I attended the August 26, 2025, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
All commissioners were present.
The first agenda item was “2nd Public Hearing – Willow Creek Road.”
Residents have asked the Commission to place stop signs at the intersection near Colorado Bobs Drive and Willow Creek Road.
A couple spoke in opposition to the stop signs. They have lived there for 21 years and didn’t think a stop sign would make any difference. They rarely see cars near that intersection and felt the stop signs would be an inconvenience. They said that widening the narrowest parts of Willow Creek Road and posting more speed limit signs would have more impact.
Residents in favor of the stop signs made their argument for the change. Traffic through the area has increased since the bridges have been improved. The route is a bypass route for Camdenton and the Camdenton School District won’t allow its school buses to pick up kids at the intersection because it’s too dangerous. The ideal fix would be to shave down the “hump” in the road to give better visibility to drivers approaching the intersection, but they understood that the hump solution would be far too expensive.
The commissioners listened attentively to both sides and scheduled the final public hearing for Thursday.
The second agenda item was “Discussion of demolition of the “Rock House.”
The Commission intends to demolish the Rock House and build a new Health Department building on the lot. Unfortunately, it looks like there is a bunch of hazardous material inside the building so the commissioners were concerned that having Road and Bridge demolish it might create some liability.
After some discussion, the commissioners decided to have the building tested and then put out a bid for the demolition.
(In the old days, the building might have just mysteriously burned down in the middle of the night. It’s nice to see that Hooterville is making strides. But at least then we we didn’t have to worry about all of these bid openings.
Just give Crazy Uncle Jim a bottle of whiskey and whisper in his ear.)
The final agenda item was “City of Camdenton Letter of Support.”
The City of Camdenton was asking for a Letter of Support from Camden County to send to the Missouri Housing Development Commission to allow them to build more apartment buildings similar to the affordable apartments that were recently built near Save-a Lot. Those apartments have already filled up and currently have a waitlist.
The builder would receive tax abatements and credits as long as they ensured that a certain number of rental units would be rented at more affordable rent levels. This would help to alleviate the shortage of affordable rental units in the area.
The commissioners agreed unanimously to sign the letter.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton announced that public budget meetings were going to be scheduled in the near future. He stated that the county would have to start “tightening their belts.” The meetings would be held in the evenings so more people could attend. The dates and times will be announced soon.
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 