Your World Today

The Dent County Fire Protection District Board of Directors met Tuesday evening at 6:00. After the roll call and approval of the consent agenda, the minutes from the February meeting were approved. The financial report was presented which showed an ending balance as of February 28th of 193,081.57. Bills, payments, and statements were then reviewed and approved. During the calendar review, this week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, participants from the 100-Acre Wood Rally will register cars at the station. Chief Nash will be at Northwood R-4 on the 14th for an interview with JAG; and on March 22nd, the forest service will be hosting a tabletop exercise for the department and other first responder agencies. The district reimbursement report was presented which showed a total of 20 calls for the month of February, bringing the year to date total to 65. Truck 85 is still out of service and the department is waiting for parts that should be in on March 21st. In his report to the board, Chief Nash reminded the board that October 7th from 8:00 until 4:30 there would be a class for the board of directors that the district will be hosting and it is mandatory for all members to attend. Nash also presented the board with a projected estimate of the cost for the district for the upcoming election and it will be around $6,720.00. Before adjourning the date for the next meeting was set for Tuesday, April 11th, at 6:00 in the evening at the Dent County Fire Station.

An accident happened Friday morning just after 9:00 on Highway 63 just south of Locust Street in Freeburg. According to the highway patrol report, a 2005 Ford F-250 being driven south by 30-year-old Bobby Houston of Rolla, crossed the center line and struck a 2016 Dodge Ram being driven northbound by 56-year-old Matthew Duncan of Licking. The Ford then slid into a 2016 Toyota Scion being driven by 46-year-old Michael Jensen of Olatha, Kansas. Jensen was taken by ambulance to Capital Regional Medical Center in Jefferson City. Two passengers in the Ram, 54-year-old Janell Duncan and 82-year-old Sharon Stephens, both of Licking were taken by ambulance to Phelps Health Hospital for treatment of minor injuries. All three vehicles sustained moderate to extensive damage and were removed from the scene by Poettgen Towing. The report went on to state that everyone involved were wearing seat restraints at the time of the accident.

March is the annual observance of National Nutrition Month, a campaign to raise awareness of healthy eating and physical activity. Nutrition is especially important for older adults. Receiving proper nutrition is not only a vital part of healthy aging it can impact immunity, energy levels, heart health and much more. National Nutrition Month is the perfect time for older adults to educate themselves and consider the impact certain food choices have on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The Salem Senior Center can help with education on nutrition and how to live a healthy lifestyle. On Wednesday morning at 11:00, there will be a presentation on “What is in your soda?” This is a great way to learn more about health and nutrition while enjoying good food, visiting with friends, and having fun. For more information, contact Jody Schaefer, 573-729-2373, and see them on Facebook: Salem Senior Center.

Last week, there were two reports of people being sentenced to the Missouri Department of Corrections for drug related incidents. In one case, 43-year-old Bradley Delashmit of Salem pled guilty to felony counts of second-degree drug trafficking and will serve eleven years as recommended by Prosecutor Andrew Curley in front of Judge Megan Seay. Sentenced to serve 15-years under the State Statute 559.115 program with a 120 day shock incarceration was 53-year-old Tabitha Freeman of Salem who pled guilty of distribution of a controlled substance, the possession of a controlled substance in the Dent County jail and possession of methamphetamine. Judge Michael Randazzo presided over the plea and sentencing. He followed the recommendation of Dent County Prosecutor Andrew Curley.

Students have the opportunity to participate in multiple contest categories, including posters with hand-drawn and graphic arts, and re-purposing recyclables and trash into three-dimensional pieces of trash art. All art entries should echo the theme of the contest and an underlying solid waste management theme to reduce, reuse, and recycle. First and second place contest winners will be awarded prizes, made possible by sponsor donations. Honorable mention projects will also be recognized. All prizes will be earth-friendly, with the first prize valued at $30, second prize valued at $10 and honorable mention prizes valued at $5 approximately. Entries for all categories will be accepted through this Friday, March 17th. and may be dropped off at the county clerk offices at the nearest courthouse or at MRPC, located at #4 Industrial Drive in St. James. Posters must not exceed 28” x 22”, and trash art projects must not exceed 12”x 12” x 12”. Only one entry per category per student will be accepted, but students may submit entries for all three categories. All entries must be clearly marked with the student’s name, grade, school district, school name and teacher’s name. If any information is not labeled, the entry will be disqualified. If you or your business would like to be a sponsor or for more information about the contest, call 573-265-2993.

