The 2010 Annual Bates County BBQ State Championship and Fall Festival will be held October 29-30, 2010 at the Bates County Fairgrounds.

Sponsored by the Butler Police Association, and Country Mart, this annual event brings contestants and spectators. Proceeds to the Butler Police Association go to help the community with scholarships, children's athletics, drug sniffing dogs and other great things for the Butler community.

The 2009 Annual Bates County BBQ State Championship & Fall Festival paid over $8,300 for the BBQ Competition, this year they will be paying out at lease $8,300 to contestants.

Click here for an application to compete.

TOTAL PAYOUT OVER $8,000.00 !

BBQ Cook-off Scheduled Payouts

Grand Champion $1500
Reserve Grand Champion $750

To see the rest of the payouts for 2010 click here.

For Questions Call 660-679-6131   or   e-mail butlerpolice43@yahoo.com

Queen and Princess Rules 2010
For an entry form click here.

1.        Candidate must be a resident of Bates County

2.        Candidate must be single, never married

3.        Candidate for Queen must be 16-21 years of age

4.        Candidate for Princess must be 10-15 years of age

5.        Candidate must register at the Butler Police Department.  If Candidate is under the age 17 they must have parent or legal guardian present.

6.        Both Queen and Princess Candidates will be judged by total raffle tickets, armbands and Motocross tickets sold.

7.        Candidates are expected to make as many personal appearances during festival time to sell tickets, promote themselves and the festival.

8.        All Raffle Tickets sales must be turned in October 30th by 12:00 (Noon).

9.        All Candidates shall receive 15% of their own sales from raffle tickets and event tickets.

10.        Crowning Ceremony will be October 30th at 4:00pm Center stage.  Monetary payouts will be awarded at the crowning of the candidates.

If you have any questions please call 660-424-4151 or 660-227-9578.

Queen candidates must sell at least $750.00 in tickets to be eligible for the $500.00 scholarship.

I had been hearing rumors that this was coming from some folks in the area. There had been talk of suspicion for some time.

Guess it will all come out in the wash, sooner or later. But no one is guilty until a jury says so.

Valerie  (Jill) was the clerk  for Bates County Water District #6 and # 1,  and stands accused of mail fraud charges and stealing over $75,000 from the people of Bates County.
A federal grand jury in Kansas City indicted Valerie Jill Berry, 35, of Butler, Mo., this week on six charges of mail fraud for filing false information to state officials.

Berry was the sole clerk and bill collector for Bates County Public Water Supply districts No. 1 and No. 6 from 2001 until she was terminated in September 2008, according to federal prosecutors.

She is accused of embezzling about $8,000 from district 1 and $67,000 from district 6 and allegedly concealing the thefts by submitting false reports to state auditors.


Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/08/1864766/water-district-clerk-accused-of.html#ixzz0kWdFK1Iy

Well; for the rest of our neighbors in Butler, MO and all of Bates County this was no way to ring in the New Year! Because I live in Kansas City I look forward to my weekends and holidays in the country, away from all the killing, violence and mayhem.

But this holiday season, violence erupted in our tranquil town of Butler, MO.

It seems these days, there is just no getting away from it, as our culture becomes more crass, violent and vulgar; we drift further and further from our Christian roots and our love for one another.

On New Years Day, a under a Blue Moon; 25 year-old Carl Thomas lay dead on a Butler, Missouri street and his sister, 29-year-old Latonya Cooper  was shot inside a house. She was later pronounced dead at Bates County Memorial Medical Center. Another 7 year-old was injured in the fracas also.

This is not the norm for our part of the country and the talk at the local diner Saturday was a mix of sorrow and anger. Sorrow for the family and anger for the fact that our pleasant community should have these trials and worries.

A town where barefoot children ride bicycles to Sam's Hi-Way Hamburger to get an ice cream in the Summer, a town where people still often leave the doors unlocked, a town where helping your neighbor is as common as going to church on Sunday!

Allegedly; Decarlos Newsom was the shooter who later took his own life while parked in his truck. A quick search of Casenet, shows that Mr. Newsom had run afoul of the law before but mostly traffic incidents; that is until August 13, 2008 when he was convicted of a misdemeanor firearm offense and sentenced to 180 days in jail. The sentence was suspended and he was assigned 2 years unsupervised probation and 40 hours community service.

