Local News – Tuesday, November 9th, 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 5520 and 6505 while only grading would be done on county road 4220. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson indicated materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 3080, 3090 and 4280 while only grading would be done on county roads 3330 and 4290. He also said brush-cutter #9 would be serviced. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said he attended a Zoom meeting at the Salem Community Center@The Armory organized by the MRPC with the Rural Electric Coop Consortium who bid on areas of Dent County to provide Internet services in the recent Rural Development Opportunity Fund auction. The consortium represents 95 different coops, but they don’t have an agreement with a local coop yet to provide Internet services in Missouri. They indicated they would be willing to work with Intercounty Electric to provide the Internet services, but they have not reached out to them yet. They estimated the time frame needed to get the work done would be eight years. Skiles said the courthouse will be closed for Veteran’s Day this Thursday and the commissioners will not be meeting on Monday, November 22nd due to the Annual MAC Conferences. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said she balanced with the collector and assessor on all abatements, collections and add-ons for the month of November. She also said she has set the candidate signup dates for all the elections to be held in 2022. Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams presented the sales tax monies received by the county this month. The county did receive the $197,000 that had been withheld in October as it was added on to the November totals with no breakdown as the time of receipt. The General Revenue Fund and the LEST Fund both received $145,057.34 in November while in November of 2020, the county received $98,235.80. Year-to-date, the county is down $256,639.44 in each of those funds. The Road and Bridge Fund received $70,228.93 compared to the 2020 figure of $47,104.59 and year-to date, it is down $137,773.87. In the jail operating fund and trust fund, the county received $105,103.36 in November compared to $94,225.44 last year. Year-to date, the jail funds are each down $275,185.89. Don Mutz from Titan Paving and Drainage talked with the commissioners about a product called Karnak that could help them on their chip and seal road repairs. This product could be kept at the county shed and used when needed. It is a thick oil product that sets up in eight to 24 hours and can be layered for trouble spots. Mutz and the Commissoners Larson and Mobray will check out the material at the county shed Wednesday morning with the road supervisors. At the last meeting, Darrell Decker from Select Service, LLC came to the commissioner meeting to discuss the health insurance renewal that showed the county had a 1.7% rate increase that came to $643.76 per employee. The commission will pay the employees insurance that will go into effect January 1st. It also costs the county $500 to be a member of the insurance consortium. The next meeting of the Dent County Commissioners will be Monday, November 15th at 9:00 at the courthouse and it will be open to the public.

An accident happened Sunday evening just after 9:00 in Phelps County at 741 Highway T. The report from the highway patrol states that a 2002 Yamaha motorcycle being operated by 24-year-old Shawn Leach of Rolla, was on private property when the motorcycle struck a parked trailer ejected Leach from the bike. He was taken to Phelps Health Hospital for the treatment of moderate injuries. The report stated that Leach was not wearing a safety device at the time of the accident.

The Salem R-80 Board of Education held a special meeting last Thursday by Zoom. The board approved to revise policy SRCSP to include the updated quarantine and isolation guidance from the Dent County Health Department. Then in closed session, the board approved hiring middle school special education instructor Kathleen Cole before Superintendent Lynne Reed discussed a personnel issue. The meeting was then adjourned.