Agriculture director tours Schell City area

Schell City, Mo. -- Farmers in Schell City are concerned that waters in Truman Lake may not have been released soon enough to help alleviate the flooding the area received during July. Monday several farmers met with the Missouri Department of Agriculture Director Katie Smith, who has been touring the state, and state representative Barney Fisher near Schell City to discuss their concerns.

Fisher said the group at Schell City brought their concerns about Truman Lake forward.

"We went there, the director and some federal people and I, and met seven or eight farmers," Fisher said. "They've suffered a tremendous loss out there. The loss from just these seven or eight farmers is probably more than a million dollars. They brought up some concerns they had with Truman Lake about whether they were releasing enough water soon enough."

Misti Preston, media contact for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, said the group did bring their concerns to the director.

"We did meet with several producers in Schell City who were concerned about Truman Lake," Preston said. "That's a Corps of Engineers project. The director could start some dialog with the corps and see what we could accomplish together. That's really all a state agency can do."

Fisher said floods seem much more common now that Truman Lake has been completed.

"They said back in '86 that was a hundred year flood," Fisher said. "Since that time we've had a hundred year flood every seven years. The difference to these people is Truman Lake. I don't know if there is a cause and effect between this but they have a lot of documentation to say it's so."

Army Corps of Engineer public information officer Bob Marchi said there was some confusion about the causes of floods.

"It's a pretty common misconception in that area about