News – Monday, April 14th 2025

The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning at the courthouse. Dent County Collector Shannon VanKirk was in with the March monthly report for add-on, collections and abatement. She also said since the Dent County Fire Protection District Bond Issue passed, there will be an increase in the amounts for those applying for the Senior Tax Credit as bond indebtedness cannot be forgiven as it is NOT an assessment against the property. She also said she is working out the kinks in the online application for the Senior Tax Credits as it continues to be a “work-in-progress.” VanKirk says 170 applications have been picked up to date with about 60 of them being completed and submitted. Grant Wilson from Representative Jason Smith’s office was in attendance and said Smith and other congressional leaders sent a letter to President Trump asking him to declare disaster assistance for the areas affected by the March tornadoes. He said the Ways and Means Committee heard from Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative, who said trade policies that went in effect are to help and protect American workers. The goal is to have equal trade with other nations and thus the higher tariffs, and now over 70 countries have come to the table to negotiate new tariffs and trade agreements. Wilson used the example of the old Briggs and Stratton plant in Rolla that closed, and those local jobs were sent to Mexico and China meaning 450 people lost their jobs due to those nations having favorable trade with the US. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Keith Green said rock would be added and grading done on Dent County Road 2490, while grading will also be done on county roads 4220 and 5680. He said brush would be cut on county road 5390 and a crew will be taking out the backhoe to clean out culverts and remove debris from bridges moving toward the Bunker area. Green also said a mirror would be replaced on one of the graders. District 2 Commissioner Jimmy Williams said his crew would be adding rock and grading Dent County Roads 2390, 6120 and 6123; while another crew would be doing bridge repair and cutting ditches on Dent County Road 3260. He said a crew would be installing a driveway culvert on Dent County Road 3210 and adding rock to that road as well. Williams said repairs will be made to county road 2500 that suffered washout damage in the last storm, and they will also be installing a “Children at Play” sign on county road 3233. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson attended the MRPC meeting Thursday night as well as the TAC, External Relations Committee and the Phelps County Public Housing Authority meetings. He also wanted to remind everyone that on June 14th, there will be an electronics recycling and tire collection at Brewer Science in Rolla from 8:00 in the morning until 12:00 noon. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley wanted to thank everyone involved with the election on Tuesday as it went very smooth with a little over 15% of the eligible registered voters participating. She said some people were confused on the fire district bond issue as they thought they could vote on the issue since it said the “Dent County Fire Protection District”, but they didn’t live in the actual district boundaries and were not eligible to vote. Curley said the “Election Harassment Bill” in the Missouri House of Representatives passed and is being sent to the Missouri Senate. Dent County Health Department Administrator Zach Moser gave the commissioners an update on the Measles outbreak in Texas, and also told the commission they could do drug testing of the Road and Bridge Department employees starting at 7:00 in the morning. Commissioner Larson said each month two employees are chosen at random to be tested. Moser said the Health Department cost would be $16.00 per employee. The commission voted to cancel the drug testing services with TOMO and begin using the Dent County Health Department immediately. The Commission also signed the service agreement between GIS National LLC and the county regarding customers desire to engage the company to perform certain administrative services for medical plans. There is no cost to the county and this agreement falls under the MAGIC Consortium Health Insurance Group. Due to the commissioners, clerk and treasurer attending the MAC legislative conference at the Capital, there will be no commissioner meeting today. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Thursday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.