The Stoddard County Commission meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer over the county. All three commissioners were in attendance.
Katelyn Lambert, Bootheel Regional Planning Commission
Water District #6 - All documentation is done for the water tank improvements for Water District #6. They are requesting $136,050.00 and it was approved by the previous commission. The previous commissioners had agreed in an earlier meeting not to pay for the logo/graphic on the water towner.
Motion to release $136,050.00 to Water District #6 for the water tank improvements made by Commissioner Carol Jarrell, seconded by Commissioner C.D. Stewart. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Lambert said she is still waiting to hear from the legal team who is reviewing the pending agreement between the county and GoSEMO Fiber for the Puxico Broadband Project. Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis asked Lambert to let him know when she heard from the legal team. At that time the appropriate item will be placed on the commission meeting agenda to move the agreement forward.
Mold Update at the Justice Center
Commissioner Mathis stated that they had a meeting with Jeffry Faust, with Environmental Consultants, LLC, office holders and the employees of the Justice Center. We are looking at possibly adding units for air filtration.
They cleaned the back unit on the east side of the building on Friday. They have started cleaning the air conditioner units on Saturday and then the front lobby over the weekend. There was air quality testing on the inside and the outside to compare. The duct cleaning has started also over the weekend. They had all the vents hooked up to the air hose to clean. This should be about a three week process to clean everything. Eagle Systems is the company cleaning the duct work in the Justice Center. They start mobilizing around 4:00 p.m. each day and work during the evening. Dehumidifiers have been added to each office in the Justice Center as well.
One of the things that Mr. Faust emphasized was that they caught it very early, much earlier than what happened in 2011 when they had a tremendous amount of mold. They also want to figure out what the root cause is and how to rectify that with possibly buying other types of units to cool the Justice Center.
Water District #4
Randy Long, board member with Water District #4 resigned his position on the board effective immediately. He resigned due to the fact his daughter is a paid employees of the water district and there is a state statute on nepotism.
Assessed Evaluation of Stoddard County by County Clerk Cecil Weeks
Stoddard County Clerk Cecil Weeks said the assessed valuation of the county was $487 million in 2020, $521 million in 2021, $579 million in 2022, and $608 million in 2023.
"This speaks well of the county showing continued growth in our county," commented Weeks. "New homes and construction of commercial property have increased our assessed value."
Commissioner Mathis asked at what level does the county go from a Class 3 to a Class 2. Weeks responded that we would have to have an assessed value of $774 million and maintain that for five years before that would happen.
Joe Pulliam with Pulliam Surveying Company
He is going to survey the area that the Stars & Stripes Museum has asked for from the county. The county donated the barn that sits on the property to the Stars & Stripes Museum with the stipulation that the barn never be torn down or moved off the property. The museum has been renovated. The Stars & Stripes Museum has asked for 7 acres to expand and build another building.
The Bloomfield Assistance League a Non-Profit Foundation recently attended the Commissioner meeting and had also requested land for the Missouri Veterans Cemetery. Pulliam will survey that ground as well near the Poor Farm.
Other Business:
Motion to appoint Dan Seger to the 911 Board made by Commissioner Jarrell, seconded by Commissioner Stewart. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Motion to approve the regular meeting minutes for July 24, 2023 made by Commissioner Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Jarrell. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Closed Session minutes were not available to approve. Commissioner Mathis made them available this morning to be typed up and approved next Monday.
Motion to enter into closed session at 10:58 a.m. made by Commissioner Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Jarrell. All voted yes and the motion passed.
Missouri's 2023 back-to-school tax-free weekend starts Aug. 4, 2023, includes supplies, clothes and diapers.
Are you ready for school? The back-to-school supplies are crowding aisles at many stores, especially Wal Mart in Dexter.
Certain back-to-school items, such as clothing, school supplies, and computers, are exempt from sales tax during the three-day period, and yes, even supplies like disposable diapers for infants.
The sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 4th; however not all cities participate in the Tax Free Weekend. Bloomfield, Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Marble Hill do not participate. City sales tax in these locations will still be collected on the sale of qualifying holiday items.
