Local News – Wednesday, January 24th, 2024
The Dent County Commission held a special meeting Tuesday after their regular meeting Monday was postponed due to the icy road conditions. In the road report, District 1 Commission Wes Mobray said workers will be working on a salt spreader trying to figure out why it won’t stay working, while District 2 Commissioner Gary Polk said workers would be in the Boss area spreading salt on some roads that are still slick. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson proposed to the commission to include two separate questions on the April ballot: one on a county wide sales tax on recreational marijuana use, and the other would be a use tax that would only be collected on out-of-state or Internet sales of products. The first question ballot language would read, ”Shall Dent County, Missouri impose a countywide sales tax of three percent (3%) on all tangible personal property retail sales of adult use marijuana sold in Dent County, Missouri?” This tax would not be collected on the sale of medical marijuana. The second question ballot language would read, ”Shall the County of Dent impose a local use tax at the same rate as the local sales tax rate, currently 2.25%, provided that if the local sales tax rate is reduced or raised by voter approval, the local use tax shall also be reduced or raised by the same action?” Both of the questions on the ballot would benefit the General Revenue Fund of the county. The commission approved adding both questions to the April ballot. It should be noted a new use tax in Dent County would not change the amount of a purchase that people would pay for at a store in Salem or in Missouri, but would only apply to purchases made outside of Missouri that are to be used in Missouri including purchases on the Internet. If passed, people who purchase items on the Internet or by phone from a vendor outside of Missouri will have to pay the same local sales tax as if they were buying the product in Salem from a brick and mortar store. The next meeting of the commission will be Thursday at 9:00 at the courthouse and it will be open to the public.
On Monday, the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department issued an Endangered Person Advisory for an 18-year-old white male named Faelin Conner Graves. Graves has since been found and is home safe.
The archery deer hunting ended January 15th with the close of the archery season. Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation showed that hunters checked 55,396 deer during the 2023-2024 archery deer season. Top counties for the archery deer season were Jefferson with 1,440, Franklin with 1,194, and St. Louis with 1,022. Hunters checked 56,683 deer during the 2022-2023 archery deer season. According to MDC, this year was the first since 2013 that more does were harvested than antlered bucks.
If you made a reservation to camp at Montauk State Park between March 4th and April 30th, some changes may have been made your camping reservations. Montauk State Park is currently undergoing construction projects designed to improve guests’ experiences at one of the most popular state park campgrounds in Missouri. One project, the Campground Loop 4 electrical upgrade, is ongoing and due to longer-than-expected delays in receiving electrical components, the project may not be completed until late spring or early summer. In order to allow the contractor to continue working, Campground Loop 4 will be closed to visitors starting at 3:00 in the afternoon Monday, March 4th through Tuesday, April 30th. With this closure, adjustments to existing reservations between those dates were required. Camping reservations from February 25th to March 3rd will not be modified, but guests will not have electricity at the sites in Loop 4 during their stay. Guests with those reservations will receive a partial refund for the service reduction. Missouri State Parks team members did their best to accommodate all existing reservations and customers with impacted reservations will soon receive updated reservation information. If you wish to cancel your reservation, please contact the Missouri State Park reservation call center at 877-422-6766. Missouri State Parks is working to maintain access to park resources while the construction project continues. The park want to thank visitors for understanding this situation and they look forward to making the new facilities available soon.