Local News – Friday, September 1st, 2023
A four vehicle accident happened in Phelps County Wednesday night around 8:53 on Highway 63 south of Phelps County Road 5170 that took the lives of three people. According to the highway patrol report, a 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo driven northbound by 61-year-old Patrick Perry of Newburg, crossed the center line and struck the side of a 2007 GMC Yukon driven southbound by a 16-year-old female juvenile from Edgar Springs, before striking head-on a 2007 Ford Focus driven southbound by 19-year-old Grace Gorman of Rolla. The impact of the Monte Carlo and Ford Focus caused them to rotate in the roadway. At that time, a 2002 Ford F-150 driven southbound by a 16-year-old male juvenile from Edgar Springs, struck the Chevy Monte Carlo causing the car to travel off the right side of the roadway into a rock bluff. Pronounced dead at the scene by Phelps County Coroner Ernie Coverdell were drivers Patrick Perry of Newburg and Grace Gorman of Rolla as well as a passenger in the Ford Focus, 18-year old Michael Sutton of Edgar Springs. The bodies of Gorman and Perry were taken to the James and Gahr Mortuary in Rolla by the coroner, and Sutton’s body was taken to the Phelps County Morgue by the coroner. Suffering minor injuries from the GMC Yukon were the 16-year-old female juvenile driver and an 11-year-old male juvenile passenger. They were taken to Phelps Health by a private vehicle. All the vehicles were totaled in the accident. The 2007 GMC Yukon, 2007 Ford Focus and 2004 Monte Carlo were removed from the scene by D&D Towing while Ron Dishman’s Towing removed the 2002 Ford F-150 from the scene. The highway patrol was assisted at the scene by the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department.
The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning at the courthouse. Grant Wilson from Jason Smith’s office was in and reported Smith has been making the rounds on his farm tour while Congress was on break in August. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray reported that his work crew would be patching chip and seal roads and filling stray potholes with the Ultimate Paving Material. He said workers were also out checking on roads for problems that citizens have called about. District 2 Commissioner Gary Polk said materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 5310 and 5325, while only grading was going to be done on county roads 2540 and 2550. Polk said rock would also be hauled to county road 4030 where a crew was installing a new driveway pipe. Presiding Commissioner Larson said he attended an MRPC Dues Review Committee meeting where the dues may increase for next year for member cities and counties. They will have another meeting on October 4th. Larson nominated A.J. Seay to be appointed to the County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund Board and the commission approved the nomination. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said all taxing entities have submitted their certifications to her office. She said she will be attending the County Clerk Election Authority Conference next week starting Tuesday. Curley also said the courthouse would be closed for the Labor Day holiday. Also discussed was an upgrade to the CCTV security system in the jail. The upgrade will improve the coverage from the initial installation. The cost of the upgrade is $92,638 and it will come from the county’s Construction Jail Trust Fund. The new system is to be installed in January or February of 2024. At the last meeting, the commission heard from Jason Rinker from Stronghold Data about cyber security, insurance, grants and digital maps. Engineer Corky Stack presented an invoice for the AEA Stack Engineering Design Group, and City Administrator Sally Burbridge also came in. The next meeting of the commissioners will be Thursday, September 7th at the courthouse and the meeting will be open to the public.
The Salem R-80 Board of Education held a special meeting Thursday at the district board room. At the meeting, the board discussed the RFP process they used to discuss the bids received. At their regular board meeting on August 17th, IT Director Brian Andrews summarized bids received instead of the board actually reviewing the bid proposal documents themselves leading to some confusion. After his summary, the board agreed to go with a bid from Communications Technologies Inc, out of St. Louis, for over $110,000 of the $120,000 grant amount for security cameras for the Motorola Vigilant system. The next day, the board called a special meeting and rescinded the approval of the bid as it was brought to the attention of the board the actual proposal documents were not presented to the board to see who actually placed the bid and what was actually proposed in the bid, not a summary. In the special meeting held Thursday, the board had been given the original proposal documentation with no other information discussed or considered. Board President Steven Patterson said the board could ask to have the project rebid, do nothing or could accept their original motion from the August 17th meeting. The board elected to go with their original motion for the Motorola System. Andrews said it would take about ten weeks to install and the school will monitor both systems side-by-side during installation to make sure no security is lost. The other $30,000 of the grant is for radios and security doors on the FFA building. After approving additions to the teacher substitute list, the board went into closed session.