The sales tax exemption is limited to:
Clothing – any article having a taxable value of $100 or less
School supplies – not to exceed $50 per purchase
Computer software – taxable value of $350 or less
Personal computers – not to exceed $1,500
Computer peripheral devices – not to exceed $1,500
Graphing calculators - not to exceed $150
Qualifying Items
Section 144.049, RSMo, defines items exempt during the sales tax holiday as:
“Clothing” - any article of wearing apparel intended to be worn on or about the human body including, but not limited to, disposable diapers for infants or adults and footwear. The term shall include but not be limited to, cloth and other material used to make school uniforms or other school clothing. Items normally sold in pairs shall not be separated to qualify for the exemption. The term shall not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, scarves, ties, headbands, or belt buckles; and
“Personal computers” - a laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a central processing unit, random access memory, a storage drive, a display monitor, a keyboard, and devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer, such as a disk drive, memory module, compact disk drive, daughterboard, digitizer, microphone, modem, motherboard, mouse, multimedia speaker, printer, scanner, single-user hardware, single-user operating system, sound card, or video card; and
“School supplies” - any item normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes, including but not limited to, textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld calculators, graphing calculators, chalk, maps, and globes. The term shall not include watches, radios, CD players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones, copiers or other office equipment, furniture, or fixtures. School supplies shall also include graphing calculators valued at $150 or less and computer software having a taxable value of $350 or less.
Section 144.049, RSMo, establishes a sales tax holiday effective during a three-day period beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ending at midnight on the Sunday following. Certain back-to-school purchases, such as clothing, school supplies, computers, and other items as defined by the statute, are exempt from sales tax for this time period only.
The sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes.
The Stoddard County Commissioners began their meeting as they do every week with the Pledge of Allegiance and a special prayer over the county.
Commissioner Carol Jarrell was absent today due to her husband being in the hospital. Prayers for his speedy recovery are most appreciated.
First thing on the Agenda was to amend the agenda as Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis stated they needed to have a special meeting at 10:30 a.m. to go over a Mold Sampling Report for the Justice Center.
Katelyn Lambert - Bootheel Regional Planning Commission and ARPA Updates
Duckcreek Township - Payne Contracting LLC has began construction on the bridge on County Road 420 and are requesting $50,800.00 out of the ARPA funds. They have also requested reimbursement of $61,268.27 for replacement of culverts, rock needed for rip rap and repairs to road, signage for road closures, truck hauling expenses and rental equipment expense.
Motion to release $61,268.27 to Duck Creek Township out of the ARPA Funds made by Commissioner C.D. Stewart, seconded by Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis. Both voted yes and motion passed.
Motion to release to Duckcreek Township a total of $61,268.27 made by Commissioner C.D. Stewart, seconded by Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis. Both voted yes and motion passed.
New Lisbon Township - This is their second and final request for ARPA Funds. All the documentation is completed according to Lambert. They are requesting $51.58 for the advertising reimbursement for the bridge work on County Road 249 in the local newspaper. They are also requesting $60,000 to go to Payne Contracting LLC from the ARPA Funds.
Mathis stated that there would not be a motion today. The Commission will reimburse New Lisbon Township once the project is complete. At that time they and Payne Contracting LLC will be paid from the ARPA funds.
Castor Township - "I do not have any signed paperwork or invoices," stated Lambert. Mathis did ask for information from Dale Moreland. Lambert had additional paperwork that needs to be signed by Moreland.
Bill Knoderer - PWSD #2 along with Dan Schlosser, Board Member
Knoderer was attending the meeting to see where the Commission was on his request for ARPA Funds. More than $115,000 was requested by Water District #2 to replace meters.
"Your request is hanging out in the abyss. We ran into a couple of issues last week. We hope to have a work session this week to go over ARPA funds. We are just kind of hanging this week and clear up a few matters," stated Commissioner Mathis.
"We do need to replace all of our meters and get that done by winter," stated Knoderer. "We appreciate the consideration."
