31-05-2025
New president of Freeman to be introduced at council meeting
The new president and chief executive officer of Freeman Health Systems will be introduced to the community during a meeting Monday of the Joplin City Council.
Matthew Fry has taken up the leadership position of Joplin's largest employer, succeeding Paula Baker, who retired. She led the health system for 14 years.
Fry previously served as the CEO of St. John's Hospital and St. John's Children's Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, before taking the helm at Freeman in March.
The council also will hold public hearings on several zoning requests. Those will be for a change from industrial to multifamily residential property at 1128 Pennsylvania Ave., a special-use permit to build duplexes at 3105 Wisconsin Ave., and a site plan review for the future Vita Nova Village small-home development at 1201 S. Byers Ave. The site plan, which involves reduced-sized easements between houses, was recommended for approval by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission.
The council also will take up business that had been planned for a meeting May 19 but was canceled because of a weather forecast for severe weather that night.
One ordinance from that meeting reset for the upcoming meeting would allow bow hunting of deer on private property inside the Joplin city limits.
According to the ordinance summary, the city does not currently have effective measures to control the urban deer population. A number of deer have been struck by vehicles on city streets, the city document states. That has brought about the ordinance that would allow archery hunting by permit and with specific conditions.
While residents must abide by local and state requirements for weapons, in order to participate in urban deer hunting they must have state and city permits, abide by state hunting regulations and seasons, and carry written permission of the property owner where they will hunt. If a law enforcement officer asks to see the permit, the hunter must cooperate. Hunters must be at least 21 years old.
The ordinance states that bow and arrows are not to be used within 60 feet of a house, building or structure or place where people assemble, a street, highway, park or property line.
Bow hunters must shoot from an elevation of at least 10 feet from the ground. Arrows are not to be shot in the direction of a person, road, structure or domestic animal within reasonable range.
Only a recurve archery bow or compound bow that requires completely manual operation without any means to cock the weapon and leave it in a stable state until it is released or fired using a trigger mechanism are authorized for use in the city limits. Hunters using a recurve archery bow or compound bow are required to take a Missouri Department of Conservation-approved hunter education course and are required to mark their arrows with their nine-digit Missouri Conservation Identification Number.
The ordinance prohibits crossbow hunting.
The council meeting starts at 6 p.m. on the fifth floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main St. It also is broadcast live on KGCS-TV, Channel 21, and regional cable television systems, including Sparklight in Joplin. The city also livestreams the meeting at Video-Multimedia.
