News – Wednesday, April 2nd 2025

At the Dent County Commission meeting Monday morning, Beverly Irons with the 42nd Judicial Circuit Court was in attendance to see what progress the commission had made on installing a chairlift to the courthouse on the second floor. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson said they have talked with Custom Home Elevators of St. Louis, and they indicated the cost would be about $6,800 per flight, but they were not sure that it would adhere to the City of Salem building codes. Larson said they are waiting for City Building Inspector Jared Brown to check out the staircase to make sure the chairlift would comply. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Keith Green said materials would be added and grading done on Dent County Roads 2480, while only grading would be done on Dent County Roads 4080 and 5610. He said other crew members were assisting District 2 by hauling rock to the Conservation Department roads. District 2 Commissioner Jimmy Williams said workers would be adding rock and grading Dent County Road 2540 which is a Conservation Department Road, as well as grading county roads 3185 and 3190. Williams also said a crew would be checking out a concern on Dent County Road 3260. Commissioner Larson said he is scheduled to attend a Solid Waste Advisory Board meeting Wednesday in Jefferson City. Dent County Clerk Angie Curley said the unexcused and excused absentee voting for the Municipal Election is now available at the courthouse. Her office will be open Saturday morning from 8:00 until 12:00 noon, and the last day to vote absentee will be Monday, April 7th until 5:00 PM. Dent County Collector Shannon VanKirk said the SB190 “Homestead Credit” application is now available in her office where you can pick one up and take it home. She said you can also find the application on Dent County Portal where you can print off the application from home. All applications will NOT have to be signed by a notary, but they will need to be signed in front of and witnessed by a county official be it the collector, county clerk, commissioner, etc. VanKirk said there is a question-and-answer section on the portal and she said she would include it with every application picked up. The application will need to be submitted by June 30th. Brian Boyce and Jeff Banderet from Great Rivers Engineering were in attendance. Boyce told the commission that if they need to get drivers CDL trained, the county can do it themselves at a cost of $200 per person rather than send someone to a commercial CDL training facility which could cost the individual or county from $3,000 to $5,000 dollars. The commission said they are in good shape now as they have had little turnover but will definitely take advantage of that training when they need a new operator or driver without a CDL. Banderet talked about the TAP grant for the new sidewalks around the courthouse and said the plan was to use the existing light poles, but the city said the poles are eroding and cannot be reused. Banderet said the county should try to use the same type of light pole the city is using with their downtown project. He will check to see how many poles would be needed but believes it should only take four. The commission said they would get with the city on this as the light poles are actually the city’s and see if they can work something out with them on cost. The commission will also find out if the city plans on burying the new electric service to the courthouse or plans on keeping them elevated and sending them to a wood pole as that may interfere with the proposed TAP sidewalk and retaining wall. Commissioner Larson did ask that the one diagonal sidewalk on the south side to the front door be added back into the TAP plan and Banderet said that could be done. 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.