Local News – Tuesday, December 11th, 2018
The Dent County Commission met Monday morning for their regular meeting at the courthouse. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams presented the sales tax figures for the money received by the county from the state. She stated the General Revenue Fund Sales Tax and the Law Enforcement Sales Tax each came in at about $71,057.07 and year-to-date Dent County has seen an increase of $92,631.29 in the fund which comes to a 10.47% increase. Williams presented the Road and Bridge Fund Sales Tax figures that showed that funds received $33,125.63 and year to date, the Road and Bridge Fund is $32,365.48 ahead of the previous year with a 7.85% increase. Williams wanted to remind the commission that last year, the county received two payments in December for sales tax and Road and Bridge. This is not expected this year. Williams said each jail fund received $66,135.44 this month, and year to date each fund has a fund balance of over $886,600. Dent County Collector Dennis Medlock also brought in his November monthly report that was being reviewed by the commission. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Dennis Purcell said a crew will be tail ditching roads in the Bunker area and also on Dent County Road 5550. Tree limbs will also be trimmed on county road 5550. Purcell stated brush would be cut on county road 5380, but the roads are too frozen to grade. He said with the cold weather, workers are doing service on county truck #66 and on loader #924. General shop maintenance is also being done. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson said a crew is replacing signs on Dent County Roads 4010 and 4020. He went on to report service was being done on truck #70 and he will have some workers helping District 1 with the loader service. He did state that pipes were being cleaned out on county roads 4280 and 4290 and while the men were out, they would pick up old pipes that had been replaced on county roads 3260 and 4050. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said the 2019 budget work continues. Commissioner Purcell reported he attended the Missouri Department of Conservation workshop on the possibility of elk hunting in the 2020 season in Eminence on Thursday. There was discussion on the permit applications which would only be open to Missouri residents, landowner opportunities, possible season dates as well as hunting methods. No final decisions were made on anything. The board heard from Mike Elliott on the county’s MOPERM Insurance. The next meeting of the Dent County Commissioners will be Thursday at 9:00 and the meeting is open the public.
The Missouri Public Service Commission has established the deadline for those wishing to intervene and participate in a natural gas rate case filed by Union Electric Company d/b/a Ameren Missouri. Individual citizens wishing to comment should contact either the Office of the Public Counsel (Governor Office Building, 200 Madison Street, Suite 650, P.O. Box 2230, Jefferson City, Missouri 65102-2230, or call (866) 922-2959 or the Public Service Commission Staff, P.O. Box 360, Jefferson City, Missouri 65102-0360, or call telephone 1-800-392-4211. The Office of the Public Counsel is a separate state agency that represents the general public in matters before the Commission. On December 3rd, Ameren Missouri filed a natural gas rate case with the Missouri Public Service Commission seeking to increase annual natural gas revenues by approximately $4.26 million. According to Ameren Missouri’s filing, the average annual change in natural gas rates for residential customers will be approximately $26 a year. As part of its filing, Ameren Missouri seeks an interim rate reduction of approximately 1.43% to reflect the impact of the change in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Ameren Missouri is seeking to implement the interim rate reduction on January 2, 2019 and it would remain in effect until the Commission decides the natural gas rate case.