News Release No. 507

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES OPENS ROLLA SATELLITE OFFICE

Volume 33-507

Contact: Kerry Cordray

(For immediate release)

573-526-4220

JEFFERSON CITY, MO, DEC. 16, 2005 -- Closer assistance on local area environmental issues is an occasion to celebrate on Tuesday, as the Missouri Department of Natural opens its new Rolla Satellite Office. The department will host an open house at the office from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 111 Fairgrounds Road.

The Rolla Satellite Office complements and extends environmental services provided to the region by the department's Southeast Regional Office at Poplar Bluff. It will initially contain two environmental specialists, who will provide nearby counties with facility inspections and compliance assistance services. The office will likely grow as new area needs are identified. . Staff of the new office will be housed with the Department's existing Division of Geology and Land Survey building on Fairgrounds Road in Rolla.

Department Director Doyle Childers will welcome visitors to the open house. "One of the most important goals I identified when I became department director was to open a satellite office at Rolla," said Childers. "This puts department staff closer to the public we serve and reduces response time and travel on the issues we deal with. The new Rolla office will allow us to provide more efficient service to citizens in the Rolla, Fort Leonard Wood and Lake of the Ozarks areas."

The Rolla Satellite Office is part of the department's Field Services Division, which oversees the agency's five regional offices, eight additional satellite offices, Environmental Services Program, Environmental Assistance Office and other key field activities. "Our staff are on the front line of protecting the environment and serving the public," said Jim Macy, director of the Field Services Division. "We conduct inspections and investigations of environmental control facilities, respond to environmental emergencies, provide technical and financial assistance and do environmental testing on a broad scale. I am delighted that we can better protect the environment and serve the public more efficiently with this new office at Rolla."

The Rolla Satellite Office can be contacted at the following address:

Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Rolla Satellite Office
111 Fairgrounds Road
Rolla, MO 65401

For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.

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