Local News – Friday, November 18th, 2022

The Dent County Commissioners met Thursday morning for their regular meeting. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles was not in attendance as he was attending the broadband regional listening session in Rolla called “Connecting All Missourians.” Dent County Clerk Angie Curley appointed District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson as the acting presiding commissioner for the meeting. Dent County Collector Shannon VanKirk came in to inform the commissioners her e-mail has not been working properly. She wanted to let the public know that if you have sent the Dent County Collector an e-mail in the last few weeks or even recently and have not received a response to please call her office at 729-3911 or stop by the courthouse. They hope to have the problem corrected soon. VanKirk also reported there has been a redemption on one of the properties sold at the tax sale. The Thomas property has been redeemed and will revert back to the original owner. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray stated his workers would be doing welding maintenance in the shop. District 2 Commissioner Larson said grading would be done on Dent County Road 2240 while materials will be added to county roads 2020, 2030 and 2050 as that did not get done on Tuesday. Larson went on to say brush was going to be cut on county road 2370. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said she balanced with the treasurer on all accounts for the month of October, and she also balanced with the county collector and assessor on all add-ons, abatements and collections for the month as well. A representative from H. R Quadri brought the contract in for the Cooley Bridge Project for the commissioners to review and sign. At 1:30, the Dent County Salary Commission met which is comprised of the elected officials including Dent County Prosecutor Andrew Curley, Dent County Clerk Angie Curley, Circuit Clerk Becky Swiney, Assessor Jamie Homeyer, Sheriff Bob Wells, Treasurer Denita Williams, Collector Shannon VanKirk, Recorder Cindy Ard, Coroner Ben Pursiful, Public Administrator Sherida Cook and Commissioners Gary Larson and Wes Mobray. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles was unable to attend the meeting. The purpose of the salary commission is to establish a base salary for elected officials based on the Assessed valuation of the county, any cost-of-living adjustment recommendation, and also to determine the mileage assessment for the county. Circuit Clerk Swiney asked for a motion to elect a chairman and the unanimous consensus was Jamie Homeyer. The group approved the minutes and heard the financial report on all the county funds. Clerk Angie Curley stated that total of all the funds came in at just under seven million dollars with still 1.7 million dollars of ARPA funds remaining and the county still owed $244,227 in Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Funds to come in this year that are not included in the seven-million- dollar figure. Discussion on the assessed valuation and base salary was held and the group unanimously voted to leave the base salary at 100% of the assessed valuation as per state statute. The group discussed the impact of a COLA of 4% and 6% on the different funds that would be affected for office holders as well as the other county employees. After some deliberation, the group unanimously elected to request a 4% COLA increase to be included in the 2023 Dent County budget for office holders and other county employees. A letter prepared by Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles was then read to the group by Sheriff Bob Wells. It was the understanding of the group the increase would go into effect on January 1st if included by the commissioners in the 2023 budget. The group also unanimously agreed to continue to base the mileage received by county employees for their travels to coincide with the state’s mileage calculation which as of Thursday was 55 cents per mile. The salary commission meeting was then adjourned. The next Dent County Commission meeting will be Monday, November 28th at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting will be open to the public.

The Salem High School Chamber Choir won the SCA Conference competition Thursday night at Mountain Grove taking 1st Place. Congratulations Tigers!