Dan Schlosser, Ditch #17 Drainage District
Schlosser attended a Commission meeting in October of 2022 and talked with the Commissioners who were here at that time. "I am referring to Ditch #17 northwest corner of Stoddard County," commented Schlosser. "There is a deficit to our district and it is difficult to get a tax increase. We need to get the ditch mowed and timber removed again. We try to do this about every four to five years. We would most definitely have to get bids to get the timber out and the mowing done. Last time we did that was $38,000 for mowing and dredging. I hope to keep it way under that since we aren't doing the dredging"
According to Commissioner Mathis the Commissioners will get with Mr. Cecil Weeks, County Clerk and Mr. Josh Speakman, County Collector/Treasurer and see what happened before and just huddle together and see what our options are for doing this. There is one total fund for drainage districts; however some ditches do not bring in enough tax revenue to cover their own costs of dredging, mowing, and timber removal.
David Scherer with Bell City Fire Department
"We are requesting $250,000 in ARPA funds for a building in Bell City." commented Scherer. "I have one bid and am trying to get two more bids."
Commissioner Mathis stated, "You have given us an estimate not a bid. You will have to go thru the formal bid process by placing int he newspaper and have a bid opening meeting before we can proceed."
Bell City had also applied for a CDBG grant with Bootheel Regional Planning Commission in the past and was turned down. "I didn't know if we were required to apply again or could we just request ARPA funds from the Commission only to complete this project," stated Scherer. "We need a fire department built and a safe room."
Lambert stated, " If they tear down the old Shell station and build, in order to receive the grant there will be an environmental mitigation and that could cause delays in getting the grant or possibly be turned down. You can request up to $500,000, but it will be at prevailing wages."
The window to apply for the CDBG grant is in the fall of 2023. They may not be awarded the grant until the spring of 2024 if there are no hiccups along the way with the environmental study.
Loyd Rice with GoSEMO Fiber
Rice provided a draft of the Broadband Request for APRA funds that was approved by the previous Commission in the amount of 1 million dollars for broadband expansion in the Puxico School District in rural Stoddard County. "It is ready for legal eyes on your side to look at," stated Rice.
"I don't have any question at this time and read over it and I would like you to come in at the next meeting," stated Commissioner Mathis.
Sean Vanslyke, CEO of the GoSEMO Cooperative, "It has been a long time coming and the cooperative it committed to the area. We are seeing the benefits now. We launched GoSEMO Fiber in 2017 and we have come a long way. We have made a significant investment into the community. I just wanted to say thank you"
Other Business
Motion to close the 2023 Board of Equalization for Stoddard County made by Commissioner C.D. Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Mathis. Both voted yes and passed.
Motion to Open the 2023 Board of Appeals made by Commissioner C.D. Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Mathis. Both voted yes and passed. Board of Appeals shall be open for a minimum of two weeks.
Motion to accept the regular session meeting minutes from Monday, July 17, 2023 made by Commissioner C.D. Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Mathis. Both voted yes and passed.
Motion to accept the closed session meeting minutes from Monday, July 17, 2023 made by Commissioner C.D. Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Mathis. Both voted yes and passed.
Special Meeting for the Mold Sampling Report in the Justice Center at 10:30 a.m.
"In 2011 we had mold in Justice Center. It was nothing short of a disaster," commented Presiding Commissioner Mathis. "In 2017 we checked it again."
"Update to present time in 2023 and now having issues again, but looks as if they have caught it early. The ducts need to be cleaned about every 10 years."
Commissioner C.D. Stewart and Commissioner Carol Jarrell gave Commissioner Mathis via phone calls the go ahead to and hire someone to get this cleaned before it became a huge problem. It was an urgent matter and could not wait until the meeting on Monday.
Mathis had Environmental Consultants, LLC come in and do some testing in the Justice Center.
"We received the report on Thursday, July 20, 2023," sated Mathis.
Presiding Commissioner Mathis provided the report today during the meeting.
"Do we need professional cleaning and the answer was yes," commented Mathis.
Serve Pro is coming on Tuesday to get an idea on the building itself and timeframes to section it off etc. They will be cleaning all the duct work and the individual cooling units in the Justice Center.
"Mr. Jeffry Faust, owner of Environmental Consultants, LLC will be here on Wednesday, time to be determined to discuss with the employees how they will be cleaning as well as to answer any questions anyone may have.," continued Mathis.
