Local News – Tuesday, April 27th, 2021
The Dent County Commissioners held its regular meeting Monday at the Dent County Courthouse. At the meeting, Deloris Gray Wood from the Dent County Historical Society was in attendance. She talked with the commission about the potholes on Dent County Road 6670 on the back way into Montauk State Park. She said the road is used by people pulling campers and horse trailers and she wanted the commission to know about the potholes. District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray is aware and said the road was graded before the beginning of trout season, but it is very difficult to grade the road during the open season as there is too much traffic and the road is not wide enough for a grader and a truck in some parts of the road to pass. Commissioner Skiles said the commission could bring the situation up to Representative Copeland to see if possibly DNR would consider paving that part of the road into the park. She also wanted to discuss holding an event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Dent County Courthouse as well as the 200th anniversary of the State of Missouri. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles suggested that could possibly occur sometime in September and they will check the calendars to see what is going on. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams brought in the CART Tax figures received this month. She said Dent County received $53,578.52 in April which is down $4,381.27 from 2020 when the county received $57,959.79. Year-to-date, the CART tax receipts are down $3,518.99. In the road report, Mobray stated grading would be done on Dent County Road 5610 while rock would be added and grading done on county road 6280. He said brush would be cut on county road 5600 and a man was going to Springfield to get oil for chip and seal repair. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson reported grading would be done on Dent
County Roads 2100, 2115 and 2130 while materials would be added and grading done on county road 2140. Larson went on to say materials would also be added to county road 2150. Presiding Commissioner Skiles said he, Commissioner Mobray and Dent County Clerk Angie Curley all attended the MAC Conference on Monday. Then on Thursday, Skiles said he attended the Southwest Regional Commission Meeting in Springfield at Bass Pro Outdoor World. Skiles further reported he spoke with Attorney Travis Elliott who received a letter from the Department of Revenue stating that according to Missouri RSMO 67.525, the Department of Revenue has the right to adjust distributions to counties to correct erroneous payments. Skiles said that Elliott then told him that the Department of Revenue which has already taken $1,005,980.50 in sales tax revenue from the county’s sales tax funds, found another $735,851.89 that was sent to Dent County erroneously by Doe Run for a different sales tax fund. The commission will have to figure out to pay this amount back without it becoming a burden on the county. This discovery does not affect the budget hearing scheduled for May 17th, but there may need to be an additional meeting based upon what the decision is on paying back the state. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley reported that after the MAC meeting on Monday, she met with the Legislative Committee for County Clerks and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. They discussed the Election Security Cyber Agreement that would do a cyber security assessment of the county local election authority. A report would then follow on what has been discovered. The next meeting of the commissioners will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and that meeting is open to the public.
Dent County Health Center Board of Trustees held a special meeting Monday morning at the Dent County Health Center. at the meeting, Administrator Kendra Mobray announced her resignation effective May 31st, 2021. The board of trustees then went into closed and came back into open session with no votes being taken. Mobray expressed her gratitude to the Board for their support during her tenure at the Health Center and said it has been a great honor to serve the citizens of Dent County. With no further business, the special meeting was adjourned.