93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
The publisher of subscription-based news website Comobuz.com is organizing two mid-March Columbia candidate forums. They’ll be debate formats that he’ll moderate.
Publisher Mike Murphy, who has 40 years of experience in the newspaper business, tells 939 the Eagle’s Fred Parry that the current forums are “terrible.”
“I think everyone will agree to that. They’ve (forums) have gone away. They’ve fallen apart, candidates aren’t even showing up, there’s no debate. There are stupid questions. Nobody is just really pulling one off anymore,” Murphy says.
Murphy and Parry say that during the two recent forums for Columbia school board candidates, student performance did not come up for discussion. Murphy joined Fred in-studio for the hour on Saturday morning’s “CEO Roundtable” program on 939 the Eagle.
Mr. Murphy also expresses concerns about the location of a proposed 120-bed homeless shelter near the Business Loop. The center would be built near the city’s power plant and former VFW post, not far from Paris road.
“(Former Boone County commissioner) Dave Griggs pointed out perfectly. The best thing you can do right now is go out on Paris road, go out on Route B and heading south take the exit onto Business Loop. And you’re going to come off there and you know you’re going to be up to 35, 40, 50 miles an hour in no time, speed limit is 35. And that is right smack across in front of where this homeless center is going to sit with no sidewalks,” says Murphy.
Columbia’s city council voted last week to approve a permit to allow for the use of the shelter. City manager De’Carlon Seewood tells 939 the Eagle that the council’s vote allows the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) to utilize the property for that purpose.
