Stoddard County Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer for the county Tuesday, February 14, 2023.  Monday, the Stoddard County offices were closed for Lincoln's birthday.

Update on City of Bernie Water

Bill Robison with Smith & Company along with Greg Bell, Project Manager and a water and waste water expert gave an update on the city of Bernie water basin update.  The city of Bernie had requested $480,000 of ARPA funding from the commission.

"We are in a contract with the city of Bernie and Mayor Tilmon.  Spent the last few weeks gathering information and reviewing plans," commented Robison.  "This basin project is extremely important and needs to be done."    

 "The backwash basin basically when the backwash they can't backwash at the capacity they need.  It was built in 1993 and just can't handle the capacity," stated Bell.  "The new basin will be tied into the old one.  Also the filters they have in place are clogged up so with a new basin they can blow that back out and media can get out and clean it out.  The material will be concrete and can last more than 30 years.  With this basin they can alternate the backwashing.  We did find that the water plant is in pretty good shape.  It could use some cosmetic changes, but the structure is good."

"When you get this new basin built and the population increases, just how long can this basin last? asked Mathis.  Bell stated at least into the 20-30 year range. The filter media has about a 15 year cycle and it hasn't been changed since 1994 so we have sent out quotes for those items first.

Water line replacements and piping at the plant is an ongoing project as well.

"What is the cost of this?" asked Commissioner Greg Lintz.  Bell stated that he has seen around $570,000, but could possible see it around $490,000.  Just have get the complete plans done and the quotes in.     

Commissioner Carol Jarrell had no questions at this time, but stated that she was glad Smith and Company were on track to getting something done in Bernie as the people of Bernie needed clean drinking water.

Bell stated that if we could get started today it would take 3-4 months to get the backwash basin completed.  It's a 40'x40' basin with a 14' deep containment of 60,000 gallon capacity.  The walls are 15" thick.

"We are moving quickly as possible and getting quotes.  They are due in on February 22, 2023 at Smith & Co," stated Robison.  "It will be gravity feed.  The pumps will be downsized and won't require a larger motor and it will allow the basin to be filled and send to the sewer system at a slower rate which will be better for the city of Bernie.  I have met with Mr. Tilmon weekly and got some of the older plans and looked at those and discuss the project.  I feel pretty good that a we have a pretty good start."

It was noted by Cecil Week, County Collector who lives in Bernie that the city had posted on Monday, for people to conserve water on Saturday, February 18th so they can repair a water leak in the tower.  Mayor Tilmon was not present for the meeting.

Stars & Stripes Museum Request for Land

Sue Tippen attended the meeting on behalf of the Strars and Stripes Museum requesting ground be donated by the County Commission for a new building.

"We consider the Stars and Stripes Museum as the major tourist attraction for Stoddard County," stated Tippen.  "We are looking to build a new building.  We have about 1,000 visitors per year and we would like to have room for new exhibits and storage for donations.

"We decided the only answer to our problem is to build a new building.  We have an architect already in place and we want to build on the south side of the barn," continued Tippen.  "We wanted a little more space/land behind the museum and requesting the County donate that land to us."

She said that the Veterans Commission at the cemetery said they may be willing to donate a strip of land to the museum as well.  Building size is undetermined at this time, it's about 7 acres of land we need..  We will have a meeting with the architect in March.  

David Cooper, Water District #5

Everything is going well at the water district.  "I signed the Distribution Agreement for the ARPA Funds and waiting on the Commissioners to sign," commented Cooper, President of Water District #5.

Motion to sign the County Distribution ARPA Funds Agreement with Water District #5 made by Lintz, seconded by Jarrell.  All three voted yes and duly passed.

"Our board is real solid and we have managed to get most of our leaks repaired.  We are waiting for our ground to dry out and see if we have any more leaks.  We are paying our bills to the city and hopefully within the next couple of months have the city of Bloomfield paid off for back water billing," continued Cooper.

Discussion about the County Audit

An email was received by County Clerk, Cecil Weeks from Devereux & Company that they have experienced an unforeseen severe staffing shortage that required them to realign and reallocate their hours for the rest of 2023.  They will not have the hours to perform the audit that they earned the bid on for the 2022 accounting year.

On December 12, 2022 the previous Commission accepted the bid from Devereux and Company, CPA for $17,500.  Daniel Jones and Associates CPA had the only other bid for $25,000.

Motion was made to call Daniel Jones and Associates to see if they can do the audit.  Cecil Weeks is to call them and ask since they had the second bid submitted in November of 2022.  Commissioner Lintz made the motion and seconded by Jarrell.  All three voted yes and duly passed.