March 21, 2024 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the March 21, 2024 Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

All commissioners were present.

Before the meeting got started, Commissioner Williams corrected the record and informed me that he did not miss the March 5 meeting because his alpacas had escaped. In fact, he had to leave because his horses had escaped. I offered my opinion that alpacas seemed like a more exotic excuse, but in the end, I promised I would update my readers with the correct description of the fugitive animals.

I also noticed that the precarious “Table of Death” used for Public Comment had been switched out for a much sturdier version. Was it replaced by a proactive risk management-oriented county government or did some poor soul meet a tragic fate by leaning too hard on it while passionately addressing the Commission? I could discern no signs of trauma on the carpet underneath the table so this shall remain a mystery.

The first agenda item was Planning and Zoning – PZ24-0001 McFarland Rezone I-1 to R-1.

The property is at 68 Sunset Road, Sunrise Beach and it is owned by the McFarlands. They wanted to re-zone the property from I-1 (Industrial) to R-1 (Residential). This is a significant step-down in zoning and changes like this are rarely controversial. In fact, there was nobody present at the meeting to talk for or against the matter. The Planning and Zoning Commission also voted unanimously for it.

The commissioners approved this item unanimously.

The second agenda item was

Annex Agreement- City of Camdenton and Camden County.

Camdenton wants to extend water and sewer service to the Ozark Amphitheater and the MODOT yard out on Business 5 and they requested permission from the county to pass through the county’s easements and right-of-way to get there.

This was approved unanimously by the Commission.

The third agenda item was Sheriff-Requests to Auction Property (11 vehicles).

The Sheriff’s Office plans to auction off some vehicles. The Sheriff said they had considered turning them in to Enterprise fleet management, but they felt they could get more money for them at auction. One of the vehicles would be turned over to the Public Administrator’s office. There was some discussion about selling the vehicles at the Camden County Surplus Auction on April 6.

The final agenda item was Discuss Removal of Metal Detector in Admin. Building Entrance – Requested by Ernie Calvert and Laura Burns.

Neither of the requestors were present at the meeting, so Presiding Commissioner Skelton declared that the security measures at the county courthouse would remain unchanged.

One item was added to the agenda in Old Business.

The county received a bid for remodeling the old county jail for use as an evidence storage facility. The bid was for $19,560 and the company was on the state bidding list. There were some questions if the money for this remodel had already been budgeted, but the County Auditor was absent from the meeting so nobody knew for sure.

As a final note, the Sheriff mentioned that the vehicle line item in the budget for each department needed to be set up as a revolving account. This would make it easier for the funds received from the sale of older vehicles to be retained year-to-year and used for the purchase of new vehicles through Enterprise. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea and something that the County Auditor should implement.

And that was that.