a fire in our district, St. Robert Fire comes and helps us, just like we have Fort Leonard Wood, and we have Crocker, and we have Dixon, and we have, you know, Hazel Green and Tri County. We all support each other. Um, but if we go to Richland, which we do quite a bit or we go to Dixon, um, we don’t get reimbursed for that at all. Uh, we went to Lebanon the other week twice. So, long drives to Lebanon, we don’t get any, you know, money for that at all.
Marv: And you were going down there pretty much just as a backup.
Ed: To to help on fire. To to a mutual aid call. They needed more manpower on one and then they needed water supply or more water for another one. So,
Marv: When you go work an accident on the highway and I’m sure you’ve worked plenty of them.
Ed: Oh, yes.
Marv: Um who gets who reimburses you for that?
Ed: Okay. So, if if they live in our in our fire district, we don’t bill you at all, right? But what we do we use a company that does some organized billing. So, if you don’t live in our fire district and you have a wreck on the interstate, um, you will we bill your insurance company. However, it’s not necessarily per what we do unless it’s a larger wreck with a tractor trailer and we have to spend a lot of time or a lot of um additional material such as foam or or dry sweep or something like that. Um, but we get just over $200 typically on most accidents, which it’s not not much but um,
Marv: And hardly pays for the diesel fuel to get there anymore, doesn’t it?
Ed: It it really does not. But you know, anything’s better than nothing. And that’s that’s really other than that. I know I said that that’s our only source of revenue. So, we have that little fire recovery piece that we do on on just motor vehicle accidents. We don’t charge on fires or anything like that. But just on motor vehicle accidents that we use things on. Uh and we do uh cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR classes and stuff like that that we get just a little bit of of money back, but it all goes back into buying new materials and, you know, buying equipment for that. So, they’re basically a wash.
Marv: Rollbacks.
Ed: Oh, boy.
Marv: Yeah, this is probably something you don’t like to hear about, but rollbacks have really they’ve they’ve hurt everybody.
Ed: They they they absolutely have. So, uh, we got rolled back pretty hard last year. Uh, we were at right at $0.75 per $100 of assessed value was what our tax rate was after our tax increase. We got rolled back an entire $0.05. So, we gained about $67,000 in revenue last year, but we lost $100 and I want to say $106,000 in revenue that we lost because of the rollback. So, Hancock really hurts fire districts across the state. We would be if if we were had never been rolled back because we’ve been rolled back many times over the years. If we had never been rolled back, we would be at right at $0.80 per $100 of assessed value and we wouldn’t need to be asking for this bond issue.
Marv: So, the rollbacks are the reason you’re
Ed: Sure.
Marv: basically coming to the voters.
Ed: Sure. Now, would it take us longer to to do what we want to do without the without that if we were at $0.80? Absolutely, it would. But I don’t want to go to the voters and go, hey, we need another, you know, $0.10, $0.20 or whatever, because what’s going to happen, that’s not stable money. That could be rolled back again in two years. You know, based on the growth of the county. And county’s growing still pretty good. So, that’s that’s why we’re doing the bond issue. We just we’re at the point unfortunately that we don’t have a choice for us to grow as a district, to better serve our community, to better better serve, you know, the people that reside in our district and to better serve our automatic aid partners. We have no choice but to do this.
Marv: I want to get your philosophy on between the grants and the bonds.
Ed: Okay.
Marv: Grants are just money given to you, correct?
Ed: It it is, but there’s also some caveats in some some of those grants, right? We have to match it with some some money. For example, uh, we’re going to put in again this year for for the self-contained breathing apparatus grant. Like I said, it’s going to be just over $500 something,000 to replace all those things. There’s going to be a 10% match with that. So, we’re still going to have to come up with that, you know, $50 something,000. Um, to match that. Uh so we can get that grant. Hiring grants for people, you know, we want to expand and we want to grow our staff. We think that we need we’re at the point to where we have enough calls for service, which we run just over a thousand. And again, we’re all hazard fire departments. So, we go to everything. We don’t just do fires. We do about 65 fires a year or or so like that building fires. But we want to we want to increase our staff. We’re going to put in for grant for that. But again, it’s a step grant, right? So, they might pay 100% the first year, the next year they pay 75%. The next year they pay 50%. Uh so we got to figure out a way, you know, if we put in for those grants, how how are we going to afford that back end? Again, the bond issue can’t be used for that at all. It’s only for capital improvements and equipment. It’s the only thing it can be used for. So, I can buy gear for people for that. I just can’t pay them any salary or benefits or anything like that.
Marv: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of myths about grants that it’s just money given to you, but you
Ed: Oh, yeah, no. You most grants you have to you have to fork up a little bit yourself to help. Now, at a at, you know, 10% out of $500,000 isn’t $500,000. So, that’s a that’s a big help. But, yeah, it’s not just it’s not just always free money. There is some stuff out there that’s, hey, just go ahead and take that. We appreciate it. Thanks for for doing it, but very few and far between.
Marv: Is there anything I’m missing on here that you want to get out to the possible voters who are going to be coming in and hopefully voting yes for this bond?
