I attended the July 27, 2023 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
As the meeting started, the agenda was amended to include a letter to the Department of the Army. More on that later.
The first agenda item was Public Water Sewer District 5 (PWSD#5) – ARPA funds update.
Gail White, a Board Member of the water district, spoke to the Commission. Bonnie Burton was also present in the audience from the district. The district was founded in 2010. It currently charges a flat rate of $35/month for water and $45/month for sewer. There is no charge for usage. I believe the district provides services for Cedar Heights and Clearwater?
PWSD#5 plans to drill a new well. They selected an engineer in 2022 and their report was approved by DNR in 2023. A survey crew has surveyed the site and all of their information has been submitted to DNR for a permit.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton asked White how much Camden County ARPA money the Commission had allocated for the water district?
White responded that it was approximately $940,000.
(Here are the ARPA Camden County water/sewer pledges for 2023. Shhhh. You’re welcome.)
Skelton inquired further as to how much of that money had been committed to the project? White replied that they had issued a payment of $33,000 for engineering consultants so far. The Auditor verified to Commissioner Gohagan that this expense had gone out to bid and was ready for signature by the commissioners.
Commissioner Williams asked White if there had been any water issues in the district?
White replied there had been no issues in PWSD#5.
With a new well, a pump, a well house, an elevated storage tank, and a distribution center all planned, the project will proceed in phases. The district has not been approved for any grant funds, but is trying to secure some available low interest loan funding. The district also has $1.46 million in bonding available from a previous project that wasn’t used and is available. White estimated that the planned project might cost $3.25 million.
She said the water district has had talks with Old Kinderhook regarding the possibility of connecting to their system and providing them with water. There was some discussion about structural issues that had occurred with Old Kinderhook’s well.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton reminded them that the ARPA money is required to be committed to contract by the end of 2024, so Camden County needed to know if the water district had encumbered their share of the ARPA funds by the end of 2023. White felt like it would be difficult to give a hard number by December of 2023 since there were a lot of unpredictable costs involved in the plans to complete the project. Commissioner Skelton seemed satisfied that the district would be able to account for the funds.
Commissioner Gohagan asked White about issues with Cedar Heights.
Burton responded that a starter went out on the Cedar Heights well. The water pressure dropped and they drained their water tower. The breaker on the well kept blowing, so the district has ordered a new part that should be installed this week.
White also answered questions about the Cedar Glen development. Cedar Glen’s water system is owned by a private company. PWSD#5 was interested in purchasing the water system and adding it to their water district, but their efforts to bid on and purchase Cedar Glen’s system were unsuccessful.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton mentioned that he was contacted by a company called Sustainability Partners. This company offers to repair bridges, water systems, and other assets and then charges usage fees to pay for the cost of the repairs. The problem is that the company owns the asset once it’s paid for. Skelton made it clear he was not in favor of doing business with companies that operate like that.
The second agenda item was ESRI Contract – Assessor.
This was a contract for mapping software used for Camden County’s GIS system by the Assessor and several other county departments. The contract from ESRI would cost $119,000 over 3 years. The Assessor recommended that this contract be approved.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton wondered if it would be possible to charge some users to access the system and defray the cost to the county of maintaining the system? Nobody in the room seemed very excited about that idea, and it was unanimous that the quality of Camden County’s current GIS system has proven to be very useful to both elected officials and the community. Skelton seemed satisfied by the response.
This contract was approved unanimously.
The third agenda item was HVAC Maintenance Contract – Assessor’s Building – Roofener Street.
This was an annual contract for $800 for Klemm Mechanical Services to maintain the HVAC system over at the new Assessor’s office.
Assessor Marty McGuire recommended that the Commission approve the contract.
It was approved unanimously by the Commission.
The fourth agenda item was Revision of 4/11/23 Minutes – CDBG Grant Closeout Requirement.
This was for the CDBG Grant that was used to repair Dry Hollow Road. The grant needed specific language in the Commission’s meeting minutes to meet the Byzantine requirements of the federal government.
The Commission voted unanimously to amend the minutes of the April 11 meeting to say what the CDBG people wanted them to say.
The fifth agenda item was CDBG Grant Closeout – Request for Extension.
You guessed it. More fed stuff. This item was to request an extension to the CDBG block grant specialist to close out the grant mentioned above. Maybe so they could email the new minutes to her? Sheesh. Who knows? Makes one wonder if these grants are worth all of the trouble in the first place.
This request for extension was approved unanimously by the Commission.
The sixth agenda item was National Association of Counties (NACO) Debrief.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton gave a brief summary of his attendance at the NACO conference. I got the impression he was happy to back in Camden County.
In Old Business, Commissioner Williams stated that the US Army maintains a recreational facility for military members and their families on McCubbins Drive. Way back in the past, when Missouri was still Purple, the US Army wanted to pave the road to their facility. The US Army promised that they would maintain the road during the six Spring and Summer months if the county agreed to maintain the road during the Fall and Winter months. Guess who forgot to maintain the road during the Spring and Summer? In fact, they never maintained it.
Commissioner Williams said that he was persistent and finally convinced the bosses over at Fort Leonard Wood to keep up their part of the bargain. So they’ve agreed and now they’re also interested in making some improvements to the site. Just one problem. Since the work will be using federal funds, Commissioner Williams said the Osage Nation has demanded that a cultural survey be conducted for artifacts.
Yep.
The commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the cultural survey. I wonder what will happen if the survey finds anything.
Commissioner Williams also updated everyone on the cemetery that is eroding and launching human remains into Bollinger Creek. See here for that article.
According to Williams, the Camden County Road and Bridge Administrator planned to meet with a local resident who owned a dredging company that will start work on the project, placing rocks up against the bank to protect it.
Commissioner Gohagan announced that Camden County’s new prescription drug plan will take effect on Monday (July 31). The new plan will allow Camden County employees to purchase diabetes-related medications at a reasonable cost.
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 