Local News – Tuesday, October 17th, 2017

The Dent County Commissioners met Monday morning for their regular meeting at the courthouse. The commission saluted the Salem Marching Blue for their accomplishments this past weekend in competitions in Branson and Reeds Spring. In the road report, District One Commissioner Dennis Purcell indicated materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 5510 and 5550. Purcell said workers would be servicing brush cutter #8 and a man went to Springfield to get oil for the chip and seal repair of county road 4253. Purcell said he would be attending the South Central Community Action Agency meeting tonight in Winona. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson stated grading would be done on a number of roads including Dent County Roads 2520, 2530, 2570, 3080, 3090, 3100 and 5325. Larson said materials would be added and grading done on county roads 5320 and 5323, while brush was going to be cut on Dent County Road 2570. Dent County Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said he attended a Transportation Advisory Committee meeting last Thursday where it was reported fatalities in the central district in Missouri are down 28% from 103 last year to 74 this year. He also reported on the South Central County Commissioners Association meeting held last Friday in Houston that was attended by all three commissioners. Skiles said the guest speaker was Lt. Governor Mike Parsons. Also speaking at the conference on issues involving the state legislature were State Representative Robert Ross and State Senator Mike Cunningham. Skiles indicated that representatives from Senator Blunt and McCaskill’s office were in attendance as well a person from Representative Jason Smith’s office. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said her office and the treasurer’s office balanced on all accounts from September. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Thursday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and it is open to the public.

The City of Salem Planning and Zoning Commission met Monday evening to discuss rezoning the vacant lot north of 701 South Main Street for the display and sale of industrial pipes. Many thought this would be a commercial business, but only the industrial classification deals with industrial pipes sales and storage. After some discussion, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved recommending the rezoning request of Gary Fiebelman from Commercial to Manufacturing/Industrial for a period of four years only to the Board of Aldermen by a 4-3 vote with Chairman Gary Brown breaking the tie with some reservations. He felt there should have been a better effort to discuss this with neighbors and get their opinions. In the regular Board of Aldermen, the board approved the bid from Strukel Electric to repair the airport lighting regulator for $15,383 with the necessary budget adjustment to the Capital Sales Tax Improvement Fund. This was originally in the budget to be done with the next MoDOT grant for 10% of the cost, but the lights have not worked correctly now going on two years and they need to be fixed for safety reasons. William Camm Seay presented the report form the Planning and Zoning Commission and the board approved their recommendation to rezone 701 South Main from Commercial to Manufacturing/Industrial for a period of four years. City Administrator Ray Walden presented information from the personnel manual and from other cities to the aldermen to review about considering a differential in pay for those who have a CDL endorsement. He would like to hear from alderman and come back with something at the November Board meeting. Walden wanted to let the Aldermen know that the current budget has $150,000 in it for the engineering of sidewalk work and another $75,000 for the engineering of street lighting on 4th Street downtown. This will be a multiyear improvement from Pershing to McArthur. The costs of the concrete and street lamps will stay have to be budgeted. Walden did say WCA Sanitation said they would begin distributing the new waste and recycling containers next week to residents. They will leave them curbside. If you currently rent a trash dispenser from WCA, that lease will cease when you get your new dispensers and they will pick up the old rented trash containers. The board approved two bills from Archer/Elgin Engineering: one for $3,320 for the LWCF Playground work and the other of $13,250.00 for the Wastewater Treatment Facility work. They also approved the bill from the Dent County Treasurer for $12,000 for the mailing of property and real estate tax statements, a bill from Dent County Collector Dennis Medlock of $5,500 for the collection of the city property and real estate taxes, and a bill from Tyler Technology of $11,357.64 for maintenance and support fees for the city’s computer payroll and bookkeeping software system. The board voted to go into closed session to discuss real estate.

Twenty-three communities, 11 youth groups and 8 community leaders were honored at the Missouri Community Betterment Conference in Columbia Monday. Houston won the Gene Speichinger Community of the Year award. This award recognizes the outstanding community among the 23 communities entered in this year’s Awards program. The community of Salem came in third place in Category Five. The Steelville Youth Group took 1st Place in Category 3. Also at the banquet, Judy Apperson of Salem received the Ambassador Award, Marilyn Sweitzer of Salem received an Adult Leadership Award, and Jacob Stotler of Salem took home a Youth Leadership Award. Congratulations to all the winners in all the categories and to those individuals and communities who competed.