Local News – Friday, October 13th, 2023

A standing room only crowd overflowed onto the sidewalk outside the City of Salem’s Council Chambers at Thursday nights’ meeting of the Board of Adjustment’s public hearing. Over 25 Dent County citizens spoke in support of granting a variance to Dewayne and Angela Arthur so they could rebuild their business, Dewayne’s Tire Services LLC at 800 South MacArthur. No one spoke in opposition to allowing the Arthur’s to rebuild their shop. After over an hour of public comments, the hearing was closed, and the public meeting was held. The Board of Adjustment then voted unanimously to allow the variance with certain conditions including the requiring of adequate off-street parking of one parking space for every 500 square foot of gross area of the building, requiring exterior tire storage to be screened by an 8 foot visual barrier, and requiring 6 foot visual barriers between parking/driveway areas and any adjoining residential district or use. The vote clears the way for the Arthur’s to begin the reconstruction of the business.

The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning for their regular meeting at the Dent County Courthouse. In the road report, District One Commissioner Wes Mobray said grading was going to be done on Dent County Roads 5590, 6020 and 6380 while brush was going to be cut on county road 6090. He went on to say two men would be out patching various roads with the Ultimate Paving Material. District Two Commissioner Gary Polk reported materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Road 4040 while only grading would be done on county roads 2520, 2530 and 4330. Polk went on to say brush would be cut on county road 3290. Presiding Commission Gary Larson reported he attended the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District Board meeting where they reviewed applications for grant funding for recycling or reusing waste products. The district had $160,244.26 available for grants and Larson said ten applications were submitted that totaled more than $278,127.22. He said all the applications were funded, but most of them received less than their original request. Larson said he also attended an MRPC Dues structure meeting on Wednesday to discuss determining dues for member cities and counties next year. The MRPC would like to hire an additional grant writer full time, but can’t afford to do that and will look for a part timer. Larson said many more grants look like they will become available next year and the dues will increase next year to accommodate the demand for the services. With the MRPC dues paid by member cities and counties, they receive hours from the MRPC staff that can be used for help in preparing grant applications. Those member cities and counties can also allocate those hours to another entity if they are not going to use them. Larson will be attending the South Central County Commissioner Association meeting today in Houston. Commissioner Mobray reported the new John Deere graders have arrived. They were inspected Wednesday and then the road and bridge crew received training on the graders. Mobray said they are already out on the roads. Commissioner Larson also wanted to let people know that Octoberfest will be held October 28th from 1:00 until 7:00 around the courthouse square. At the last meeting, Engineer Corky Stack brought in a contract change order on the courthouse exterior repairs to replace 300 linear feet of rotten or broken wood to match the existing wood at an additional cost of $8,700. The commission approved the change order. Payment #8 was submitted from the contractor, Alexander Construction, LLC, and a payment due was submitted from Corky Stack, AEA Design. The next meeting of the commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting will be open to the public.