Local News – Tuesday, March 28th, 2023

The Dent County Commissioners met Monday morning at the courthouse. To start the meeting, Dent County Clerk Angie Curley appointed District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson as the acting presiding commissioner. In the road reports for both districts, work crews were out Saturday and Sunday repairing roads and washouts, hauling and stockpiling rock. Both commissioners say they have not gotten to all the roads yet so please be patient as there was a lot of water damage to the roads. District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray did report the Cooley Bridge is now complete and Dent County Road 5610 is now back open to traffic. Clerk Curley said her office balanced with the county treasurer and collector on all accounts for February including collections, abatements and add-ons. She said her office would be testing the voting equipment this Friday morning at 9:00 at her office and that is open to the public. She said “no-excuse” voting continues through April 3rd and on election date, polling locations will be open from 6:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night. This will NOT include Green Forest R-2 and Dent-Phelps R-3 as they are not having local board elections. Curley said sample ballots are available at her office, and if anyone needs to change their voter registration information or has a change of address, now is the time to make those changes in her office. She reported on the MAGIC insurance consortium board meeting she attended last Wednesday and said it was very informative. Curley said other counties are looking into joining the consortium. She stated she was elected secretary of their board. Curley asked the commissioners if they would like to bid out the financial audit for the county in 2024 that would cover the years 2022 and 2023 since auditing firms are getting backed up. The commissioners were good with doing that and bids will be due on April 24th at 10:00 in the clerk’s office. Curley said she, Collector Shannon VanKirk and Assessor Jamie Homeyer made a presentation to the Salem Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week. Larson said the county needed to get bids on diesel fuel and gasoline immediately as they are running out of fuel, and they also need to put out for bids on culverts. They will be due on April 13th at 10:00 in the clerks office. Larson reported on the Tourism Tax Committee meeting he attended last Tuesday where they heard two requests of which one was approved and the other was tabled. They also approved one reimbursement. Larson said they are one person short on the committee and they will need to appoint a new person in the near future. Larson went to say the committee discussed moving the drop off location for applications for funding from the county clerk’s office to the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce office as that is where the meetings are held. Their application form will need to be changed before that goes into effect. Larson said the county received a change order request from Corky Stack for work on the courthouse for an additional $13,000. The change order stated the need to add an additional 300 sheets of plywood to the original order for just under $8,000 and pay for the repair costs for the work on the Christmas lights for the past year on the courthouse. This was approved by the commission. The commission also had to sign and the clerk had to attest to the “Notice to Proceed” for P.J. Meyers to move forward with the sewer grinder installation known as the “muffin monster” at the Dent County Jail. This was done and a copy was scanned and sent to Corky Stack to move forward with the project. The next meeting of the commission will be Thursday morning at 9:00 and the meeting is open to the public.

The City of Salem Board of Alderman will meet tonight at 6:00 at the City Hall Council Chambers at 202 North Washington. After the call to order, roll call, agenda approval and consent agenda the board will hear financial updates, the purchase of Nexgrid Lora Modules, and a review of the city audit with Kristen Deluca. In the reading of bills and resolutions, the board will discuss Bill No. 3537, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to sign and execute Task Order No. 15 pertaining to an agreement between the City of Salem and C.M. Archer Group P.C. dated February 3, 2020, for engineering services related to the Wastewater Treatment Facility improvements-Phase 2; as well as Bill No. 3538, which would create an ordinance authorizing the mayor to sign and execute Task Order No. 16 pertaining to an agreement between the City of Salem and C.M. Archer Group P.C. dated February 3, 2020, for engineering services related to the new well and elevated storage tank. Reports from city officials will then be heard by the board including City Administrator Sally Burbridge, Mayor Greg Parker, Public Works Director Mark Nash, and each individual Alderman. Following the reports the board will go into closed session to address personnel issues. Except for the closed session the meeting of the City of Salem Board of Aldermen is open to the public.

The Dent County Historical Society will present Dr. Eric “Rick” Mansfield as Governor Herbert S. Hadley at the James & Gahr Fellowship Hall in Downtown Salem this Saturday beginning at 10:00. Guests will be free to be amused, inspired, and perhaps come away a bit wiser all before noon. Mansfield as the ex-governor will reflect upon the newly created state parks from the late 1920s, the 1909 historic banquet in Salem along with the two-day float on the Upper Current River and the creation of a commission to “select some of the natural wonders and beauties of the state” for possible state parks. At the conclusion of the roughly thirty-minute presentation, Rick will take questions both in and out of character. These sometimes become more like “round-table” discussions. Rick is always glad to gather new information and insights during such exchanges. Rick is a retired educator who runs the non-profit Ozark Heritage Project. The OHP hosts several river clean-ups annually. He is also an author and his books about the Current River will be displayed at this Current River Scoping Meeting. For more information, Deloris Gray Wood at 573-729-2545 about the meeting.