Local News – Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020
The Salem R-80 Board of Education in closed session Thursday night approved moving Administrative Secretary Janelle Frederick to the insurance payroll pay scale, and agreed to pay a stipend of $3,500 to Bob Homer for his services as a football mentor to interim football Head Coach Lane Howard. The board also agreed to move para-professional Mandi Conway from 7.33 hours to 8.0 hours on the paraprofessional pay scale, and that high school attendance secretary Jamie Summers has moved to the high school principal’s secretary’s position. The board also approved exploring options to create a 100% district paid position instead of pursuing a new Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Salem for the Safety Resource Officer position. The meeting was then adjourned.
The Dent County Commissioners met Monday morning at the courthouse. At the meeting, Dent County Treasurer Denita Williams brought in the CART funds received by the county. She said the money received in September was $61,381.55 and that is down from last year’s total of $65,293.81. Year-to-date, the CART funds are down in 2020 by $28,351.83 from 2019 and that comes to about 5.6%. In the road report, 1st District Commissioner Dennis Purcell stated grading would be done on Dent County Roads 5050, 5100, 5103, 5105 and 5480. He said repairs were being made to county trucks #78 and #121. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson said Dent County Road 2070 would be shut down through October 1st for the rebuilding of a low water crossing that is in need of repair. He also said brush would be cut on county road 2200, a man would be going to Springfield to get oil for the Durapatch machine to do chip and seal road repairs, and another man would be screening brown rock. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles reported the CCAM Executive Board would be meeting in Columbia with the Holiday Inn Executive Center Management to discuss the contract for the CCAM Board meetings. He also reported that last week at the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District Executive Board meeting, waste reduction applications were reviewed and scored. He said there nine applications requesting about $240,000 while there is only $175,000 available. They will meet again to determine where the funding goes based upon the scoring. Skiles also said there were two CARES Act requests for funds: One from Green Forest R-2 for $14,698 and another from R-80 for $18,381. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said the tax rates have been approved by the state and they have been submitted to the collector. She also said she would be attending the South Central County Clerk’s regional meeting at West Plains. Curley wanted to remind everyone that absentee voting for the November 3rd General Election starts Tuesday and will go until November 2nd at 5:00 in her office. An absentee ballot can also be requested to have a ballot mailed to them. You need to do that by October 21st. Mail-in ballots can also be requested by October 21st. Make sure that you have your mail-in ballot notarized and return it by the US Mail service, it MUST be received by 7:00 on Tuesday, November 3rd to be counted. At the last meeting, four CARES Act request were approved and they were $7,315 for the Salem R-80 School District, $10,105.58 for the Dent-Phelps R-3 School District, $6,917.56 for the Green Forest R-2 School District and $7,480.66 was pre-approved for the Salem Public Library and a $256.24 reimbursement to the library was approved. Dent County Collector Shannon Vankirk reported the monthly collections for August came to $37,545.94. The next meeting of the Dent County Commissioners will be Monday morning at the courthouse at 9:00 and the meeting is open to the public.
The Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors will conduct their September meeting tonight, in the hospital library beginning at 6:00. After approval of the agenda and minutes of the August 18th Public Tax Hearing and regular meeting, Hospital Administrator Kasey Lucas will report on the summary of the operations for the month of August followed by the Chief of Nursing Report by Debbie Hines. A report on the hospital foundation, plus the marketing and community perception report by Chief Operating Officer Jason Edwards will be followed by the Chief of Staff Report. Lucas will then go over the COVID-19 update and give an update on Hospital expansion and renovation. New business will include the Annual Bylaw Review and purchases since the last meeting. The board may vote to go into closed session. Due to COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, the September meeting of the Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors will be held by telephone/video conference. The meeting is open to anyone to join. For information on how to access the meeting via zoom, please email Karen Brown at kbrown@smdh.net or call her at (573) 729-5917, extension 4005.