No one knows what could lead someone to do something like this, we can only pray for the families, our community and for our country, that we do not continue this descent into corruption and depravity that seems to be so commonplace in America today.

Now you may not think of Bates County or Rich Hill, MO as a capital of culinary arts, but if you have ever eaten at Swopes drive Inn, Cruisers Pizza or The SouthSide Cafe you will soon find out there is one thing we do well here and that's eat!

I stumbled across a blog today about a Mennonite style chicken casserole... Did I mention the Mennonite Bakery (Koehn Bakery) in Butler, MO? Wow, you gotta check that out and pick up a pie or two.

Oops! I stumbled off the path here; seems this here Purple Pony Art person, liked this caserole enough to blog about it. Now having eaten my share of Mennonite cooking I can just imagine the goodness contained in this Chicken Casserole from Mrs. Ben Barker of Rich Hill, MO.

Here's the link to the Recipe! Chicken casserole, Mennonite style!

Y'all come back now; and thanks for visiting Bates County Real Estate.

They called it the Palm to Pine Route and from 1915 to 1926 it was one of the most well traveled and scenic routes in America. It's hard to say exactly where the whole route was, but there is a move on to find it and memorialize it for history.

Wikapedia has an informational article about the Jefferson Highway stating that is was an automobile highway stretching through the central United States from New Orleans, LA to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Portions of the route remain named Jefferson Highway.

The area that ran through Butler, MO and Rich Hill, MO is in dispute. One suggested route follows Missouri YY from Butler, MO to Rich Hill,  that route is taken from old Bates County maps. The other route comes from Jefferson Highway travel brochures from the 1920's, it flows West out of Butler on 52 and turns South at Monteith Junction and running along SW 1737 Rd. to Rich Hill.

This weekend I spoke with some folks who grew up in the area and they confirmed that the location is as it is mapped below in purple. In fact I have ridden horses over some of the areas the Jefferson Highway went through. My father in-law remembers well that stretch of road and where it ran.

What is clear is that the route did come directly through Butler, MO and right down Main St.  to what is now 52.

Recently the Joplin Independent had an article about  a couple of guys who set out to travel the old route and there stop in Carthage, MO.

Mike Conlin and his friend Gary Augustine decided to validate what they could discover of the road. Beginning in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and culminating in New Orleans, LA.

They have made quite an event out of charting this course, even having a fan page on Facebook. They passed through Butler, MO and took pictures along the way. You can see them on their facebook page or you can visit their website at http://www.jeffersonhighway.com .

You can see the map they are working on here Jefferson Highway Map.

If you have any information or old Jefferson Highway signs or memorabilia, I'm sure it would be of interest to the folks working on saving this historical information.


Thanks for visiting Bates County Real Estate.

I could blather on and on about all the great oportunities there are in Bates County, but I thought I'd just upload some information for you to look at.

The PDF below will give you a great list of proeprties available from Loopnet.com. Loopnet is one of the many sources I use for marketing real estate and looking for property. It is a great site with a lot of information and the PDF document is 18 pages long!

Most people have no idea there is that much proeprty for sale at any one time in Bates County. The list includes retail, commercial, office, apartments, ranches, farms, industrial property and even some hunting land.

Feel free to browse the listing and let me know if you need any more information.,

900 Enterprise Rd. has been on the market for a while, it is a large metal commercial building of 20,000 square feet. while Butler, MO commercial real estate may not be the hottest thing going now, when they turn 71 Highway into Interstate 41 I'm guessing you will see a significant increase in value for properties along the highway corridor.
The property is listed at $295,000 .

200 N 2nd St. Drexel, Mo 64742 is listed at $139,000 and it is a 3 bay car wash, I've sold several car washes just this year, and at $139,000 this looks like a good buy. I'd want to see some financial information before making an offer, but car washes can be a really good investment.

Now many of your who know me or have read much of this little blog, know I love Rich Hill, MO. Here is your chance to own a great piece of real estate with a thriving pizza store in the heart of Rich Hill, MO. 64779.

