Local News – Thursday, July 13, 2023

Dent County Prosecutor Andrew Curley has released some reports on cases heard in Dent County Friday in front of Judge Megan Seay. In the first case heard, the defendant was Roy Smith of St. Louis and he was on supervised probation after completing a RSMO 559.115 program for two counts of felon in possession of a firearm. Judge Seay revoked Smith’s probation and he was sentenced to serve 10 years in Missouri Department of Corrections as requested by the prosecutor. The next case heard was Kara Happel of Salem who had been on probation for felony possession of a controlled substance. Happel failed to complete the alternative sentencing court and was sentenced to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. In the last case heard, a probation revocation hearing for Janice Bote of Rolla was held in Dent County. Bote was on probation for the possession of methamphetamine. According to the report, Bote tested positive for meth on four occasions and she had never tested negative for controlled substances while on probation. She also had failed to complete her substance abuse directive given to her by probation and parole. Bote requested to be continued on probation with her drug treatment to be completed within the community. Prosecutor Curley recommended Bote to serve 120 days in the Missouri Department of Corrections through the RSMO 217.785 program which involves a drug treatment program. Judge Seay ordered Bote to complete the 120 day program as requested by the state.

The Salem Utility Committee met Wednesday night at the Salem Community Center@The Armory. The committee reviewed the final fiscal year results with City Treasurer Stacey Houston who reported the total electric sales revenue came in at $7,105,213 which is about 30% more than last year which was expected with the rate increase plus the service availability charge. Consumption actually went down about 50,000 kilowatts but the income come in at 106% of budget and overall expenses were lower than budgeted. Houston said the water usage increased 16 million gallons and the increase in revenues was about $136,000. The sewer sales revenue with the rate increase in August went up $310,000 and gallons treated increased by seven million gallons. The electric fund finished with an excess of revenues over expenses of $515,954 and an ending balance of $597,000 even after the transfer to general revenue and to the reserves. Monies were increased in all reserve funds but have not yet reached the 25% reserve goal for electric, but the goal was reached for the water and sewer reserves. Jennifer Cochran from the Utility Department said the city e-mailed out ten test bills to make sure that everything is working properly before e-mailing any more. The committee was then informed of Mid-Missouri Municipal Power Energy Pool update on their desire to increase their reserves from 30 days to 60 days to put them in a better financial position for financing rates and even the possibility of buying ownership shares in electric generation facilities. To reach their goal, the city will be charged an additional $13,967 on their monthly MPUA bill for electricity for two years for a total of $335,209. It was suggested by committee member Rick Letchworth to pay for it now out of reserves, but the motion died for a lack of second. No other suggestion was made by the committee and currently the city will pay the amount waiting for guidance from the committee at a later date. The Utility Committee agreed to sign the letter of support of the proposition from MPUA to look into a grant to develop solar farms in the area if 50 to 80% grant funds would become available to pay for the farm. There was some discussion that this request for support should have been sent out to the committee before the meeting for their review before the letter was prepared. Public Works Director Mark Nash said there are still some main water line leaks, and that during the storm, feeder 4 had outages from tree limbs and high winds. Committee Chairman Kyle Williams said he has been asked about water testing in the city. He said results from tests can be found at dnr.mo.gov/dww and look for Salem. Additional tests could be taken but they would be at the expense of the city. The water department will get cost estimates of the tests that are available for the next meeting where the committee can determine if they want additional testing. After some questions, the meeting was adjourned.

The Dent Fire Protection District Board of Directors met Tuesday evening at 6:00. At the meeting, the board approved the minutes from the June meeting before hearing the financial report which showed an ending balance of 157,817.88 as of June 30th. Bills, payments, statements, and the budget were then reviewed by the board. The monthly reimbursement report was presented showing a total of 20 calls for the month of June bringing the total calls for the year to date to 161. In old business, it was reported that all of the parts were in for Engine 85 and work should be done by the end of next week. When the work is completed and before it can go back into service, the pumps will need to be tested and certified. Chief Brad Nash then reported to the board, giving an update on the ARPA grant which is still in the paperwork stage. Nash also reported on the gear dryer that he built for approximately $1,000. If purchased new, the cost would have been between 10,000 and 15,000. Before adjourning, the date was then set for the next meeting which will Tuesday, August 8th at 6:00 at the fire station at #2 South Main Street. The meeting next month will be open to the public.

The Board of Directors of the Salem Memorial Hospital have cancelled their special meeting for this Friday at 11:00 that was to be held at the hospital that was called on Wednesday.