Western Lafayette County voters will have the opportunity on Tuesday to participate in the Missouri Presidential Preference Primary election that some political observers are referring to as "meaningless."

A "multimillion-dollar nonbinding beauty contest" is another description.

Acting against the wishes of national Republican Party officials, Missouri state legislators opted to schedule the primary on February 7, rather than moving the election to March as national officials had requested.

National party officials threatened to penalize the state by reducing its number of convention delegates if the election was not moved.

Consequently, state party officials decided to elect convention delegates at party caucuses in March, making the primary election outcome next week a moot point.

Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, is not on the Missouri ballot but several candidates who have dropped out of the race are on the ballot. Read more in The Odessan.

Annual banquet fundraiser for the Wellington-Napoleon Kids First Education Foundation will be held Saturday night at the Wellington Park Community Center.

Honorees will be:

>Jim Strodtman, Citizen of the Year;

>Jerry Jennings, Alumnus of the Year.

Guest speaker will be longtime columnist for The Kansas City Star, Charles W. Gusewelle.

He is a three-time winner from the Missouri Press Association as daily newspaper columnist of the year.

Gusewelle joined the Star in 1955 as a general assignment reporter, after graduating from Westminster College, Fulton.

He served as a first lieutenant in the Army from 1956 to 1958.

After returning to the newspaper, he became an editorial writer on foreign affairs topics in 1966 and was promoted to foreign editor in 1976. He left the foreign editorship desk in 1979 to become associate editor and columnist. Read more in The Odessan.

Highlighting the January 26 meeting of the Lafayette County Commission was a presentation by commissioners of an award to Thomas Lyons, Concordia, for his winning entry in the Pioneer Trails Region F Planning Commission's 2012 Fifth Grade Illegal Dumping poster contest.

Lyons, a student at St. Paul's Lutheran School, was accompanied by his mother, Christy Lyons, and representatives of Region F.

Lyons presented copies of calendars featuring his cover artwork to each commissioner and others attending the session.

Artwork by students from Odessa Upper Elementary, Concordia Elementary, Lexington Middle School, and Trinity Lutheran School are displayed for each of the 12 months of the year.

After the presentation, commissioners recessed to Hall's Station Road, east of Lexington, to meet with landowners to discuss replacing a bridge and relocating the road to eliminate four existing 90-degree turns. Read more in The Odessan.

Holmes Osborne, Democratic candidate for 53rd District state representative, kicked off his campaign Saturday morning in front of a shuttered store at the Odessa outlet mall.

Standing before a crowd of several dozen supporters in front of the former Reebok outlet store, Holmes said he made his candidacy announcement at that location because "...Simply put, I want to illustrate how much work has to be done in Missouri. This outlet mall was once vibrant and full of stores. It brought in sales tax and property tax, and it provided hundreds of jobs. Now, most of that is gone."

"What it is going to take to improve this area is a lot of positive energy," he continued. "Getting on the phone and calling the heads of companies and telling them why they should move to Lafayette County, Missouri. Tell them how we are on Interstate 70 and centrally located in the United States. How we have the Missouri River and two rail lines. Companies will move here, we just have to be persistent and positive."

Osborne was born and raised in Bates City, and his Lafayette County roots go all the way back to the early 1800s.

He is a 1994 graduate of Odessa High School and has a degree in finance from Syracuse, N.Y., University.

He and wife, Jennifer, are the parents of an infant daughter, Adelaide, and the family attends First United Methodist Church in Odessa. Read more in The Odessan.

Partners for Parks agreed to purchase new catcher's equipment for the boys and girls softball and baseball programs and a new batting cage at a Sunday afternoon meeting at the park office.

New catcher's equipment, at a cost of $4500, will be assisted by a $2000 donation from Odessa Outreach, $500 from the Deward Palmer family and $500 from Kohl's Care, proceeds from a Texas Hold'em tournament.

A new batting cage at a cost of $3100 was purchased for Dyer Park.

Requests were made by:

>Brett Nickels for assistance to purchase new basketball goals in the Odessa High School gymnasium. High school coaches would like to replace four fan-style boards with four square boards used for practice. Cost will be $3352. Bank of Odessa has agreed to donate $1675.50, half of what is needed, if the Booster Club can raise the remainder. Boys and girls team accounts each will donate $300 leaving a balance of $1075.50.

>Superior Rail Systems has priced a guardrail around the road at the Aquatic Center at $4700 but have agreed to install the rail for $800 and a family pool pass. Read more in The Odessan.