Local News – Wednesday. July 13th, 2022

This week, Missouri Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe will travel to Montauk State Park to serve flapjack breakfasts to campers, community members, and state park staff as part of his ongoing Flapjack Tours to promote Missouri State Parks and tourism. Kehoe will be at Montauk State Park, Campground Loop #2, this Thursday from 8:00 until 9:30. As a proud member of the Missouri Tourism Commission, Lieutenant Governor Kehoe works with the Commission and the Missouri Division of Tourism to actively promote Missouri’s tourism assets. For more information on Flapjack Tour stops, visit kehoetour.com.

It has been just over five months since the Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors made their administrative changes and hired the Rural Hospital Group to come in to assist the hospital in responding to the financial crisis sweeping the rural hospital industry which has partially been caused by the ongoing global pandemic and operational issues the hospital was facing. Don Babb, the interim Chief Executive Officer, is proud to report that due to the operational changes, the hospital has had a positive bottom line for the last two months and feels the hospitals dire financial struggles are a thing of the past. Babb reports the hospital as of May 31st had cash on hand that would cover 64days of operations coming off the April figure of 62 days suggesting the hospital been able to sustain and stabilize its operations. The RHG also made changes to the billing and collection processes since coming on board reducing what was 110 days in account receivable for the hospital to receive funds from insurance companies to a current figure of 65 days with an organizational goal of 55 days by late summer. There have refocused improvements on streamlining the collection efforts and improving interaction with patients. RHG has also concentrated on getting Salem residents to use the SMDH swing bed program for their rehab getting them back home quicker after their surgeries once they are out of acute care. The swing bed volumes are up almost 40% over last year. The lab has now also been recertified by CLIA and the hospital continues to improve staffing in all departments. With all that has happened over the lats five months, the board approved an optimistic 2023 Fiscal Year budget.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approved the FY 2023-2027 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), which lists transportation projects planned by state and regional planning agencies July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2027. The STIP makes available $10 billion of federal and state revenues for all modes of transportation over the next five years, making it the state’s largest program. This includes $100 million from the Governor’s Rural Route program, which will address low volume roads in FY 2023. Of the remaining $9.9 billion, the STIP details $7.65 billion in road and bridge construction contractor awards, averaging approximately $1.5 billion each year over each of the next five years. The program details a focus on preventive maintenance improvements to Missouri’s nearly 34,000 miles of roads and 10,400 bridges. The draft STIP was released in May for public review, and MoDOT received 317 comments. how their transportation funding is invested. The Final STIP is available online at www.modot.org/statewide-transportation-improvement-program-stip.

The Salem Board of Aldermen held a meeting Tuesday evening at the City of Salem Council Chambers. At the meeting, the board approved Bill #3511 that created an ordinance establishing demand rates for electric services instead of getting an automatic 24% increase. The demand rates stayed the same as before. The board also approved Resolution 21-2022 showing the city’s intent to raise the wastewater sewer rates with the intention of applying for a Missouri Department of Natural Resources Wastewater Infrastructure grant. The board approved the appointment of Rich Parks to the Airport Board to replace Harold Tubbs who resigned. City Administrator Ray Walden introduced Terry Moore from ESP who updated the board on the building envelope and the HVAC systems. The building envelope is complete while the HVAC systems at the City Administration Building and old City Hall Auditorium are complete. The system is also complete at the police station but has a faulty control board which is being replaced. The Salem Community Center@The Armory is about 80% done. The door and window replacement at the old city hall is complete except for the council chambers door. The roofing at the Parks and Recreation and Water Department building is near completion and tuckpointing work is being done. They have not started the tuckpointing at the Armory or city hall building. The metal light poles at the Al Brown Fields have been assembled and they are waiting for securing materials for the holes. Walden said he would be updating short-term and long-term city priorities with the aldermen taking the place of what People Centric was doing. Mayor Greg Parker told the alderman the Missouri Municipal League conference will be September 11th through the 14th at Osage Beach. He thanked the first responders for putting out the brush fire on Rolla Road from electrical problem Monday and for the city utility department for getting the power back up after the outage Monday. He also thanked Fleetwood Pyrotechnics for the excellent Fireworks display on Independence Day evening. Public Works Director Mark Nash said the outage Monday was from a burnt line that came down on the 4th Street Hill followed by a bad jumper at Mercy Medical. He said water line breaks continue at a high rate and the tree trimming crew is getting caught up. Alderman Kyle Williams said the disc gold course is going in at the Salem City Park and the City Utility Committee will meet at the Salem Community Center@The Armory tonight at 6:15 after a special Board of Alderman meeting at 6:00 with both meetings open to the public. The board then went into closed session.