Candidates announced ahead of Jan. 20-24 Extension Council election

Six candidates for the upcoming election for the local Extension Council have been announced.

They are Barbara Bailey, Darlene Bollinger, Diane Dowdy, Shelly Garner, Sheila Porter, and Becky Trehy. There are six open seats on the council.

Barbara Bailey: Bailey and family moved to Bollinger County 26 years ago. Her children attended Woodland School. She has been a part of the Bollinger County Farmers Market for almost as long, first as a customer and now as a vendor.

She has served many years as both a co-manager and manager of the Farmers Market. She shared, “The market has been a great way for me and my family to meet a lot of people in our community.”

Bailey has also served on the Extension Council for quite a few years, and looks forward to serving again, if elected.

Darlene Bollinger: Bollinger was born in Lutesville; her family lived at Hiram, at that time. Her family moved to the Lutesville/Marble Hill area when she was 14.

She has held many jobs, such as factory work, nursing home, road construction for Ma Bell, electrician assistant in many states, school cafeteria and in home health care and attended one year of college at Three Rivers.

She said, “I’ve lived in many other places, but I’ve always come home. Most of my family live here and they are who I care about, this town is what I care about, this community is what I care about, it’s HOME!”

Bollinger currently serves on the Extension Council and is seeking a second term.

Diane Muench Dowdy: Dowdy and her husband, Wade, live on a farm they purchased in 2009 near Grassy.

She is originally from Perryville and is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University.

She is a retired teacher and served 12 years as a school board member for the Hazelwood School District. She is a Master Gardener through the University of Missouri Extension and is currently a member of the Bollinger County Extension Council.

Dowdy said is running for re-election because she wants to get involved in the community, support the Extension Office and its programs, support the wellbeing of community members and youth through extension education programs, and improve the community garden.

Shelly Garner: Garner grew up in Bollinger County and graduated from the Woodland R-4 School District.

She has been employed at Peoples Community Bank in Marble Hill for the past 22 years. Shelly currently serves as the vice president, loan officer, and Marble Hill branch manager. She has 28 years of banking experience. She said she takes pride in the small town and would love to see it continue to grow and prosper. She is running for a second term on the Bollinger County Extension Council and hopes to better understand what present and future community needs and how to make it happen.

“I would love to see more and better programs readily available to our county residents. I am for the betterment and growth of our community," she said.

Sheila Porter: Porter grew up in Poplar Bluff. She graduated from Poplar Bluff High School, Three Rivers Community College with an AAS degree in Drafting and Design and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a BS in Elementary Education, an MA in Education and a Specialist in Library Science and Media. She completed additional course work at the University of Missouri. She worked full-time as a teacher’s aide, teacher and librarian/media specialist in Missouri K-12 public schools in Southeast Missouri for 31 years (26 of those were at Woodland R-4 schools).

She married Bob Porter from Sikeston and moved to Bollinger County in 1979 after purchasing farmland. She is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts. She is a member of the Poplar Bluff Chapter of the NSDAR, Missouri Civil War Re-Enactors Association, Turner Brigade Civilian Corps, Missouri State Genealogy Society, Cape Girardeau County Genealogy Society, and State Historical Society of Missouri. After her retirement at Woodland in 2006, she taught adult education and literacy classes part-time at the Poplar Bluff site, 2007-2018. She worked for the 2020 U.S. Census in Bollinger and the surrounding counties.

She is now the education director, a part-time position, at National Stars and Stripes Museum & Library in Bloomfield. She is also a substitute teacher at Woodland School when needed. She is presently on the Extension Council and is seeking another term.

Becky Trehy: Trehy retired from ATT in 2015. She and her husband, Mike, have owned land in Bollinger County for more than 20 years and moved here full-time after retiring. She has been active with the Extension Office, as a team leader of the Building Local Prosperity (BLP) workforce and Tourism teams. She also previously served one term on the Extension Council and volunteers with the community gardens and flower patches in Marble Hill.

Becky and Mike have a small cow-calf operation in North Bollinger County.

Voting will take place starting Monday, Jan. 20, and will close on Friday, Jan. 24. The ballot box will be located at the Bollinger County Extension Office, you can vote during the hours of 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The online voting web address is https://extension.missouri.edu/counties/bollinger. This option will only be available during the week of voting.

All county residents who are of voting age are encouraged to vote. For questions, feel free to contact University of Missouri Extension-Bollinger County Office at (573) 238-2420.