I attended the June 4, 2024, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
Commissioners Skelton and Gohagan were present.
Before the agenda began, the commissioners introduced Pamela Bunting, the newly hired Camden County Human Resources Director.
The first agenda item was Natural Resource Specialist-MU Extension.
Hank Stelzer and Joni Harper gave a presentation that described the natural resources services and training that are provided by the MU Extension. There was a lot discussed, but I’ll provide a quick summary.
Harper is the Natural Resource Field Specialist for 21 counties, including Camden County. Stelzer explained that data shows that forestry is an important part of Camden County’s economy. Across Missouri, a lack of commercial harvesting of lumber is hurting the canopy of our forests and reducing the light that oak trees require. The MU Extension is working to increase the management of woodland resources and decrease the presence of invasive species of trees and plants in Missouri. A lot of these efforts are focussed on programs designed to educate and train Missourians to make us more aware of the importance of maintaining our wooded areas.
The second agenda item was Discuss new findings through SpyGlass – vote on invoice.
SpyGlass is a service that finds savings within the phone and internet plans of large organizations. SpyGlass charges its customers a one-time fee equal to the annual savings they achieve for their clients. As a result, SpyGlass will be paid $19,211.64 for saving Camden County $19,211.64 on its annual internet and phone service bills.
The Commission approved this payment unanimously.
The third agenda item was May 2024 tax abatements.
These abatements were approved unanimously.
The fourth agenda item was Howe Engineering – bridge bids.
Howe Engineering was expected to arrive at 11:00 so the Commission pushed this item to the back of the agenda.
While we waited, there was a discussion of the options available to Camden County to renovate or purchase additional buildings to create more office and storage space for the county departments. This topic has been brought up many times at previous meetings so I’ll just mention some of the general points that came up in this one..
Camden County owns the old post office south of the square, but that building would require a significant expenditure for renovation before it could be used for anything more than storage. The county is considering purchasing the location that was previously the Lighthouse Clinic. This building is attractive because of its proximity to the rest of the Camden County complex.
The majority of the elected officials (Assessor, Recorder, Auditor, and County Clerk) who were present agreed that the county should buy the clinic building. They also felt that the county should keep the building on Roofener and not sell it. The Roofener building might be useful both for storage and as a future office location.
County Treasurer Kendra Hicks reminded everyone that Camden County was still paying interest on the Commission Building, the EMA Building, and the Veregy Remodel (over $7 million will be spent on the remodel alone by the time it’s all paid off).
Commissioner Gohagan expressed reluctance to allow the county to assume more debt, but he was also worried that spending cash reserves to purchase real estate might leave Camden County unprepared to pay unforeseen expenses like the costly Juvenile Justice Center roof repair.
County Auditor Laughlin again brought up the possibility that ARPA funds might be available, especially since a few of the water districts have not informed the county when they plan to lock in contracts for the ARPA funds they were allocated. (There have been rumblings that Camden County might claw back those funds since ARPA rules require that all ARPA funds be under contract by 2024 and spent by 2026. Heads up, water districts!)
The next item was Elliott Data Systems.
It sounded like there was some issue with the new software for some of the Sheriff’s camera systems. The Sheriff’s Office representative didn’t seem to know much about it, so it that issue will be addressed at a subsequent meeting.
And finally, Howe Engineering made an appearance and a bid was brought in for the Camdenline Road Bridge.
This will be a 3 span bridge near Decaturville. The bid was from Don Schneider’s Excavating for $999,424.24.
Commissioner Gohagan asked how the bid request was advertised? The representative from Howe said that the bridge bid was advertised statewide and published on the MODOT website. He also explained that there is currently a tremendous amount of bridge work available on the market
This project is heavily funded through the MODOT and the Federal Highway Administration so the MODOT match on the project will be approximately 80%. Camden County will only pay 20% at the most. The Howe representative stated that the engineer’s estimate for this bridge was $1.3 million.
The Commission voted unanimously to table this bid for review.
(I thought the comment about the estimate was pretty funny because there was only one bid and there was an employee from Don Schneider in the audience. It’s almost like saying, “We would have paid up to $1.3 million, but thanks for only bidding $999,000 on it.”
After the meeting, the Howe rep explained to me that engineer estimates are usually high and the bid still had to be reviewed and approved by MODOT. Still funny, though. )
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 