"There is no immediate health risk to the employees or people who enter the building," stated Commissioner Mathis. "We caught it early and we will get it cleaned this week."
Josh Speakman, County Collector/Treasurer
Tax Sale is being published next week. The sale is August 28th at 10 a.m. on the steps of the Old Courthouse. They will have to fill out an affidavit prior to the sale.
Motion to enter into closed session at 11:06 a.m. by Commissioner Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Mathis. They both voted yes and motion approved.
The Stoddard County Commissioners opened their regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting with a prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner Mathis stated, "We have a full house today!" There were more than 20 people in attendance for today's meeting.
Doug Lowery, Duck Creek Township
Lowery asked if there are any rules in Stoddard County about placing speed limit signs in the townships or if the Commissioners have anything to do with that directly. Commissioner Mathis said he did not think the Commissioners had anything to do with that and that it was up to each individual township to post signs on rural roads within their township.
Katelyn Lambert - Weekly ARPA Update
Duck Creek Township - They have a bridge they are working on and there may be some addition cost.
New Lisbon - They are waiting on the specs to pay on bridge 249
Castor Township - They are still needing a Distribution Agreement and several documents including bid procurement.
City of Dexter - Lambert is going thru the paperwork and is getting procurement paperwork from Crystal Bishop.
New Lisbon Township - Lambert is waiting for the bridge specifications on County Road 249 in order to proceed further.
Broadband/Internet - Lambert suggested sending the broadband project agreement to the county attorney for review. This agreement was brought in by Loyd Rice, GoSEMO Fiber and was for the Commissioners to look at as it and review.
Mark Crisel - Business Owner in Puxico and President of the Puxico Improvement Corporation said that the city of Puxico had been dealing with the internet or lath of internet for six years. He said the CDBG grant fell through and probably rightfully so due to the issues with the grant. He also said that the $1 million in ARPA funds ear marked for the broadband should be given to still earmarked for broadband.
"People in Puxico area are unable to conduct business from their homes," stated Crisel. "They must make drives into the city of Puxico to serve their customers or in the case of doctors they can't even make virtual calls from their homes."
"I would rather take this money and get everything out of it that we can vs waiting another three to five years in the future for any other grant/BEAD money and hope that someone bids on that project," continued Crisel. "Just on my county road there is one doctor, two insurance agents and three businesses. No other internet service provider has stepped up, not Sparklight, BPS, Windstream or even AT&T to help with this area."
Logan Lowery - Owner of Lowery Farms - "We can't even use our current internet to conduct online business or even run credit/debit cards sometimes because the available internet is such poor quality. Our kids will need internet and access to do their homework. We just want to get the ball rolling on getting internet!"
Steve Crisel - Puxico School Board Member - He asked about the map of the proposed broadband coverage for rural Puxico that was having on the wall in the Commission chamber by Loyd Rice with GoSEMO Fiber. Rice explained that the map was the 40 miles of which GoSEMO Fiber would provide coverts a s part of the 1 million dollar project. Rice said originally it was let to believe that there was an additional 30 - 35 miles that would also need broadband. This was from Conexon, the engineers for the CDBG grant; however he said he was hard pressed to find an additional 10 miles. he said this would provide serve to nearly the entire rural area. and would be a 12 month project once shovels are in the ground.
Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis said this was the first time the Commission had seen the map and said details with this project are being updated weekly. Which means what the commission can and cannot approve keeps changing.
Loy Rice, GoSEMO Fiber, informed the Commission that he was asked by his board of directors to start moving toward on an agreement with the County or they would need to pivot and move on to another project.
Linda Roberts - Concerned Citizen - She asked if the $1 million was not spent on the broadband where would it be spent. Mathis said they only considered that move due to another grant being available. It is called the BEAD grant. The $1 million could go towards other projects yet to be identified. Commissioner C.D. Stewart said that the BEAD grant was considered because the Commission thought there would be monies available to cover the expense of the project. They were not just going to pull the money for no reason; however the BEAD Grant may not be available for two or more years. "I work remotely from home and some days can't get internet and AT&T just doesn't help us. We need good internet, stated Roberts"
Commissioner Mathis asked Rice to get a final agreement from his board detailing what they would do or not do. Rice agreed and said it would be signed by him and his CEO. There was not space on the agreement for 12 signatures of the board. Mathis stated that was fine.
