Local News – Tuesday, June 16th, 2020

The Dent County Commissioners met Monday morning at the courthouse. Bill Ard from the Dent County Tourism Tax Committee was in and let the commission know his term is up and he has been looking for his replacement who must come from a tourism related business. If you would be interested in serving on the Tourism Tax Committee and you own or work in a tourism related business, call Bill at 314-277-1444. They meet once a month to hear proposals and also approve reimbursements from previous proposals. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams came in with the sales tax dollars received by the county in June. She said the General Revenue Fund and the Law Enforcement Sales Tax Fund each received in June $121,489.26 and that is $50,237.98 more than June of 2019. Year-to-date, those funds are up $30,734.17 which is a 6.46% increase. The Road and Bridge Fund received $57,975.28 and that is $25,131.76 more than the 2019 June figure. Year-to-date, that fund is up $18,565.97 which is a 8.56% increase over 2019. Williams also reported on the two jail funds and they each brought in $115,964.25 and that is $50,362.63 more than in June of 2019. Year-to-date, each of those funds is up $35,446.04 and that is about 8.15%. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Dennis Purcell said grading will be done on Dent County Roads 6303, 6320, 6400, 6420 and 6490 while brush would be cut on county roads 5015, 6300 and 6303. He said two men were working on hydraulic leaks on grader #24 and brush cutter #7. Purcell also said the collections of the Dent County Tourism Tax plummeted in April and came in only $3,227.41 compared to over $71 hundred last year in April. He will also be attending a South Central Community Action Agency meeting in Winona Tuesday night. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson said grading will be done on Dent County Roads 3330, 4355 and 4405 while brush will be cut on county roads 6680, 6690 and 6700. He said he is having trouble with MACK dump truck #122 and two men will be taking it to Tri-State Mack Truck in Springfield for repairs where the truck will have to be left. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said at the TAC meeting last Thursday, MoDOT discussed budget cuts where employees are getting their hours reduced due to the decrease in CART funds. This also means some of the STIP projects will be pushed back. He attended the Public Housing Authority meeting and said that in May, there were 103 units rented through HUD with rental payments totaling $29,500. In the External Relations Committee meeting, they finalized the annual MRPC Awards Dinner and Banquet at Linn State Technical School in Osage County for October 22nd and tickets will cost $35. At the Meramec Regional Planning Committee meeting, a presentation of the Naturally Meramec was given where those who produce products and marketers come together to share information in the region about locally grown products in each county. This getting together for products and markets has worked very well and continues to grow. He also said the MRPC will be providing CARES Funding services to six of the counties served by the MRPC. Skiles also said that people need to get their Census 2020 in as soon as possible. Currently, only 42.7% of Dent County homes have responded. Skiles also said if anyone would like to use the courthouse lawn or grounds for an event, they need to ask the commission for permission and receive authorization to use the property to prevent having multiple groups trying to use the property at the same time. Skiles went on to report that 266 people visited the new Dent County Jail with 95 touring the facility on Saturday. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

The Salem R-80 Board of education will be holding a re-organizational and regular meeting tonight at 6:00 in the Salem R-80 boardroom. The proposed agenda for the re-organizational meeting after the call to order will be the approval of the agenda and the certification of the recent election results. This will be followed by the swearing in of the newly elected members by the secretary of the board. Superintendent John McColloch will be acting as temporary chairman to select the new board president and vice president. At that time the new board president will preside over the election of the secretary and treasurer. The board will also elect an MSBA delegate and an alternate. The meeting will then adjourn and move into the regular monthly meeting. After the approval of the agenda for the regular meeting the board will hear the consent agenda and approve all previous minutes, approve bills, and approve program evaluations including technology, discipline and safety and the facilities and grounds. The board will then hear the superintendent’s report covering the BOE committee assignments. In new business the board will consider the 2019-2020 budget revisions, consider surplus property bids, the adoption of the 2020-2021 budget, review healthy Dent county renewals, and consider the bus lease. The board will then hear resignations, if any, before adjourning and moving into executive session. The Salem R-80 Board of Education re-organization and regular meetings tonight are open to the public.