I attended the August 15, 2023 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
The first agenda item was Bid Opening/Assessment – Assessor’s Office – Assessment List Printing and Mailing.
This was a single bid for printing and mailing the Assessment list. The bid was for $66,013.49 from the Edward J. Rice Company. The Assessor asked the Commission to table this item so he could review the bid.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton asked the Assessor how they had advertised the bid request. He replied that it was advertised in the newspaper.
The Commission tabled the item unanimously.
The second agenda item was Bid Opening/Assessment – Juvenile Justice Center– Trane Air Conditioner.
There were two bids for 3 new air conditioners for the Justice Center building: Clemm Mechanical for $69,740 and Gold for $55,000.
The representative from the Justice Center asked that the Commission table this item so the bids could be reviewed. The Commission tabled this item unanimously.
The third agenda item was Bid Opening/Assessment – Health Dept. – Electronic Message Sign.
This was for a 4 ft by 8 ft sign that will be placed in front of the Health Department. It’s been mentioned in previous meetings that this would be funded by a federal grant. One bid for $55,067 was not submitted correctly (it was not sealed). The other bid was for $40,900 from Anderson LED Signs.
The Anderson bid was approved unanimously.
The fourth agenda item was Sheriff- Seeking Approval of Grant Applications for LANEG – $352,873.00.
LANEG is the Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group. It’s a drug task force that serves Camden, Crawford, Gasconade, Laclede, Maries, and Osage Counties. Camden County handles the fiduciary responsibilities for the task force because it’s the only 1st Class County in the task force.
The Sheriff’s Office representative at the meeting explained that this grant was accepted earlier in the year by the Commission. The paperwork they were signing at this meeting was only to acknowledge the county was accepting the grant money.
The Commissioners approved this item and the paperwork was signed.
The fifth agenda item was New Prescription Plan for County Employees – Script Care Contract – Vote.
The Script care contract was reviewed by the County Attorney and the Commission. This new prescription plan will allow the county employees to get their prescriptions from Gerbes and will save the employees money on each prescription. It will also give the members better access to diabetic prescription drugs.
This new prescription plan contract was accepted unanimously.
At this point in the meeting, another bid was brought in to the Commission meeting for the Health Department sign. Presiding Commissioner Skelton instructed that the bid would not be opened because the bidder had missed the bid deadline.
The sixth agenda item was MO Jural Assembly – Reading of Public Notice.
A woman from the General Jural Assembly came before the Commission and read aloud a statement from a piece of paper that I assume was the afore-mentioned public notice.
I think these folks were connected to this group.
Other Business:
After the agenda items were over, there was a representative from Camden County Public Water Supply District #2 who wanted to speak to the Commission. The Commission had sent letters to the water districts informing them that they would like the districts to have all of their ARPA expenditure contracts signed by December of 2023. PWSD#2 wasn’t going to be able to meet that deadline because they were still waiting for the studies from various agencies like DNR to be completed. They wouldn’t have any idea about what they would need to contract for until they knew the results of those studies.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that the Commission was just trying to get an idea of where the money had been contracted because Camden County has a federal deadline that all of the ARPA money has to be committed to contracts by the end of 2024.
It sounded like PWSD#2 is dealing with a lot of challenges out by Montreal so they want to make sure they know exactly what they’re facing before they start spending their money. Elevation differences within the district and problems with pipes have presented obstacles. One gentleman even mentioned that there were some areas out by Easy Street where you used to be able to light the water on fire because so much gasoline had been dumped into the soil. Sheesh. Let’s hope that’s been cleaned up.
And that was that.
I’ve also been asked to post this advertisement for any artists who might be interested in presenting their ideas to paint a mural in the Commission Meeting Room with “In God We Trust” as the theme. Good luck and make sure you include plenty of possums!:
Among the Dogwoods 