After living on their farm in Mexico for decades, a mid-Missouri family said they have been forced to fight in a years-long battle, after an electrical cooperative invoked eminent domain.

Andy Ekern said his family moved to Mexico, Missouri in the 1960s. His mother was a teacher and his dad was a doctor. Ekern said they both had a dream to own land of their own.

“They came to Mexico, Missouri with nothing,” Ekern said.

Over the years the Ekern’s worked hard to turn their vision into a reality, curating hundreds of acres of farmland and building a quiet place for their family to call home.

“This is good rolling farm ground right here.This is all pasture,” Ekern said.

However, a portion of this paradise will soon be used for something else.

About two years ago, the Ekern’s said their lives changed overnight when they received a letter from Central Electric Power Cooperative. The letter asked for a 14-acre easement to build a transmission power line across their property, connecting two nearby sub-stations.

“It was a complete shock,” Ekern said.

If the Ekern’s didn’t agree, Central Electric threatened to use eminent domain.

“They could come and take the easement and do what they wanted to anyways,” Ekern said.

That’s exactly what happened. Ekern said his mother was devastated.

“For the longest time, she cried every time you talked about it,” Ekern said.

Ekern said landowners’ hands are essentially tied when it comes to fighting eminent domain.

“When you’re the black dot in the middle of the powerline, you’ve got no recourse,” Ekern said.

Despite this, he vowed to fight in whatever way he could. Ekern enlisted help from The Law Firm of Haden and Colbert to guide him through the legal process.

His lawyer, Brent Haden, said three court-appointed commissioners determined how much the Ekern’s would be paid. However, Haden said there could be a catch.

According to Haden, cooperatives, such as Central Electric, pay 100% of the fair market value as determined by the courts. Meanwhile, investor-owned electrical utilities and merchant transmission lines pay 150% when they go over agricultural ground.

“Central Electric only has to pay 100%, whereas Grain Belt, had they built the line themselves, would have had to pay 150%,” Haden said. “It’s a real source of frustration to think the system could be gamed.”

In a statement, Central Electric said, “Grain Belt is required to pay for any upgrades to the transmission system necessary to maintain reliability of the grid, due to their interconnection. If those upgrades weren’t funded by Grain Belt, then our member owners would have to foot the bill.”

Central Electric also said the transmission line going across Ekern’s property will be used to support the Cooperative bulk electric transmission system in the region.

A spokesperson with the group said, “It will help to ensure reliable electric service to our member owners. In the Mexico area, that member is Consolidated Electric Cooperative.”

Following the commissioner’s decision, Central Electric requested a jury trial. In a statement, Central Electric said it hopes it can come to a reasonable settlement before going to trial.

Amid the ongoing legal battle, Ekern said work on the property has already begun. He said crews were there clearing the land with bulldozers and chainsaws.

He said it has impacted some of the family’s crops.

“Where the line is coming through it’s mostly crop, so it’s got corn and soybeans in it,” Ekern said. “You have to farm around it. You have to plant around it. And, you have to look at it, which is probably the biggest part.”

Additionally, Haden said companies are not required to help fix land once construction is complete. He said the law is pretty much silent when it comes to land management and how land is treated in eminent domain cases.

“A lot of people get upset with the way the utilities tear the ground up underneath the lines and there’s no obligation under the law to go back and repair that,” Haden said. “Some of them do a pretty good job on that front. Some of them do a terrible job and they tear up the ground and won’t fix it when they leave.”

While some may think the Ekern’s story does not apply to them, Haden warned the expansion of data centers could change that.

“Data centers are going to use a tremendous amount of power,” Haden said.

Haden claimed more power lines will be needed to fuel data centers and rural landowners could pay the price, with many possibly fighting eminent domain cases of their own.

“The projections we have here for many rural landowners, it’s almost unavoidable that you’re going to have this problem because of the raw number of lines they’re going to have to build,” Haden said. “They’re going to run out of room.”

Ekern said while it may be too late for his family, he’s determined to share their experience in the hopes that landowners have more protections in future eminent domain cases.

“Right now the landowner is completely powerless,” Ekern said. “We were told if you don’t like it, you have to change it.”

Ekern said he has shared his story with legislators at the State Capitol. Haden encouraged residents to speak with their local and state representatives.

