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

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

Commissioners Gohagan and Skelton were present.

The first agenda item was Camden County Agricultural Youth Enrichment Council (CCAYEC) Feasibility Study Results / Agreement with Camden County to be pass-through for funds.

CCAYEC is an organization that is seeking to raise money to build a Camden County Fairground facility.

Presiding Commissioner Ike Skelton began this agenda item by stating that the $30,000 given to CCAYEC to pay for their feasibility study came from the Commission’s Passport Fund, not taxpayer funds.

The County Auditor explained that there is a rule that non-profit organizations have to be established before the ARPA program was started to receive ARPA funding. This rule was intended to prevent people from forming organizations solely to receive ARPA money.

The first part of the presentation was a slide show narrated by Doug Kinsinger and David Kerr from Opportunity Funding Services. They presented the results of community polling questions regarding which aspects of a county fair were most important, community opinions on the chances of raising the necessary funds, why a county fair was needed, and other issues.

Their analysis predicted that CCAYEC could potentially secure approximately $1.1 million in 5 year pledges. Opportunity Funding Services also laid out a strategy for how the planning for the project would occur and the methods that would be used to organize the solicitation of the necessary funding.

After the presentation, the CCAYEC members present at the meeting informed the Commission that they would be receiving $485,000 in funding this year and potentially another $485,000 next year from the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Apparently, State Senator Mike Bernskoetter was given a copy of the CCAYEC feasibility report and was able to use that document to secure the state funding.

The CCAYEC asked the commissioners if Camden County could serve as the pass-through entity that would act as a funding intermediary between the Department of Agriculture and CCAYEC? The CCAYEC assured the Commission that this revenue was a line item payment. It was not a grant and there were no requirements attached to it other than a requirement that the money be spent on developing a county fair.

The Commission unanimously approved becoming the CCAYEC pass-through entity.

The second agenda item was SB-190 Ordinance Amendment.

In Camden County’s original SB-190 ordinance, the Commission had stated they would not re-assess an SB-190 “frozen” value unless there was a 50% increase in assessed value based on improvements to the property. The Missouri legislature went ahead and changed the law, codifying that any improvements in a property that has been frozen will trigger a reassessment and the property will be frozen at the new, higher value.

Wow. Isn’t that nice of them? So try to avoid planting any trees or getting your roof fixed after your value is frozen.

The Commission enacted the amended SB-190 ordinance unanimously.

And that was that.