Ed: Sure. So, as I said, our our bond we can we’re asking for $11 million up to what we can borrow. We don’t plan on that taking $11 million, as I’ve said before. We have a really good breakdown um of you know, the purchasing and and timelines and things like that to where we’re we’re not going to, you know, borrow any money past, you know, you know, 12, 13 years or so, something like that. So, we’re making sure that that we’re not putting a whole bunch of burden on the taxpayer. It has to be repaid, you know, up to 20 years. If it gets repaid sooner, it gets repaid sooner. Um, but the biggest thing is how much is this going to cost me? So, if we borrow, I’m going to say $2 million, right? And your home is valued at $200,000. That’s going to put your assessed value right at $38,000, which is what you’re taxed on is your assessed value. It is going to increase your home homeowner’s insurance by $25 and $0.16 annually.
Marv: That’s
Ed: That’s it. That’s it. That’s it.
Marv: That’s pennies.
Ed: Okay. Obviously, the more expensive home that you have, the more that, you know, that that’s going to to cost you. But, um, but again, that’s that’s 2 million. So, kind of kind of do the math and kind of figure things out. It’s not going to cost a tremendous amount of money to do this.
Marv: Which is why people need to vote yes on this capital improvement and equipment bond.
Ed: And one of the things that that I have been saying with this, again, if you look at our timeline, if you follow our stuff on Facebook, you can see our timeline. You can see the the things that we’re replacing. Uh every Tuesday and Friday, we’ve been putting out information, just little pieces. And, you know, pieces of the plan and show why we need this piece, how long it’s going to take. What we’ve been saying is that this 20-year bond is going to set the district up for at least 30 years, hopefully longer. Long after I’m gone, right? Uh so there’s things again, we just we we we don’t have the money to replace trucks. We don’t have the money to do improvement to our our station. Our Station One was built in 2001. It was never designed to house full-time firefighters. You know, they live like this size of a room right here, maybe a little smaller is their bunk room. And they have bunk beds in there and twin beds and they all sleep in an open bay together. You know, the kitchen’s rather small. It just never was designed to to to live in it. So, we ask people all the time and I’ve been shoving it out on our Facebook and it’s always an open open invitation. Come up there, take a tour. See our fire station. See our equipment. Talk to us about this bond. Be as much informed as you possibly can about what we’re going to do before April 7th.
Marv: Yeah, this is not like the fire stations you see on TV where they’ve got the whole upper level is filled with nothing but living quarters.
Ed: No.
Marv: No, you guys are you guys have like a little um country shack basically in the middle of
Ed: Well, our our Station Two is absolutely like that. It has no facilities in it. I mean, we have no running water or or, you know, toiletry in there. We want to get that to where we can have volunteers stay there or interns stay there. Our Station uh Three out on 28, um we have, you know, a a bathroom and such like that, but there’s no living quarters there to where we can have people stay there all the time. And again, that’s the goal to to get our volunteers to come and stay more. We’re just out of space at our station.
Marv: Yeah, because when you have to call for the fire department, they have to come to the firehouse first, jump in their trucks, and then take off.
Ed: For for the volunteers, yes, they have to do that. For our career staff, obviously, you know, we’re there 24/7. So,
Marv: Well, good luck. I appreciate your time, Ed.
Ed: Well, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to be on here and hopefully, you know, folks can get educated about it. Like I said, anybody has any questions, feel free to stop by, call, you know, we’ll we’ll sit down. We’ll have a chat and we’ll show you, you know, the facts on this.
Marv: Ed Fowler, the Deputy Fire Chief of the Waynesville Rural Fire Protection District. He’s been our guest on the podcast. Again, capital improvement and equipment bond issue coming up April 7th here in the Waynesville area. Again, if you live outside the city limits of Waynesville and St. Robert, what would you say? 162
Ed: 162 square miles.
Marv: square miles. So, again, you know whether uh you’re part of that. And if you do, they would really appreciate a yes vote on April the 7th. Thanks, Ed.
Ed: Thank you.
Hey, truck lovers, Toyota’s Save Bucks on Trucks event is on, and right now at your number one voted dealer, Seger Toyota of St. Robert, we have new Tacomas with as low as 1.99% APR. And if you want big truck energy, 26 Tundra gas models get 2.99% APR for 72 months and $2,000 TFS cash. But here’s where we’re different. Every new Seger Toyota comes with a lifetime engine warranty and the first four years or 50,000 miles of regular maintenance. That’s at no charge with no surprises, no gimmicks, and no funny business. Only big trucks with big savings. Seger Toyota of St. Robert, next to Walmart and Seger Toyota.net. Spark 321-26 with pre-credit select terms, $500 TFS cash on select models.
In these days of texting and emails, words, phrases, and names are shortened to letters. It doesn’t change anything, it just makes things easier. That’s the case of STR Glass, a St. Robert establishment since the ’60s. Still the same great service when it comes to auto glass, windows, shower doors, and anything to do with glass. And when it comes to fixing chips in your windshield to prevent cracking, there’s none better. They’re still in the same location on VFW Memorial Drive and still have the same phone number, 336-4122. They’ve just shortened their name from Saint Robert Glass to STR Glass, but will never shorten their services to you, the customer.
