Archive for 2024

The Dent County Commission Thursday morning met at the courthouse where they heard two road concerns. The first was on county road 5190 where at one time a gate blocked access to the road years ago. The county receives CART tax to maintain just over a half mile and 1st District Commissioner Wes Mobray will need to see where that comes to on the road. There is also a culvert and drainage problem on county road 4170 in the Adams Subdivision. Commissioner Mobray will check that out as well. In the road report, Mobray said rock would be added and grading done on Dent County Road 6590 with grading only on county roads 6580 and 5615. He said brush would be cut on county road 6580 and new blades were being put on Grader #39. District 2 Commissioner Gary Polk said new brakes were being installed on county truck #122, road signs were being installed on county road 3355, workers were repairing the side of county road 6150 next to a culvert, and a culvert pipe is being opened up on county road 3200. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson said seven commissioners from the South Central County Commissioners Assn were in Jefferson City Wednesday and discussed Senate Bill 190 and unfunded mandates with representatives. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said the last day for county office filing would be March 26th for the August Primary. The commissioners approved a petition for setting a speed limit of 25 MPH on county road 2210, approved putting out a notice to receive bids for a single year financial audit for fiscal year 2024 that would be done in 2025. Bids will be due by 10:00 on April 22nd in the clerk’s office. They also approved putting out a notice to receive chip and seal bids that will be due by 10:00 on April 15th in the county clerk’s office. They also approved the sale of a spreader box for a pickup from the Road and Bridge Department. Bids will be due on April 15th and they will be opened at 10:30. Commissioner Larson says the lights on the courthouse are now working properly and they have been programmed to be green this weekend for the 100-Acre in the Woods Road Rally and St. Patrick’s Day. The next meeting of the commission will be Monday at 9:00 and the meeting will be open to the public.

The Salem Utility Committee met Wednesday evening at the Salem Community Center@The Armory. Stacey Houston presented the financials for all the utility funds. Most of the funds were at or near budget numbers with the exception of a collection of back pay from Brightspeed for the use of city’s utility poles in the electric fund. Houston mentioned that the sewer improvements 2A and 2B are being done simultaneously, but the grant funds for the second part will not be forthcoming until late 2024 or early 2025. Houston has sent out requests for terms for the city to get around a $400,000 short term loan that would be paid off once the city is reimbursed. City Administrator Sally Burbridge said the city was finally able to successfully send bills by e-mail and are ready to incorporate that into their system. The committee did recommend that an amendment be made to Ordinance 700.010 that would allow monthly utility bills be e-mailed or sent electronically as well as mailed. Burbridge also said the automated phone bill paying system is close to being ready to accept payments, and currently about 300 people pay their bills online. Burbridge said the city is looking for a lead utility billing clerk and members of the staff are currently being trained by an employee of Encode showing them new features they did not know existed. Burbridge said she has reached out to BHMG that will be doing the electric rate study, but they have not gotten back to her yet. She went over some amendments that need to be made to the Power Supply & Administration Agreement among the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission and the MMMPEP. These changes will help strengthen the City of Salem credit rating and reduce their debt service to help lower their rates. The committee approved recommending the amendments to the agreement be approved by the Salem Board of Aldermen. Interim Public Works Director Joe Chase said a number of workers from the electric department are working on the Gateway Antennas repairing the Cat5 connectors and reinstalling the antennas. City workers are also replacing the metal tops on water meters with the poly tops as they seem to be able to get better signal strength. Burbridge explained that she has been able to “true up” the avoided fuel costs for the three solar power customers in Salem so they are now up to date. There was a suggestion in a previous meeting to make the avoided fuel cost rate a flat rate, but the committee elected to use the actual avoided fuel cost as the impact to the city would be only about $15 or so. A discussion on the new utility deposit ordinance was brought up as numerous concerned real estate brokers were in attendance. The problem was that a person buying a house didn’t know what their utility deposit would be based upon usage from the previous owners until signing up for services. A couple of instances with new home buyers brought the problem to light and the brokers wanted to know what could be done. A comparison of a number of other communities was presented and after some discussion, the committee agreed to recommend to the Board to change the ordinance and set the utility deposit at $300, and if the new tenant or purchaser could provide a Letter of Good Standing, the deposit would be reduced to $200 for all four utilities including trash, electric, water and sewer. They also rescinded their recommendation to use a soft credit check to determine if the deposit should be higher. The committee then thanked Chairman Kyle Williams for his work as Chairman of the Utility Committee as he is not running for re-election. The meeting was then adjourned.