Peter Coutavas - Puxico City Alderman and Industrial Development Association (IDA) Director - "We have received a letter from GoSEMO Fiber with a commitment to wire up the city limits of Puxico."
City of Essex - The city of Essex has now requested ARPA funds for street repair within their city. They have been turned down the last two years for CDBG grants. The lowest project was a match of $75,000. They are requesting $50,000 in ARPA funds. Commissioner Mathis stated your request is in the hopper, but there no guarantee at this point and he could make no promises.
Bell City Fire Dept - They asked for ARPA funds in January 2022 and were asked by the previous Commission to obtain other funding such as a CDBG grant from Bootheel Regional Planning Commission. The representative, John Scherer said a new station would give them room house all of their equipment in one place rather than run around town to multiple buildings to gather equipment. Their first attempt to get a grant failed and they are attempting agin; however they were wondering if the money would still be available as they would not know until 2024 if they received the grant or not. Also was it worth it to go after that grant at prevailing rates and the project cost more or have to be scaled back.
There request was for $253,170.00 for the fire station and a safe room.
Lambert stated that on Friday, July 14th that the city of Dudley had provided a request for ARPA monies on October 7, 2021. They are not on the current spreadsheet created by Bootheel Regional Planning Commission. The County is ok on the money thus far for paying out ARPA funds; however going forward if they paid out all requests they would be negative $669,135.76. They have received more requests than funds available. Lambert provided the Commission with an updated lists of requests and those that had been approved and paid out. The total amount of ARPA funds was $5,637,766.00 They have received /the Commission has earned $130,038.80 in interest from placing funds in money market accounts. Funds requested are at $6,436,940.56. They have paid out $799,856.17 thus far.
Beau Bishop - Stoddard County EMA Director
He passed out two funding proposals for ARPA Funds. The first was for the outdoor warning siren upgrade. He said this proposal intends to extend the life of the sirens. Total cost of the proposal is $78,000.
The second was the MOSWIN Radio funding proposal. This proposal intends to provide MOSWIN Radios to the county fire departments and emergency medical responders as they provide public safety duties to the citizens and travelers in Stoddard Count.
He said, "If everybody got on board with this project it would open additional channels for easier communication. The project budget is $423,500. However this amount may be lowered because Josh Speakman, county collector stated that these radios have already been purchased for the city of Advance. This purchase was made independently from the proposal the EMA Director prepared.
Other Business
Peter Coutavas - IDA - "The Wildflower has opened and it is a beautiful boutique. The store next to it will be a coffee shop." Also on North Prairie Street I have been working with Amy Haas, President of the Bloomfield Chamber and there will be a new business as well."
The Commission will close the Board of Equalization on Monday, July 26, 2023.
BRO Bridge Update - Mathis stated there were 7 bridges picked and Stoddard County was not chosen to have a bridge replacement.
Motion to accept the regular minutes from July 10, 2023 made by Commissioner Jarrell, seconded by Commissioner Stewart. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Motion to accept the Closed Session minutes from July 10, 2023 made by Commissioner Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Jarrell. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Motion to accept the Closed Session minutes from July 3, 2023 made by Commissioner Stewart, seconded by Commissioner Jarrell. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Motion to enter into Closed Session at 12:17 p.m. made by Commissioner Jarrell, seconded by Commissioner Stewart. All three voted yes and motion passed.
Route CC in Stoddard County Closed for Pavement Repairs
Route CC in Stoddard County will be closed as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform pavement repairs.
This section of roadway is located from Route HH to Route A near Baker, Missouri.
Weather permitting, work will take place from Monday, July 17 and Tuesday, July 18 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
The work zone will be marked with signs. Motorists are urged to use extreme caution while traveling near the area.
For additional information, contact MoDOT’s Customer Service Center toll-free at 1-888-ASK-MODOT