The Dent County Commissioners met Thursday morning at the Dent County Courthouse. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley appointed District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson as the Acting Presiding Commissioner for the meeting. Amanda Sapaugh from the SB 40 Board was in to ask the commissioners to re-appoint Shawn Bolerjack and Grant Hamlett to her board for three-year terms. She said she also had two vacancies on her board she would like to fill. She recommended the commission appoint Becky Steiner to a three-year term and Chelsie Hubbs to a two-year term. The commissioners approved the re-appointments and Sapaugh’s recommendations to fill the vacancies. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams brought in her report on the sales tax monies received in March from the Department of Revenue. She said the General Revenue Fund and the Dent County LEST Fund each received $94,424.82 this month which is $8,754.64 more than the 2022 figure of $85,670.18 for March. Year-to-date, those funds are each up $26,658.56 which is over a 10% increase. In the Road and Bridge Fund, the county received $43,644.24 while last March the county took in $39,486.61. That difference was $4,157.63 and year-to-date, the Road and Bridge Fund is up $14,816.63 over 2022 which is an increase of over 12.49%. In the two jail funds, the trust fund and operating fund, revenues received from the state this month came in at $87,288.52 and that is $8,367.36 more than March of 2022, and year-to-date each fund is up $29,809.68. That is about a 12.5% increase more than 2022. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray said brush was being cut in the Bunker area on numerous roads, plus work was being done in the shop changing out tires and general maintenance. Mobray said crews were still checking some roads for damage from recent rains, and the ultimate paving material was being used for patching on various chip and seal roads. Commissioner Larson said rock would be added to Dent County Road 6140 and then spread out with a grader, while brush was going to be cut on county roads 4283, 4285 and 4287. He said a new battery was being installed in brush cutter #6 and a cotter pin had to be replaced on the back hoe. Once that was done, the back hoe was going to be cleaning out debris from under and around bridges. Dent County Clerk Curley said excused absentee voting continues in her office, the last day to mail out a ballot for the April 4th election will be March 22nd, and no-excuse absentee voting will begin March 21st and last through April 3rd. She said sample ballots are available at the courthouse for the Municipal Election and they are free. She also wanted to report that Green Forest R-2 and Dent-Phelps R-3 polling locations will NOT be open for this election as they do not have races for those schools. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the Dent County courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

An accident happened Wednesday afternoon at 4:45 in Phelps County on Highway 63 and Route M in Edgar Springs. According to the highway patrol report, 37-year-old Austin Baird of Edgar Springs was driving a 2005 GMC Pickup westbound, when he pulled into the path of a 2022 Buick Enclave driven by 75-year old Raymond Lewis of Licking. The Enclave struck the side of the GMC. Suffering moderate injuries were Baird who was taken by a patrol vehicle to Phelps Health in Rolla, and 72-year-old Belinda Lewis of Licking who was a passenger in the Enclave. She was taken by ambulance to Phelps Health. Both Raymond and Belinda Lewis were wearing their seat restraints while Baird was not. The GMC was totaled and removed from the scene by Lucas Towing while the Buick sustained extensive damage and was removed by D&D Towing. Baird was arrested for a DWI for drugs, failure to stop at a stop sign and for not wearing a seat belt. He was released from Phelps Health.

This week is Severe Weather Preparedness Week, and the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance, the State Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. National Weather Service remind Missourians they should prepare in advance for severe weather. Spring brings thunderstorms, heavy winds, hail and tornadoes are all potential weather threats in Missouri and may result in significant damage or destruction to your home. Last year a total of 16 tornadoes occurred statewide; 35 tornadoes are typically the norm in Missouri annually. Severe weather throughout the year makes it critical for homeowners to understand a key component of their policies and that is their roof insurance. Some policies may not cover the replacement cost of your roof or the policy you have may only cover a depreciated cost, or the actual cash value, to repair or replace your property. The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance recommends that consumers check their homeowners policy or contact their insurance company or agent to see whether their policy provides replacement cost coverage. DCI’s online roof coverage tool, insurance.mo.gov/roofing, is available to assist Missourians by providing a free analysis of the top twenty homeowners insurance companies in the state. If a company is not listed, this comparison shopping form helps consumers ask the right questions and record information as they research options for new coverage or seek to understand their existing coverage. For questions on roof insurance or any other insurance questions, Missouri consumers can call DCI’s Insurance Consumer Hotline at 800-726-7390 or visit insurance.mo.gov/consumers. You can learn more about Missouri’s annual Severe Weather Preparedness Week and find more weather-related resources at stormaware.mo.gov.