He said legislation that provides more protections for landowners must be passed.

“The good news is, in a democracy we control our government,” Haden said. “And so, ultimately it’s up to us to get involved.”

NEW MADRID COUNTY, Mo. (KAIT) – An 18-year-old Paragould woman was flown to a Memphis hospital following an early morning crash.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported the crash occurred at 12:45 a.m. June 9 on State Highway 153 north of Gideon in New Madrid County.

The victim was southbound when her 2026 Kia K5 ran off the road and overturned, the crash report stated.

The woman, who was not wearing a seatbelt according to MSHP, was flown to Regional One Medical in Memphis with serious injuries.

Editor’s Note: As of Nov. 1, 2024, the Missouri State Highway Patrol no longer includes the names of those involved in traffic and boating crash reports.

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COLUMBIA — The Columbia School Board unanimously approved a $390.7 million budget for the 2026-27 school year at its meeting Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Heather McArthur presented a summary of the proposed budget again, as she did at a public hearing June 3. The vote was one of the last items on the Monday meeting’s agenda.

According to previous KOMU 8 reporting, the budget predicts spending to be nearly $11.7 million above expected revenue for next year.

Columbia Public Schools is planning to dip into reserves to cover the rising costs. Columbia School Board President John Lyman said he doesn’t know how much is in the reserves, but that the district is always watching to make sure there is enough money.

“A big part of the budget that we do is making sure that we always have at least three months worth of reserves in there,” Lyman said. “You’ve got to make sure you have those cash reserves for those expenses and things that you have.”

Lyman said one of the biggest changes from last year’s budget are the resources that are no longer granted by funding from the federal government. 

“So rather than cutting those services, cutting those programs and things for our students— we’re rolling that into our budget, so that we can keep that educational experience going,” Lyman said.

Health Science High School

The school board also heard a presentation from Director of Workforce Development Katie Siegel about the new Health Science High School that could be implemented as soon as Fall 2027.

The new school would partner with MU Health Care, and it would be considered a lottery status school. This would be the first high school lottery school in the district.

Before the presentation, Superintendent Jeff Klein noted the initiative is still in an ongoing process, but the steering committee overseeing this program wanted to share their progress and get more feedback.

Columbia Public Schools currently has five lottery schools that each have a specialized focus:

• Ridgeway Elementary School, which has individually guided education and multi-age classrooms
• Locust Street Expressive Arts Elementary School, an arts school
• Two Mile Prairie Elementary School, a school with an agriculture focus
• Benton Elementary School, which emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math
• Jefferson Middle School, a STEM and arts school (STEAM)

According to a presentation at Monday’s meeting, the curriculum for the school would be designed to support a healthcare-focused learning experience. This would include simulation labs, introduction to healthcare pathways and hands-on learning.

“The students would be arriving in their scrubs and their classes would be seen through a healthcare lens,” Siegel said. “In addition to the healthcare curriculum focus, they would also be visiting the hospital, they’d be doing job shadowing and they would also have a mentor through the MU Health Care system.”

Siegel said the small pilot program would launch in the 2027-28 school year and would be housed at one of the existing high schools.

For the past three or four years, Columbia Public Schools has been looking to have a new high school with a focused curriculum, district spokesperson Michelle Baumstark said. It wasn’t until six months ago that a steering committee started to put this plan into action.

Siegel noted the school would be modeled after other similar out-of-state programs, including a school in Houston.

According to Siegel’s presentation, MU Health Care and Columbia Public Schools will identify the pathways students will train for based on workforce shortages and community needs.

“As part of our workforce development implementation, we want to provide choice for our students,” Siegel said. “We’re looking to increase that local talent pipeline into healthcare right here in our community of Columbia.”

Lyman said he believes this program would be a good opportunity for the Columbia community.

“A lot of folks have family members who are in the medical field,” Lyman said. “So, bringing that down into our schools to where they can start to have some of those experiences to get ready for potentially going out and getting jobs in those fields, is a cool thing.”

Siegel said the next steps in developing the Health Science High School is to get community feedback and spread the word about this program by meeting with parents, surveying students and informing to incoming high school classes about the program. 

The cost of the new program is uncertain, as it is too early in the process to give an estimate, according to Baumstark.