Local News – Tuesday, April 4th, 2023
A municipal election was held Tuesday in Dent County and a total of 926 voters cast ballots for only 13.92% of the 7,075 registered voters. The unofficial results of challenged races for Dent County only are as follows:
*indicates winners
CITY OF SALEM WEST WARD ALDERMAN:
Amanda Duncan* 157 votes
Bill Riley 97 votes
CITY OF SALEM SEWERAGE BOND QUESTION
YES* 369 votes
NO 148 votes
CITY OF SALEM SALES TAX QUESTION
YES* 270 votes
NO 245 votes
DENT COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTOR - TWO-YEAR TERM
Leigh Ann Price* 372 votes
Jeff Stokes, Jr. 314 votes
SALEM R-80 SCHOOL BOARD: (three elected)
Drusilla Howard* 359 votes
Andrew Wynn* 324 votes
Marjorie Wilber Pyatt* 310 votes
Calvin Malone 183 votes
Gregory Moravec 169 votes
Brian Mink 159 votes
Bret Bailey 157 votes
OAK HILL R-1 SCHOOL BOARD: (three elected)
Daniel England* 74 votes
Thomas England* 70 votes
John Hoodenpyle 67 votes
April Greener 32 votes
Rhonda Wolfe-Hutsell 29 votes
Sarah Hoffman 26 votes
Jerry Norris 15 votes
The Dent County Commissioners met Monday morning at the courthouse. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley again appointed District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson as the acting presiding commissioner. Grant Wilson from Representative Jason Smith’s office was in to give an update. He said the House of Representatives are on Easter break. He said the federal budget was released that showed proposed tax increases of 4.7 trillion dollars to individuals and another 1.8 trillion dollars in taxes for small businesses. He also said the tax incentives from President Trump from 2017 will expire this year. He said Smith was working on tax provisions to help with the working class, farmers and small businesses. Wilson also said another Ways and Means Committee Hearing will take place in Georgia, but no date has yet to be announced. Also at the meeting, Steve Bubanovich from H. R. Quadri Contractors was in to receive the check for finishing the Cooley Bridge Project in District 1, also known as FLAP Project 057. Brian Williams from McCoy Equipment Company out of Cuba was in and calculated the price for two new John Deere graders the county wants to purchase at the state bid. The price for the District 2 grader came in at $393,600.79 as it will have the antler rack controls and the grader for District 1 came in at $382,087.71 with the joystick controls. These graders would include an 84-month warranty or 6,000 hours. The cost will be reduced by the buy-back agreement price that was agreed upon five years ago, plus there could be some further adjustment since the hours used by the machine have fallen under the 5,000 allotted for each grader. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray stated materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 5170, 5630, 5650 and 6090. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson said materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Road 4030 while only grading was going to be done on county roads 4020 and 5260. Dent County Clerk Curley wanted to remind voters to please bring a photo ID with you when you vote. She said the polling locations at Green Forest R-2 and Dent-Phelps R-3 will be closed due to their not being any elections in their district except for a handful of people who can vote on the board members for the Dent County Fire District Board. Those few voters affected have been notified by mail to vote at the courthouse. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Thursday morning at 9:00 and the meeting is open to the public.
The Missouri Department of Revenue has announced the upcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) of the license office in Steelville located at 207 W. Main Street. Bids will start being accepted Wednesday, April 5th, and must be submitted by April 18th. For a list of bid opportunities and bid response instructions, please visit Missouri's statewide electronic procurement system, MissouriBUYS, at missouribuys.mo.gov/. Interested groups or individuals who wish to bid to operate the Steelville License Office must have an active Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) and must submit the proposal under the legal entity name for which the FEIN was assigned. The Missouri Department of Revenue, through the Office of Administration, is posting an RFP for the Steelville License Office contract, since the current contract is close to expiring. Interested bidders have approximately 10 business days to submit their proposal for the operation of the license office in the competitive bid process, as outlined in the RFP. A scheduled tour of the current location may be requested by emailing the procurement contact listed on MissouriBUYS. Proposals will be evaluated by a review team at the Department of Revenue, and the proposal that scores best in the areas outlined in the RFP will be selected to operate the office. License offices are operated by independent contractors and are overseen by the Missouri Department of Revenue. All license office contracts in Missouri are awarded through a competitive bid process.
The Creative Arts Center in Salem will be offering students a chance to create an Ozark Fishing Landscape with Sharon Jeffus Saturday afternoon from 1:00 until 3:30 where they will learn atmospheric perspective techniques doing a beautiful Ozark River sunset and daytime fishing landscape. The cost of the program is $30 and there must be a minimum of five students sign up and the class will be limited to 20. For more information, call or text 573-247-0651, or you can go online to register at salemcommunitybetterment.com and look under programs for the Salem Creative Arts Center.