The City of Salem Utility Committee met Wednesday evening at the Salem Community Center@The Armory. City of Salem Finance Director Stacey Houston presented the financial report on the utilities showing the electric sales revenues up 34%, mostly due to the rate increase. The electric sales are currently near $4.98 million and are at 74% of the budget amount. The service availability fee has contributed an additional $200,820 to the fund. She also said the water fund revenues are up about 6% to $638,409 which is 83% of the amount budgeted for the year, while the sewer revenues as of March 6th are $670,183 which stand at about 92% of the budgeted amount for the fiscal year which will end June 30th. That increase is also attributable to the rate increase from earlier in the fiscal year. Houston reported the Electric Fund balance is at $616,691 as of February 2nd while the Water Fund balance is $112,280 and the Sewer Fund balance is $60,509. She said the city is currently paying 7.2664 cents per kilowatt hour from their supplier which is 12% higher than last year on the average. Public Works Director Mark Nash said there was one main water line break which has been corrected. Nash said the asphalt plant should be opening near the end of April and the city will be looking at asphalting streets versus the Novachip. The biggest difference is that the road must have a solid base before you can use the 1.5 to 2 inch thick Novachip while the base doesn’t necessarily have to be that way for the four inches of hot asphalt. He also said that chip and seal will not be used due to the amount of citizen complaints. Chairman Kyle Williams gave the report on the sales tax issue question someone brought up at the town hall meeting if the 1% sales tax passed, would that 1% sales tax be applied to utilities as well. The simple answer is no, but it could if the alderman used a subsection of a state statute to allow that to happen, but that would have to be done with the state’s approval and then through an ordinance. According to City Administrator Burbridge, the city is not interested in doing that. A question was also asked about the wording on the ballot concerning the sewer bond issue and that the language does not specifically say the money will be used just for the sewer treatment plant. Burbridge explained that a bond attorney wrote the ballot language and that the money is targeted at the treatment plant improvements, but may also be able to be used to reduce or eliminate stormwater infiltration from entering the treatment plant which is a major cause of the problems. This could be from feeder pipes or drainage systems improperly installed years ago. The Department of Natural Resources would determine what the city may or may not use those funds for if the issue passes. There was also a discussion on net metering and how the city follows the state statute of avoided fuel costs to determine credits which is the minimum rate. This will be brought up at the next Utility committee meeting to be held on Wednesday, April 12th. The meeting was then adjourned.

State Fire Marshal Tim Bean recommends Missourians use the return of daylight saving time this weekend to test home smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. At 2:00 Sunday morning, clocks spring forward one hour. Bean also urges families to practice their fire escape plans. Safety experts recommend families practice their home fire escape plans at least twice each year. Getting into the habit of checking them when changing your clocks takes very little time and makes a tremendous difference to your family’s safety. Working smoke alarms reduce the risk of dying in a fire by one-half. About one-half of home fire deaths occur at night between 11:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning when most people are asleep. That is why it is important for all family members to be able to act react quickly and get out. Each family member, including children, should know two escape routes from every room in their residence. This information should be shared with overnight guests, too. Bean also reminds Missourians that they should have carbon monoxide alarms for their homes. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, tasteless, invisible gas that results from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, which can be deadly if undetected. The fire marshal makes these recommends checking smoke and carbon monoxide alarms monthly by pushing the test button and replacing smoke alarms every 10 years because they lose their effectiveness over time. Install additional smoke alarms if you do not have a minimum of one alarm on every level of the home, inside all bedrooms, and outside bedrooms. Plan two different escape routes from your home and practice the routes with the entire family. Families should also select a safe gathering place outside the residence in the event of a fire. Follow the Division of Fire on Facebook or Twitter.

The Creative Arts Center will host a tye-dye class with Laura Miller from the Tye Dye Shop this today from 4:00 to 6:00 where students will be creating a 28 inch by 28 inch heavyweight cotton tye-dye tapestry. They will also hold a beginning crochet class tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 where Gwendolyn Wakefield will teach students basic crochet stitches and they can go home with a project you make yourself. The cost of each class is $25. For more information call or text 573-247-0651, or go online at salemcommunitybetterment.com and look under programs for the Salem Creative Arts Center.