Local News – Tuesday, March 30th, 2021

The Dent County Commissioners met for their regular meeting at the Dent County Courthouse Monday morning. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray stated materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 2410, 5520 and 6090 while brush would be cut on Dent County Roads 5680 and 5690. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson reported materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 3330 and 5260, while only grading would be done on county roads 3333, 3335 and 3337. Larson said brush would be cut on county road 2510. He went on to thank Todd Williams for helping out this past weekend when Larson said he received a call that someone had dumped concrete on Dent County Road 3120 near the intersection of Dent County Road 3130 toward the Blackwell Cemetery. Williams helped remove the concrete off the road and out of the way with his backhoe so that the road was passible without doing damage to vehicles. Commissioner Larson indicated that a crew was going to be out checking roads in the northern part of District 2 to see if there was any damage from the storm on Saturday night. He did say a man would be going to Springfield to get a load of oil for the Durapatcher to do some chip and seal repair this week, then do some maintenance work of truck #124. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said the commission has still not received any explanation from the Missouri Department of Revenue about them withholding the sales tax revenue for Dent County in five different funds. On February 22nd, Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams called them and found out Dent County was not going to be receiving sales tax money for over three months. Commissioner Skiles asked them to let him know what statute gave them that right to keep the sales tax. The statute they quoted did not address that situation and Skiles sent another request on February 26th. Since the commission has not received any correspondence from the Department of Revenue, Skiles recommended the county involve attorney Travis Elliott from Ellis, Ellis, Hammons and Johnson, P.C. in Springfield. Elliott serves as the counsel for the Missouri Association of Counties and the county commission voted, 3-0 for him to find out more information on why the county has not received an answer to their inquiry on sales tax funds. Skiles also said the county will have to amend this years’ budget this spring with the loss of sales tax revenues, but they also may have to wait on the impact the American Rescue Plan has on funds available for county governments. Skiles suggested to the commission that they interview two of the firms that responded to the county request about work needed at the courthouse. He suggested speaking with Corky Stack and Associates and Bill Anderson Engineering. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said absentee voting will continue until 5:00 on Monday, April 5th. She said sample ballots are available at her office and online at the Salemmo.com website at the bottom of the Dent County Election Authority tab page. At the last meeting, Dent County Collector Shannon Van Kirk reported on the annual collector’s settlement. This year, she collected 8.4 million dollars and it was properly distributed to the entities. Last year, the collector collected 8.2 million dollars. The collector’s office has started a new tax pre-payment program where taxpayers can make payments on their taxes for 11 months and in the month of December there would be no payment due. These payments would be made electronically from a taxpayer’s account and the withdrawal can be made on the 5th or 20th of the month. Taxpayers who are interested can stop by the Dent County Collector’s office or call VanKirk at 729-3911 to get more information. The next meeting of the commissioners will be Monday at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

Drivers are encouraged to be mindful of potential lane closures this week as efforts to repair the driving surface of Highway 19 in Shannon County will be underway. Crews with Missouri Department of Transportation are planning to repave Highway 19 from Route A to Route KK. Work is scheduled to begin today and will continue through this Thursday, April 1st. One lane will be closed at various locations between 6:00 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon while work takes place. Flaggers will be in place to guide motorists through the work zones. Drivers are advised to seek an alternate route around the work areas or expect minor delays. MoDOT says they appreciate the patience of travelers while this work takes place. The work is weather permitting and could be delayed. For more information about this project or other transportation-related matters, please call 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (275-6636) or visit www.modot.org/central.

An accident occurred Friday morning in Phelps County at 11:32 on westbound I-44 four miles west of St. James. According to the Highway Patrol report a 2006 Dodge Dakota, driven by 25-year-old Leah Ornelas of St. James, traveled off the left side of the roadway, returned to the roadway and struck a westbound 2019 International Tractor driven by 57-year-old Allen Howard of Terra Haute, Indiana. The Dodge then traveled off the left side again and struck the median cables. Ornelas suffered minor injuries and was transported by EMS to Phelps Health in Rolla. The report stated that both Ornelas and Howard were wearing safety restraints at the time of the accident. The Dodge sustained extensive damage and was removed from the scene by Dishman’s Towing. There was no damage to the International and it was driven from the scene.