July 9, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the July 9, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

All commissioners were present.

At the beginning of the meeting, the commissioners voted to add the Duckhead Road road petition from Monday’s meeting to the agenda.

The first agenda item was “Budget Amendment – Collector.”

This was an amendment to add $199.56 to the Training and Tuition budget line.

It was approved unanimously.

The second agenda item was “Discussion of Kula Road.”

This was actually about Kula Bay Road which is the road that leads down to Captain Ron’s in Sunrise Beach.

Steve Roth (Sunrise Beach City Manager), Susan Schneider (Sunrise Beach Board of Trustees Chairman), and a representative from Sunrise Beach Public Works were present at the meeting.

This was a pretty involved conversation with a lot of back and forth so for the sake of my sanity and yours, I’m going to summarize what was discussed.

Sunrise Beach has been gradually annexing more property, but this annexation has created a city that is a patchwork of incorporated and unincorporated areas. Large restaurants and bars often want to be annexed so they can receive police, water, and/or sewer services from the city. Unfortunately, the residential property owners between these locations often are not as eager to become part of the city. In some cases, the property owners are in the city, but their road still remains a county road. In other cases, one side of a road might be unincorporated county while the other side is in the city.

Sunrise Beach does receive CART money for its roads, but Lee Schuman explained that the municipalities receive their CART money based on population, not road mileage.

Regarding Kula Bay Road, a portion of the road is paved and it belongs to the city. There was a disagreement over whether the remaining unpaved portion of Kula Bay Road was a county road or a private road since it did not appear to be on the CART Map.

The Sunrise Beach City Manager mentioned that the city already has an asphalt paver under contract and he was willing to add Kula Bay Road to their paving list. He hoped that the county might contribute to this effort and proposed that the city could take over the maintenance of the road. He also assured the Commission that it was possible for the city to assume control over a county road without annexing the properties that have frontage on the road.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that the two road departments (Sunrise Beach and Camden County) should sit down and come to an agreement about who should take responsibility over which roads. That information could then be taken to the State of Missouri so the changes could be reflected in the CART Map.

There was a proposal that Camden County Road and Bridge could prep Kula Bay for paving, Sunrise Beach would pay to pave it, and then the county could also turn over Forsen Park Road to the city for maintenance. (This neighborhood is a classic example of the jigsaw puzzle nature of the city boundaries. Captain Ron’s and part of Kula Bay Road are part of Sunrise Beach, but all of the surrounding residences and roads are unincorporated Camden County.)

Commissioner Dougan commented that the CART Map isn’t an accurate representation of the county road network. Skelton agreed and noted that since the discussed portion of Kula Bay Road wasn’t on the CART Map, it could be possible that it is actually a private road. The county does not receive funding for that portion of the road because it isn’t on the Camden County CART Map.

In the end, Presiding Commissioner Skelton suggested that the County Recorder do some research to determine if there is any recorded information that might show which entity is responsible for the road. Once they get that, the Commission could make an agreement with Sunrise Beach regarding the maintenance of the roadway.

The third agenda item was “Discussion of Health Department, Engineering & Architecture.”

Presiding Commissioner Skelton said that the Campus Committee had a meeting and determined that the County Health Department needs to be relocated to its own building. Two possible locations were nearby the Juvenile Justice Center or at the “rock house” lot on Court Circle.

Skelton described the proposed new building as a 10,000 square foot structure that would serve as a permanent home for the Health Department. He wanted to discuss selecting someone who could bid for the Engineering/Architectural assignment to design the building.

Commissioner Gohagan wondered if the rock house lot was big enough for a 10,000 square foot building? He felt the Juvenile Justice Center wasn’t ideal because it already has drainage problems.

Lee Schuman suggested that the Commission should send out a request for qualifications and communicate to the bidders the proposed cost of the building. He estimated an Investigation of Concept might cost $10,000. The design would cost approximately $50,000. Site and building design services would cost around $75,000.

The final agenda item was “Discussion of Pier 31 Court Legal Description.”

Camden County will turn Pier 31 Court over to Camdenton. The county will take over Opportunity Road and Court Circle from Camdenton.

The Commission approved this transfer unanimously.

And last but not least, the Commission confirmed that the Horseshoe Bend Special District did post their road vacation notices for Duckhead Road that had been tabled from the previous meeting.

So the Commission approved the petition unanimously.

And that was that.