2,000 Square foot building listed at $150,000.

How about a dog food plant, this thing has been on the market for a while and is listed at $1,250,000/ The building is a whopping 57,200 square feet of industrial space in Butler, MO. 707 Rice Rd. Butler, Mo 64730. the property sits on a rail spur and has 12-25 ft ceilings.

There is more property on this list, Drexel, MO commercial real estate, businesses for sale, an awesome ranch on 31 acres in Drexel, MO.

This you have to see! 31 acres, beautiful log home 4 E. 341st St. Drexel, MO, 64742. Just click on the PDF below and check out all these listings from Loopnet.com! $599,000 is the list price, call me and we will make an offer and see if we can't get you a better deal!

There is another 12 acre home site off 71 HWy in Butler, that is just right and listed at $99,000. A prefect place to build your dream home!

Click on the file to see the listings!

Barn cats, well, they are barn cats, they stay in the barn and they are supposed to keep the mice out of the grain bins!

Every cat has it's day? If you've lived on a farm you know what barn cats are, they are usually just on the edge of wild and seldom live long, they breed a bit too fast and they have a job. They're job is mousing! They are supposed to keep the mouse population down, so they don't eat and contaminate your grain.

Every year we get a new batch of kitty's, seems there is always one who just won't settle for being an ol' barn cat and wants to be a house cat.

We can't take 'em all in so we will try to adopt them out, or find them a home. This weekend a little orphan kitty, decided he was going to be a house cat. He followed us up from the barn and pestered us til we gave him some milk.

That did it, now he's sure he's a house cat. Bootsy is really cute, he spent most of Sunday playing with a Pit Bull and sleeping.

He is mostly black with four white socks, (boots). We can't keep the little fella, so if you're in the market for a kitten, let me know. This little guy really likes to snuggle. I kept him in bed with me last night and he just snuggled right up.

I was back down at the farm this week, the septic system my in-laws put in in the 80's was having some problems. I searched for someone in the area but it seems that the closest honey wagon or septic service to Rich Hill is clear down in Nevada, MO.

The folks from Long and Snead were willing to come out the same day I called them and they had a reasonable fee. Septic service is not an easy line of work, the folks that provide these services have a really shitty job.

Many Realtors who have not dealt with rural property have no idea what is involved in septic maintenance and more importantly septic inspections that are required for any government back loans, like HUD, VA or USDA. Many lenders also require septic inspections for real estate transfers. These can be deal killers if they fail. Fortunately this was not an inspection but just some routine service. This septic system had been installed in 1985, back then people believed you should seal the clean-out shut.

Bad idea, we had to break through the lid with a sledge hammer to gain access.

The system was completely full of solids, the small tank had was so full that it was bubbling up from the ground near the house.

The situation was pretty ugly, but I put the back hoe attachment on my ol' John Deere and we dug out a new lateral line for the old system. We had to weld up a plate for a cover since we had smashed the old cover in with a sledge hammer.

Long days work, but now the toilet flushes with authority!

We found that this small tank was likely no bigger than 250 gallons, that's pretty tiny for any house. I guess we will have to have it pumped more often.

Anyway if I can help you with your real estate needs please give me a call, and thanks for visiting http://www.batescountyrealestate.com

102 W Ohio St Butler, Mo 64730
Mixed-Use, commercial building for sale in Butler, Mo; Bates County.

Built in 1906 4 stories
 8,890 SF  per floor
Building Size: 35,560 SF % Leased: For Sale Price: $760,000
Price/SF: $21.37 Located on the Historic Butler square, the county seat of Bates County, MO looking across the street at the Bates County Courthouse.

Totally renovated in 1970 and continually improved to date. An elevator services all four floors. The second floor has been converted to nine beautiful extended-stay apartments.

Offices, Restraints, Bar and a beautiful historic staircase leading to the upper floors.

New windows, ample covered parking and additional parking across the street.

• New Windows
• New Wiring
• New Plumbing
• Separate Utilities
• Retail
• Office
• Apartments
• Lofts
• Banquet Facilities
• Bar and Restaurant
  
• Solid Brick