The Salem Board of Aldermen held their regular meeting at the Salem Community Center@The Armory Tuesday evening. After the board heard public comments from three citizens, Mayor Greg Parker appointed Wanda Suhr as Assistant City Clerk and City Clerk Tammy Kohler gave her the oath of office. The board approved closing Fourth Street from Highway 19 to Jackson Street for the 100-Acre Wood Rally Park Expose for Saturday, March 16th. They also approved closing roads from SBU to the Salem High School for the Salem High School senior class parade on May 11th. Resolution No. 8-2024, a resolution to donate the Tenth Street property that formerly was the old Salem Middle School to the Salem Housing Authority after they secured adequate funding to develop a 24-unit low-income housing complex, was tabled with the Mayor breaking the tie vote. Several citizens who live in the neighborhood asked to hear more details about the proposal, and representatives from the Housing Authority will be asked to attend the next meeting and provide more details about the proposed development. The board approved Resolution No. 9-2024 allowing the mayor to execute the annual lease renewal with Wave Internet for the use of space on the top of the water tower. Resolution No. 10-2024 was approved as a change order with BCS Electric for the Al Brown Fields electrical work at a cost of $41,760.88 for labor and $13,147.58 for materials needed to finish the new lighting project. The board approved purchasing 50 dusk-to-dawn street lights at the cost of $6,937.50 from Fletcher-Reinhardt, and approved J&M Construction and Fencing’s bid for $29,950 to install fencing around the industrial park water tower and well #4 to secure the area and equipment. The board approved Bill No. 3601 to sell the property at 306 E. Second Street. This land was donated to the city as part of the demolition program. The board heard the first reading of Bill #3602 regarding the execution of a lease between the City of Salem and Healthy Dent County for the Salem Community Center@The Armory. Park and Recreation Director Melissa Dubois reported the soccer season has begun, with the first game being this Saturday with 302 youth participating. The restrooms at the parks will open on March 21st. Anyone wanting to reserve a pavilion this year will need to do so at the City Administration building. Interim Public Works Director Joe Chase updated the board on several projects, including Doe Run doing a no-cost peer review of the sewer treatment plant, and will report to the board at a later date. City Administrator Sally Burbridge reported that staff have been doing training on Encode, and with recent utility staff changes, the office could be short-staffed and asked the public to please be patient. Alderman Kyle Williams reported that the 100-Acre Wood Rally Park Expose would be held on Fourth Street from 8:00 to 11:00 Saturday morning. Alderwoman Kala Sisco reported that a Community Involvement meeting will be held on March 21st at 5:00 pm at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory. She wanted to remind citizens they needed to call the city to put in a work order for $40 to get yard waste picked up. The meeting then went into closed session.

An accident happened Tuesday evening in Crawford County on Interstate 44 at the 221.4 mile marker that took the life of a St. James man. According to the highway patrol report, 44-year-old James Hendrickson of St. James, was driving a 2003 Ford F-150 eastbound, when he traveled off the right side of the roadway and struck the backside of a towed unit of a 2024 International semi-truck that was parked and stationary on the shoulder. Hendrickson was ejected from the Ford and was taken to the Missouri Baptist Hospital in Sullivan by the North Crawford County Ambulance where he was pronounced dead at 8:42 Tuesday evening. The Ford F-150 was totaled and was removed from the scene by Chuck’s Towing while the International sustained moderate damage and it was also removed from the scene by Chuck’s Towing. The highway patrol was assisted at the scene by the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department as well as the Bourbon and Leasburg Fire Departments.

MoDOT wants to inform the public that Route TT in Reynolds County will be reduced to one lane as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform pavement repairs. This section of roadway is located from Route KK to Highway 72 near Bunker. Weather permitting, the work will take place TODAY and Friday from 8:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon daily. The work zone will be marked with signs. Motorists are urged to use extreme caution while traveling near the area. For additional information, contact MoDOT’s Customer Service Center toll-free at 1-888-ASK-MODOT (1-888-275-6636) or visit www.modot.org/southeast.

The Phelps County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday morning that Amara Lynn Keyes was found safe and unharmed in Atchison, Kansas. A 20-year-old man has been detained in connection with this case. The investigation continues. The Phelps County Sheriff’s Department thanks everyone for their assistance in helping find the young girl safe.

