News – Monday, March 10th 2025

Thursday morning at the Dent County Commission meeting at the courthouse, Jeff Banderet and Austin from Great Rivers Engineering were in attendance to talk about the TAP grant for the sidewalks around the courthouse. The project is still estimated to come in at $441,000, and MoDOT’s portion will be $316,000 with the county responsible for the rest. The preliminary plans and the estimate have been completed. The project will include new sidewalks around the entire courthouse property as well as sidewalks from the four corners of the property to the front and back doors. An ADA accessible path will be located at the southwest corner of the property and discussion for additional ADA parking spots was held as the county currently only has two. The county would be responsible for the signing and painting of the ADA parking spots. The commission considered matching the city’s stamped bricks and concrete for this project, but it would be more expensive. The commission instead voted to use stamped concrete buffers without the brick pavers to save money. There will also be new retaining walls where needed, a dumpster pad and the removal of the brick trash cans before the project begins. The county will still need to get with the city electric department about relocating some electric poles. Banderet also discussed the FLAP Project 077 for Dent County Road 6670 which is the road that goes to the backside of Montauk State Park. The preliminary plans and estimate have been completed, and the project estimate is $720,000 which will be paid for solely by a federal grant. Banderet said they are confident the funding is secure although all new federal grants may be on hold at this time. Work continues on environmental clearances, roadway property acquisition and finalizing permits. Banderet feels the project should be completed by December 1st of this year. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Keith Green said crews are brush cutting and screening sand. Workers are also replacing a couple of pipes and performing maintenance. District 2 Commissioner Jimmy Williams said grading was being done on Dent County Road 4290, while hole patching was being done on county roads 2330, 2340 and 6160. Materials were also being added on county roads 2330, 2340 and 4290. Brush cutting was being done on county road 4300 and workers were removing a fallen tree. Williams also signed the CART program agreement for 2025 which is a cost-share program for maintaining the public roads serving Missouri Department of Conservation areas and adding new white rock where needed. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson said he attended a Tourism Tax Committee meeting and there was one new request that was tabled, and four reimbursements that were approved. Dent County Clerk Angie said excused absentee voting continues at the courthouse for the Municipal Election, and the last day to register to vote is March 12th. Curley also said her office balanced with the collector and assessor for collections, add-ons and abatements for the month of February. Dent County Collector Shannon VanKirk said she is distributing her collections from February of $615,070.86 to the appropriate taxing entities. The next meeting of the Dent County Commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

Dent County Recorder Cindy Ard wants people to be aware of a new website where you can sign up to find out if someone is recording a document or changing a recorded document with your name on it. The website is deedwatch.com and once signed up, you would receive an e-mail letting you know if a document is recorded with your name on it. There is no charge for this service. Just go to the website, and in the drop-down box, select Dent County, Missouri. In the second box, enter your e-mail that you want the notification to come to. From that point, just follow the directions to finish signing up. You could include the name that should be on your deed, or any other form of your name the deed may have been recorded. This service is provided by the Dent County Recorder’s Office to prevent anyone from being scammed out of their property or having someone attached their name to your deed without your knowledge. If you have questions about this service, contact Cindy Ard at  573-729-2198. You can also e-mail her at dcrecorder07@gmail.com.