Local News – Tuesday, May 25th, 2021

The Dent County Commissioners met Monday morning at the Dent County Courthouse. At the meeting, Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams reported on the CART tax money received in the month of May. Williams said the county received $67,277.65 this May compared to $47,523.42 in May of 2020 which is an increase of $19,754.23. Year-to-date, the CART funds received by the county are up $16,235.24. In the road report, 1st District Commissioner Wes Mobray stated materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 2400 and 4220, while only grading would be done on county roads 5170 and 5550. He said the installation of four culverts on Dent County Road 4160 had been completed. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson said grading would be done on county roads 2140, 2150 and 6160, while materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Road 2500. Larson went on to say materials would also be added to county road 2533. Larson said these last two roads are conservation area roads and should be done by this week. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said that he, treasurer Denita Williams, Sheriff Bob Wells and Sergeant Lenny Pabin attended an American Rescue Plan Act meeting at the MRPC last Wednesday to discuss funds that may become available in the county. There are still no guidelines yet or when the money will become available. The commission had to indicate what person would be able to obligate the county to the ARPA program and another who would be responsible for the funds. The commission approved allowing Skiles to be the contact person for the county and named Treasurer Denita Williams as the person responsible for the distribution of funds. Skiles said the MRPC would once again offer their services to help review applications to allow for ARPA fund distributions. Skiles said he would be attending a broadband Zoom meeting this morning at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory at 10:00 to get an update on what is going on, and then be in Jefferson City Wednesday for the insurance consortium meeting. Dent County Collector Shannon VanKirk came in to tell the commissioners that Forte, the company that allows people to pay their tax bills by credit card, has updated their site and has a new web address that will be on the county website shortly, and will be on the tax statements come November. The new address to pay tax bills through Forte is: https://billpay.forte.net/dentcountymotax/. At the last meeting, the commissioners held a Budget hearing to make adjustments to the county 2021 budget. Due to the Department of Revenue error, the county adjusted the decrease in sales tax revenues for the General Revenue Fund, both jail funds, the Road and Bridge Department Fund and the Law Enforcement Salem Tax Fund. They included the new American Rescue Plan Act funds the county expects to get and made a transfer of $150,000 from General Revenue to the LEST Fund to keep it financially sound. The county then went on to increase the culvert line from $20,000 to $30,000 in the Road and Bridge budget in the 2021 budget. With no opposition, the commissioners approved the budget amendments. The commissioners will not be meeting on May 31st due to it being Memorial Day and their next meeting will be on June 7th.

In closed session Thursday evening at the Salem R-80 Board of Education meeting, the board approved the employment of Cody Woody as a high school physical education instructor and middle school football coach, Jared Patterson as a high school social studies instructor and middle school football coach, Mark Howard as a middle school football coach and Chris Kamprath as an assistant track coach. The board also approved allowing Kyle Anderson to take a sabbatical year as high school assistant football coach for the 2021-2022 year, extending Will Hubbs contract by 10 days, and approved adding an extra duty drama stipend at Group #4 and to hire Shannon Phelps for that position. Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed then discussed the individual building climate survey results with the board before they adjourned closed session and the regular meeting.

As part of an ongoing improvement project taking place on various roadways in Dent and Phelps Counties, work crews plan to start on two of the next phases of the project this week. Yesterday, a contractor working for the Missouri Department of Transportation will begin pavement improvement work on Dent County Route F. This work is expected to take up to two weeks to complete and will require daily intermittent lane closures with flaggers to guide motorists through the work zone. Crews will also begin improvement work on the barrier curb of the Phelps County Route K bridge over Sherrill Creek. This work is expected to take up to three weeks to complete and will require temporary signals at the bridge to guide motorists through the work zone. Once this work is complete, crews will begin resurfacing and widening the shoulders of Highway 68 in both counties and Dent County Route HH near Salem. Crews will also continue to work on box culvert extensions along Highway 68. This work is weather permitting and could be delayed. For more information and updates about this project or other transportation-related matters, please call 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (275-6636) you can also follow the MoDOT Central Missouri District on Facebook and Twitter for project updates.