Local News – Friday, December 16th, 2022
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.