Local News – Friday, January 10th, 2020

The Dent County Commissioners met Thursday morning at the courthouse for its regular meeting. At the meeting, Amanda Sapaugh from the SB 40 Board came in with recommendations for board members. She recommended that Ron Hutson be renewed for a one-year term, A.J. Seay for a two-year term and Shawn Bolerjack for a three-year term. She also asked the commissioners to consider adding Chip Adams to the board to replace the position formerly held by James Coffman for a two-year term. The commissioners approved all of her recommendations. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Dennis Purcell stated patch grading would be done on Dent County Road 5520, brush would be cut on county roads 6580 and 6590 and workers would be putting up downed road signs on county road 5440 and other various roads. Purcell went on to say that another crew would be out checking road pipes in anticipation of the heavy rains predicted for the area. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson reported materials would be added and patch grading would be done on Dent County Road 4380, while another crew would be stockpiling rock at the county shed. Larson said a crew would be cleaning out pipes on county roads 2500 and 2570 while another crew would be putting up downed road signs on county roads 2350 and 2610. Presiding Commissioner Skiles attended a Public Housing Authority meeting in St. James Thursday afternoon and attended the MRPC Board meeting that evening where they would provide state legislators or their representatives with the MRPC state legislative priorities for the upcoming year. Dent County Clerk Angie said her office workers continue to work on the 2020 budget. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams came in to report on the sales tax monies received from the state this month. She said this January, the county received $84,094.63 in the General Revenue Fund which is down from the 2019 January figure of $88,880.89 while the Law Enforcement Sales tax came in at $84,094.92 and that is down $4,785.96 from 2019. Williams said the Road and Bridge Fund received $39,373.74 in January which is down from the 2019 January receipt of $ 41,339.16, and each jail fund came in at $78,760. That amount is down from last year’s January receipts of $81,865 for each fund. The commission also took phone bids for 7,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Three bids were received from MFA, County Fuels and Phil-Mart and the low bid was Phil-Mart at $1.95 a gallon. The next meeting of the commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company headquartered in New York, New York, has conducted a study on determining the most affordable counties to retire. In Missouri, Dent County came in first in both the regular and early retirement indexes based on these five factors: property tax, cost of living, pension, 401(k) and Social Security income. First, SmartAsset looked at the average Social Security income for each county in the United States. Then they looked at 401(k) and pension plan statistics for each county, as these plans are designed to help people meet financial goals for retirement. The metrics included for 401(k) performance were employer contributions, fees and fund performance. For pensions, they looked at government contribution, fund returns and funding percentage. To assess costs that will affect the affordability of an individual’s retirement, they analyzed data on the median annual property taxes paid in each county and their respective cost of living, which includes items like food, medical care and transportation. SmartAsset then determined a weighted score for each county’s retirement affordability by evaluating each of the five factors before indexing the affordability scores so that the values reflect the most affordable places to retire. Nationwide, Dent County came in 71st in the regular affordable retirement index and 52nd in the early affordable retirement index. For a full report on the state of Missouri and other counties, visit https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/financial-advisor-firms#missouri.