Well, let’s jump into some sports as we begin with March Madness. Three college teams in Missouri made the 64-team bracket. One was a first four team who played their way into the big bracket, and that was the Lady Bears of Missouri State. After their first four win over Stephen F. Austin, they got number one seed Lady Longhorns of Texas, and they were eliminated. On the men’s side, the Saint Louis U Billikens blew by their first round opponent Georgia by about 30 points, then got number one seed Michigan. They gave the Wolverines a good game until the second part of the second half when Michigan’s size and the Billikens’ foul problems may have caught up with them, and Michigan advanced to the Sweet 16, underway this weekend.
The Mizzou Tigers did not even get out of the first round. They were one and done with a loss to the Hurricanes of Miami. Mizzou came in as a 10 seed, Miami a 7 seed. Miami went on to face number two seed Purdue last Sunday, and the Boilermakers of Purdue won it 79-69 and Purdue moves on to the Sweet 16. End it for Miami. On the high school scene in Columbia, March Mayhem ends the prep basketball season with the finals of Class 4, 5, and 6. Logan Rogersville won the Class 4 Boys, Strafford the Class 4 Girls. Country Day was the Class 5 Boys champ, Lift For Life Academy the Class 5 Girls champion. Class 6 was another Saint Louis sweep. De Smet won the boys title, Incarnate Word, the Class 6 Girls title. That was their sixth straight Class 6 title, winning it every year since the pandemic shut it all down back in 2020.
Saint Louis Cardinals open the 2026 season this past week, and now MLB is in full swing. It was the earliest start for a Cardinal team in their long history. And we’ll have to see where this rebuilding year takes the Cardinals in their journey through the National League Central. It was the home and season opener last Thursday, and there’s no better place to see a home opener in the majors than Busch Stadium. I’ve been to many. And the parade of the Budweiser Clydesdales gets it going as they tour the outfield, and baseball is king in one of America’s best baseball cities. Now, if the team can only deliver. Back after this.
Whether it’s winter, spring, summer or fall, anything you need to keep your vehicle running at its best, you’ll find it at your Napa Auto Parts Store, St. Robert Auto Supply. If it’s a part they don’t have in stock one day, there’s a real good chance it will be there the next day. And that includes Saturdays. The best thing I like about St. Robert Auto Supply is the knowledge you’ll find behind the counter. Experts in finding and getting you the parts you need when you need them, and they’re excellent at troubleshooting your automotive problems. From oil to filters, antifreeze, wipers, and a good selection of high-quality tools, it’s all at St. Robert Auto Supply. It’s your one stop, and you can get the good stuff seven days a week. See why mechanics from the pros at the shops to the shade tree mechanics, depend on your Napa Auto Parts Store, St. Robert Auto Supply, just off Missouri Avenue. Easy access, easy to deal with, and ease of mind because the pros know under that Napa sign.
Meet you at the V is a popular saying in our neck of the woods, and for good reason. VFW Post 3168 at Exit 150 off I-44 is a popular place, especially on Friday and Saturday night because it’s steak night from 4:00 to 9:00 where folks come from miles around to get some of the best steaks at a price that makes even the most thrifty smile with several cuts of juicy steaks cooked the way you like, complimented by salad, baked potato, and a veggie. Their canteen is open Monday through Thursday from 3:00 to midnight, Friday from 3:00 to 1:00, and they open at noon on the weekends. The kitchen is open from 5:00 to 9:00 Mondays through Thursdays with daily specials. And did I mention steak nights, Fridays and Saturdays? There’s karaoke Tuesday through Saturday from 8:00 p.m. to close. Plenty of TVs to catch up on all the big games and a huge meeting room to rent for your special occasions. Queen of Hearts runs every Tuesday, and check out their website for bingo nights. See why more are heading to the V every day. Lackaway VFW Post 3168, Exit 150 off I-44. See you at the V.
Well, thanks for joining me this week. And remember, if you vote in Waynesville, the April elections are coming up. So, get out and put your mark on that ballot. If you don’t vote, your right to complain if things don’t go your way is taken away. Thanks to my producer Tracy for gluing this together. Thanks to my sponsors, the Pulaski County Health Center, STR Glass of St. Robert, VFW Post 3168 of Lake Way, TK’s Pizza, Bale’s Construction, The Bank of Crocker, Paul’s Furniture, Shelter Insurance Agent, Dave Holler of Richland, St. Robert Auto Supply, and Seger Toyota. If you’re enjoying the Marv in the Morning podcast, we invite you to leave a review on whatever app you’re listening on. We would also love for you to share the episode with family and friends on your social media accounts. Be sure to follow our podcast on Facebook on the Marv in the Morning Podcast page. And you’re also invited to join us on Facebook on the Fort Not Lost in the Woods Podcast group. This podcast is a production of O’Quinn Media. Join me next week when we hope to get into the social media conundrum that seems to be dividing us, or at least taking our communication skills away. Until then, later.