Archive for 2022

The Salem R-80 Board of Education met Thursday night for their regular meeting. High School Principal Tori Snitker saluted students Alex Diehl for going to state in Cross Country and finishing 93rd out of over 200 students, and also to FFA Student Presley Strader for having the 2022 Grand Champion Market Lamb at the Missouri State Fair. In communications, Superintendent Lynne Reed said the American Legion Post #99 donated $500 to each building to use for whatever purpose they need. Engineer and Trades Building designer John Odom spoke to the board about the uncertainty of the footing at the original location suggested for the Construction Trades and Technology Building on the south side of the bus barn. There has been a lot of fill put there over the years and it was not documented that the fill was ever properly compressed. Also with the topography of the land there, a large amount of concrete would be needed for the foundation that would have a 12-foot exposure at the southern end of the building. That building was designed as a rectangular building. Odom suggested moving the building to the location where the IT Building and department currently is just to the south of the parking lot. Two sheds and two power poles would have to be moved and the building would have to be demolished and filled properly, but in that location the building would be more accessible to students and the land is more level cutting back on the amount of concrete that would need to be used. He also suggested making the building in a “T” shape which could have a drive through area in the building back to the current driveway and there could be storage in the base of the “T.” Each building would have been 9,500 square feet so the design change did not lose any space. The board favored the new location, but more information will still be needed before a final decision has to be reached. Reed updated the board on the new Tin Gym and the steel framing is now up, but no work has yet begun on the locker rooms. The district report card has now been updated on DESE. The board discussed the four-day work week after reviewing results of a survey by the Calendar Committee and no action was taken, but the board wants to get more information and keep the idea on the table. The board also discussed a bond resolution that would be needed if the school intends to have a bond issue on the April ballot for the construction of the addition of the elementary school onto the upper elementary school. The question remains if the FEMA money of over $3 million dollars is going to be available and Reed said the school might know by January, but that chance is probably very slim this year. The plans to build what the board feels are minimum needs includes work that would be paid for with those funds. The current bonding capacity is $9.4 million. The board will wait until the January meeting to make a decision on the resolution. After the principal reports, Athletic Director Clay Moody reported on the Fall Athletic Banquet and thanked the Salem News and KSMO Media for their support of the athletes. The board approved Malerie Workman as the MSBA Belcher Scholarship Nominee, approved the MSBA Board policy revisions from the previous meeting, and rescinded policy DBB. The board approved the Conflict-of-Interest Policy and set the tuition rate for Salem R-80 for the 2022-2023 school year at $8,881 per student. The board also approved the Infinite Campus Contract that will replace the current SIS system the school uses, and the purchase of Evaluate for students in kindergarten through the 8th grade. Evaluate will be required to be used by all teachers. The high school uses Missouri Learning Standards for high school students. The board approved the purchase of two 2013 Bluebird busses from Copeland in St. James with a Cummings engine as the current bus fleet has had several mechanical failures. The busses have 113,000 and 136,000 miles on them, respectively, and the school paid a total of $29,000 for both. The board accepted the resignations of Susan Jadwin as well as Debbie Plank and Mark McElvy. The board also accepted the resignation of Bryson Barnes as the head high school football coach only as he will still retain his teaching position as well as being an assistant baseball coach. The board then went into closed session.

An accident happened on Route BB about seven miles southwest of Licking in Texas County Saturday morning at 10:32 that left a man from Licking with serious injuries. According to the highway patrol report, 25-year-old Dakota Jones of Licking was driving a 2017 Jeep Renegade westbound when he traveled off the road and struck a tree. Jones was flown by Air Evac to Cox South Hospital in Springfield. Jones was wearing a seat restraint at the time of the accident. The Jeep was totaled and removed from the scene by Jay’s Automotive.

Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development (OBD) in collaboration with Meramec Regional Planning Commission will host a virtual video call on the topic of broadband availability today at 3:00. Citizens, public officials and other leaders will have an opportunity to hear about how they can help improve recently released maps showing broadband availability specific to the Meramec Region. Newly created Federal Communications Commission (FCC) maps will determine what share of $42.45 billion in federal broadband funding will come to the state of Missouri through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, a component of the infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act. The map will identify what locations in the state qualify for help using those funds. To see the FCC map, visit broadbandmap.fcc.gov. At the meeting, OBD staff will review what the map shows about the region and introduce attendees to the FCC’s challenge process, which allows individuals and institutions to submit corrections to the map. The National Telecommunications Information Agency, the federal agency responsible for the BEAD program, has indicated that all challenges filed by January 13th will be considered in its decision about how much BEAD funding each state receives. Challenges filed after that date are still important in order to ensure that no locations are missed when the time comes to fund projects using the BEAD allocation. The OBD is partnering with University of Missouri Extension to provide in-person technical support for anyone interested in filing challenges at their county offices across the state. Residents in Dent County should contact the Dent County Extension office is 729-3196. The Office of Broadband Development will also answer questions about the challenge process over the phone at 573-526-1028 or by email at broadband@ded.mo.gov. In addition to encouraging individuals to file challenges, the OBD staff will review how local institutions can promote participation in the challenge process and to work with local officials to identify data sources that could be used for larger-scale challenges. Beginning in 2023, Missouri will use BEAD funding to launch its Connecting All Missourians initiative, which aims to provide high-quality broadband internet to every home and business in the state. Please contact Linda Carroll at MRPC for the meeting link, by phone at 573-265-2993 or by email at lcarroll@meramecregion.org. MRPC is assisting the OBD with outreach and community engagement in the Meramec Region.

The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning at the courthouse. At the meeting, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray stated materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 5510 and 6633 while only grading will be done on county road 5130. Mobray said a man would be cutting brush on county road 5530 and the Title II rock work is now completed on county road 5600. Mobray also said he met with the engineer from Great Rivers Engineering and representatives from H. R. Quadri from Van Buren about starting the Cooley Bridge FLAP project and Quadri wanted to get started before Christmas, but later said it would be after the first of the year due to material shortages. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson reported materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 3140 and 2150 while only materials would be added to county road 2510. Larson said grading would also be done on Dent County Roads 2520 and 2530 while brush was going to be cut on county road 2500. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said the Hazard Mitigation meeting was held Tuesday afternoon at the Salem Community Center@The Armory that he and Commissioner Mobray attended. He stated it was just a wrap-up meeting and Skiles said all entities including schools, the city of Salem, fire departments, etc who studied the plan need to submit the time they spent studying the plan to Patrick Sites from the MRPC so that the county can meet their 39-hours of in-kind match to save the county money on the plan. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said the Dent County Courthouse would be closed for the Christmas holiday on Friday, December 23rd and Monday, December 26th. At 10:00, the commission opened bids for general liability, auto, property and errors and omissions insurance for the county for the 2023 year. One bid came in and it was from Mike Elliott from Town and Country Insurance for a total of $176,150. The 2022 price for all the insurances was for $198,989. Elliott said some of the deductibles may be a bit higher than last year and the jail deductible would be 1% of its value or around $14,500. Elliott said some of the deductibles may be able to be negotiated down further but he only received the policy and quote Wednesday. The board approved to purchase the policy. Commissioner Darrell Skiles wanted to remind all vendors to have their invoices and statements submitted to the county to be paid by the close of day Wednesday, December 28th. If anyone has questions, call the Dent County Clerk’s office at 729-4144. Sherry Lea, Healthy Dent County Director, brought to the commission the renewal agreement for them to provide rural addressing services for the 2023 year for $15,000. The commission approved the agreement. At the last meeting, the commission approved the purchase agreement for two new John DeereGraders from McCoy in Cuba for $414,515.02.The next commissioner meeting will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

The Salem Community Choir will present Lloyd Larson’s cantata “Morning Star” this Saturday night at 7:00 at the Anutt Community Church. The cantata, celebrating the everlasting light of Christmas, features solos by Amy Moore, Steve Morton, Michelle Smith, Jimmy Cotner and Faeryn Donal, with scripture narration by Chris Hendrix. The choir is under the direction of Catherine Dent. A dinner following the cantata will be held at the church.