News – Friday, September 19th 2025

The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning at the courthouse. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson was not in attendance due to a previous commitment. Deloris Gray Wood from the Dent County Historical Society was in to update the commission about the 155th birthday celebration of the Dent County Courthouse. She stated the event will begin at 11:00 in the morning on Saturday, October 4th with the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag raising ceremony. She said there will be music by Southern Sound and Current River Bluegrass, classic cars brought by the Current River Car Cruisers, Air Evac will have a helicopter at the event, the Dent County Fire Protection District will have their new trucks at the celebration, and Country Mart will be donating 155 mini cupcakes for the event. Gray went on to say that Rick Mansfield will be speaking as a character of the time, Kent Nichols will have his documentary on Dent County’s involvement in the Civil War available, Liz Condray will present a history on the judges that have served in Dent County, and there will be art drawings of the courthouse. The event is free and open to the public. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Keith Green said the concrete work to shore up some roads and repair low-water crossings in the Montauk area will be finishing up. District 2 Commissioner Jimmy Williams stated chip and seal road patching with asphalt will be done on Dent County Roads 2200 and 3290, plus crews will use the Dura-Patcher to do repair work on the chip and seal road edges on Dent County Roads 3290, 3220, 3230 and 3240. Most of the edge work will continue into next week. Williams said those roads have already had their asphalt patch repairs made. At the last meeting, Presiding Commissioner Larson visited with City of Salem Administrator Sally Burbridge to verify the city has agreed to pay $25,000 for new light poles to put around the courthouse square when the sidewalks are replaced. She said the city is on board with the payment for the light poles for the project. 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.