I attended the August 7, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
Sorry if this article is a little late, but we’ve been working on getting my teenage copy editor set up in her dorm room in Mizzou. I’ll miss all of the arguments about where I should put commas.
The first agenda item was “Budget Amendment – Public Safety General Government.”
The judges were requesting $27,860 for a part time clerical employee at the Drug Court. The funding would move from the Opioid Fund to an appropriation line in a fund associated with the courts.
This budget amendment was needed because the position had been added after the budget was approved.
The Commission approved this budget amendment unanimously.
The next agenda item was “IMS Road & Bridge.”
The Camden County Road and Bridge Administrator, Pat Wolf, gave a presentation using the latest data from the county’s IMS survey.
(Just to refresh memories, IMS is a service the county uses to evaluate and give percentile grades to its paved roads. This does not involve the county’s gravel roads.)
The “Fix All Budget” cost for the county’s paved road network in 2020 was $86.4 million over 5 years. The current “Fix All Budget” cost has been reduced to $37.5 million over 5 years.
56% of the county’s paved roads were rated Poor to Fair in the 2020 survey, but in the most recent IMS survey, 57% were rated Good to Excellent.
2020 2025
Very Poor (0 to 25) 2% 1%
Poor (25-40) 8% 13%
Marginal (40-50) 17% 16%
Fair (50 to 60) 29% 13%
Good (60-70) 19% 12%
Very Good (70-85) 19% 27%
Excellent (85-100) 6% 18%
So the county’s average PCI grade only increased from 60 to 64, but the majority of the county’s paved roads (57%) are now rated as Good or better.
The county budgeted $5.3 million for asphalt in 2025. 60 miles were resurfaced so far this budget year. 45 miles of asphalt were resurfaced last year. 21 miles were resurfaced in 2023.
If Camden County maintains this level of budget spending for the next 5 years, the average PCI rating for the county’s paved roads would be 79% (Very Good).
Pat Wolf hopes to have an interactive map available online in the future so residents can see what the PCI ratings are for different stretches of road.
Pat Wolf showed me an example from his laptop of how the map would look. Here’s a screenshot:
I spoke to Commissioner Gohagan after the meeting and he mentioned that the Commission has greatly increased the annual budget of the Camden County Road and Bridge Department. He also gave credit to Presiding Commissioner Skelton for his decision to make Pat Wolf a true Administrator of the Road Department and appoint a separate “road boss” to directly supervise the roadwork out in the field.
This has freed up Wolf to seek out new techniques and technologies that have made the county’s asphalting program more efficient and affordable. It has also allowed Wolf the opportunity to use the road surveys and other statistical analysis to come up with a rational long term strategy to maintain and improve the county’s paved road network.
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 
This looks a lot like good governance. Congrats to the Wolfman and the man who had the sense to unleash him.
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The Commissioners have been doing a horrific job. Not one gravel road improved
One road in particular is a three mile stretch in-between paved roads. This road has steep inclines and declines with curves incorporated into it. This is a heavily traveled road that often has Google redirecting traffic through it during high traffic volume. During a commission meeting almost 2 years ago the commissioners had seen the dangers and wrecks, and promised the residences that this road would be completed within two years. But, we have had nothing but pathetic excuses and betrayal.
The Commissioners are guilty of maladministration. They’ve conflicted themselves with State and Federal authorities denying the County of possible road, bridge and police grants. The commissioners actually sabotaged the Sheriff’s “Blue Shield law enforcement grant” which could have meant hundreds of thousands of dollars to the County. The commissioners act like big city Democrats afraid their power would be threatened but not smart enough to get the money!
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