Local News – Friday, April 26th, 2024

The City of Salem held a special meeting on Wednesday at the Salem Community Center @ the Armory to discuss Resolution #11-2024 for a donation by the City of Salem to the Salem Housing Authority of the City of Salem for development of affordable housing for the benefit of the community. City Administrator Sally Burbridge updated the board on the sewer improvements that are scheduled to begin soon near the proposed property. She has been in contact with Mike Godi, the Chairman of the Bonebrake Board, about requesting an easement to allow for the sewer lines to be aligned on the Bonebrake property. Jeff Meadows of Archer Elgin explained that a new sewer line will be built to improve sewer concerns in this neighborhood. The $200,000 cost for this improvement will be paid by the Certificate of Participation (COP) that was implemented in 2017 as part of the Phase 1 upgrades to the Sewer Treatment Plant. Burbridge explained that if the Salem Housing Authority is able to secure funding to build the 24 units, the plans will still need to be submitted and reviewed by the city staff and engineers for final approval. Motion was made by Alderman John Whelan and seconded by Alderwoman Kala Sisco to donate the “old middle school” property to the Salem Housing Authority. Alderman Bolerjack and Alderwoman Dent voted no and Mayor Parker had to break the tie and he voted yes to approve and pass this resolution. The meeting was then adjourned.

The Dent County Commission met Thursday morning at the courthouse. At the meeting, John McIntyre talked to the commission about chip and seal Dent County Road 6180 where he said there is a soft spot or a depression in the road. He asked them if at one time MoDOT did not request taking over the road in exchange for a different road. Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson said that was true as they wanted to take over maintenance of county road 6180 and have the county take over maintenance on the Route EE spur, but there is a bridge on EE the county does not want to be responsible for so no trade was made. McIntyre said that he had heard through an “unnamed source” that MoDOT was going to request that again and asked the commission to at least consider looking into the possibility of a trade. The commission took no action on the request. Sherry Lea from Dent County Rural Addressing was in to tell the commission about a grant for the new NG 9-1-1 system that Dent County Rural Addressing received to pay to update the current county 9-1-1 system. She said she received four bids for the grant and after grading them out, she recommended going with SDR who currently is the vendor used by Dent County Rural Addressing to create new addresses in the county. She said the grant is for $58,555 and there will be no out-of-pocket expense to the county. She also said this is a different grant than the one Sheriff Bob Wells is getting for equipment and training, but is needed so that the address or location of the person calling will be recognized when a 911 call is received. Commissioner Larson said he wanted to do some research on this grant to make sure that there are no conflicts with the grant the county is writing through the sheriff’s department. Lea said there is no hurry for the commission to sign, but the work by SDR will have to be done by December of this year. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Wes Mobray said grading was going to be done on Dent County Roads 6410 and 6575 while brush would be cut on county road 6460. He said he still had two dump trucks hauling conservation rock for the other district. District 2 Commissioner Gary Polk said grading was going to be done on Dent County Roads 2530, 3333, 3334, 3350 and 4388. He said his crews are also hauling rock to Dent County Road 2530 which is a conservation road. Commissioner Larson said he was contacted by Tammy Snodgrass from the MRPC that the “at large for profit” board position held by John Smith is up for renewal. Larson said he will try to get in touch with Smith to see if he is still interested in holding that seat. Corky Stack from AEA Stack Design Group was in to review the punchlist developed by he and the county commission following their walk-through last week before he e-mails it to the contractor. He said some things on the list have already been taken care of but others including some paint work and landscaping still needs to be done. He also submitted a pay voucher which the commission approved paying. The next meeting of the Dent County Commissioners will be Monday morning at 9:00 at the courthouse and the meeting is open to the public.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will offer 400 permits for the taking of a maximum of 40 black bears during the 2024 Missouri black-bear hunting season this fall, October 21st through 30th. MDC will also offer five permits to hunt bull elk in Missouri this fall with at least one permit designated for qualifying landowners that own property in Carter, Reynolds, or Shannon counties and the remaining permits for qualifying Missouri residents. MDC has designated the elk archery portion to run October 19th through the 27th and the elk firearms portion to run December 14th through the 22nd. The five permits will be for bull elk with at least one antler being six inches or greater in length and will be valid for both archery and firearms portions. Only Missouri residents who will be at least 11 years of age by the first day of the hunt for which they are applying are eligible to apply for bear and elk permits during the application period of May 1st through 31st. All permits will be assigned through a random drawing. The Missouri Conservation Commission gave final approval to the bear and elk season recommendations from MDC during its April 5th open meeting in Rolla.