News – Tuesday, February 24th 2026

The City of Salem Board of Aldermen will meet this evening at 5:30 at 202 N. Washington in the Old City Hall Auditorium. After the Pledge of Allegiance, roll call and approval of the agenda and consent agenda, the board will hear any scheduled public comments and consider multiple street closure requests, including one from Rob Benowitz for the 100 Acre Wood Rally, a request related to The Local on March 14, 2026, and a request from Skip Dahms. New and miscellaneous business will include discussion of an engineering firm recommendation, followed by reports from city officials. The meeting will conclude with a closed session, to discuss personnel matters, before adjourning. The regular portion of tonight’s meeting is open to the public. 

The Dent County Commission met Monday morning at the courthouse. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams gave the CART Tax receipts for the month of February. Dent County received $92,158.32 which is $3,884.49 more than last February. Year-to-date, the CART funds are up $6,557.00 which is about a 3.8% increase. Dent County Emergency Management Director Derrick Marfitt reported the FEMA reimbursement for Dent County Road 4210 is waiting on the report from Great Rivers Engineering. The county is still waiting on funding approval from FEMA for all the obligated projects the road department has already completed. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Keith Green said brush will be cut on Dent County Road 5620 and possibly on county road 5630. Workers will be servicing one truck, and another crew will be replacing missing road signs on county roads. District 2 Commissioner Jimmy Williams stated brush will be cut on county road 2370. Williams indicated both tractors are being worked on and signs will be replaced on county road 3140. Williams did say that grading may begin on county road 2210. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson reported he attended a meeting in St. James Friday at the MRPC building on the elimination of solid waste management districts. Larson said there were numerous reps in person and on zoom discussing their opposition to the idea that is being pushed by the governor to reassign funding to the Department of Natural Resources. Larson will keep the county posted on any further information he receives on future developments. Larson said the commissioners would not be meeting Thursday, February 26th, due to their annual training. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said excused absentee voting for the Municipal Election starts today at the courthouse. Today will also be the first day for those who want to file for county or state offices for the Primary election in August. Interested candidates for the county offices can begin filing at the courthouse at 8:00 this morning at the county clerk’s office and that is on a first come, first serve basis. Those wanting to run for state office will need to file at the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center located at 600 West Main Street in Jefferson City, starting at 8:00 this morning. Curley also stated that 27 counties in Missouri will benefit from the federal reimbursement for timber impacted counties and Dent County is one of them. She said Dent County will receive $150,403.00 for fiscal year 2025 and 2026. Dent County is a member of NACO who was the advocate in winning this major victory to pass the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act. The commission accepted the bid from Blevins Asphalt from Mount Vernon for 10 miles of chip and seal work for $205,920. The Commissioners agreed to seek bids for a used light duty dump truck between the years 2019 and 2024. For bids specs on the truck, call Keith at 573-247-6658. Bids will be due on March 5th at 10:30 in the morning. The commission will have the right to accept or reject all bids. The next meeting of the Dent County Commissioners will be Monday morning at the courthouse at 9:00 and the meeting is open to the public.