AN AREA MISSING PERSON ALERT!! The Phelps County Sheriff’s Department has issued an Endangered Person Advisory for a missing person incident that occurred at Audubon Place in Rolla at 8:00 this morning. They report that 13-year-old Amara Lynn Keyes is missing. Keyes is described as a white female who is 5 foot, 7 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and a medium complexion. Amara Keyes was last seen at her residence at approximately 9:00 Monday evening. She was not in her room this morning. Keyes is likely to be in the company of an individual she met online. Anyone seeing Keyes or anyone having any information related to the endangered missing person should immediately dial 911 to contact the nearest law enforcement agency or call the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department at 573-426-3860.

Intercounty Electric has releases the names of essay contest exclusive for area high school juniors that gives the grand prize winner a chance to go on an all expense paid trip to Washington DC. The other two juniors have the opportunity to go on the CYCLE program that sends them to Jefferson City on an all expense paid tour. Three students from the nine schools served by Intercounty were announced and they include from the KSMO listening area Jaelynn Walker, Khloe Baldwin and Gunner Mahurin from the Salem High School; Ethan Domenech, Timothy Norris and Nicole Paolella from the Likcing High School; Olivia Park, Katherine Arnold and Mohamed Algraiw from the Rolla High School; and Ava Ennis, Kaytee Forister and Cat Lillis from the St. James High School. Congratulations to these students who will be attending an in-person interview at the Intercounty Electric offices in Licking on Saturday, March 23rd to determine which of the three students from each school will win the grand prizes.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control arrested of 51-year-old Bradley T. Colvin of Rolla on March 11th for the possession of child pornography and promoting child pornography. The arrest was made following investigations by the Special Victims Unit of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control. The State Technical Assistance Team (S.T.A.T.) assisted in the investigation. According to a release from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, in February while conducting an on-line child pornography investigation, investigators with the Special Victim’s Unit of the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control identified a device associated with the internet account of Bradley T. Colvin, which had distributed digital files identified as child pornography. On March 11th investigators executed a Phelps County search warrant at the home of Colvin which is located in Rolla. During the search, investigators found hundreds of files of child pornography, located on computers and storage devices, inside the residence. Colvin was arrested and transported to the Phelps County Jail, where on March 12th, the Phelps County Prosecuting Attorney formally charged Colvin with five counts of possession of child pornography and one count of promoting child pornography. He is being held in the Phelps County Jail with no bond. These charges are mere accusations and are not evidence of guilt. Evidence in support of these charges must be presented before a court of competent jurisdiction whose duty it will be to determine Colvin’s guilt or innocence.

The Phelps County Sheriff’s Department has issued an Endangered Person Advisory for a missing person incident that occurred at Audubon Place in Rolla at 8:00 Tuesday morning. They report that 13-year-old Amara Lynn Keyes is missing. Keyes is described as a white female who is 5 foot, 7 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and a medium complexion. Amara Keyes was last seen at her residence at approximately 9:00 Monday evening. She was not in her room this morning. Keyes is likely to be in the company of an individual she met online. Anyone seeing Keyes or anyone having any information related to the endangered missing person should immediately dial 911 to contact the nearest law enforcement agency or call the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department at 573-426-3860.

The Dent County Sheriff’s Department has released some reports. On Friday, March 1st, a Dent County Deputy conducted a traffic stop in the 1100 block of Route B. During the stop, a 38-year-old Salem man was found to be driving on a suspended license. The driver was taken into custody and transported to the Dent County Jail. The next day on Saturday, March 2nd, a deputy conducted a traffic stop in the 1100 block of South Louise Street. During the stop, a 38-year-old Bunker man was found to be driving without a valid license. It was reported that a probable cause statement will be submitted to the Dent County Prosecutor’s Office. Later that same day, a deputy responded to the 15000 block of Route C for a reported burglary. The victim, a 35-year-old Lenox woman, told deputies that a suspect had entered her home and stolen several items. Suspect information was obtained and deputies questioned a male juvenile. A report will be forwarded to the Dent County Juvenile Office. Then on Wednesday, March 6th, a deputy responded to the 400 block of Dent County Road 5015 in reference to a wanted subject. A 56-year-old Salem woman was arrested and transported to the Dent County Jail where she was incarcerated on the arrest warrant. Finally on Friday, March 8th, Dent County Deputies responded to the 3900 block of Dent County Road 5170 on a report of trespassing. During the investigation, a 37-year-old Salem man was arrested and transported to the Dent County Jail where he was placed on a 24-hour hold pending the issuance of any formal charges. If anyone has any information regarding an investigation, call the Dent County Sheriff’s office at 573-729-3241.