I attended the August 20, 2026, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.
Commissioners Gohagan and Skelton were present. Commissioner Dougan was present for the earlier 9:00 a.m. closed session, but for some reason, he did not attend this open meeting.
The first agenda item was a Planning and Zoning “Re-zone Request – PZ26-0095 Knees.”
This re-zone was requested to change B-2 commercial zoning to R-1 residential zoning. The owner told the Commission that a house had been on the property since 2004 and they had only recently discovered that the property was zoned as a a commercial property.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved this re-zone 6-0. The Commission approved it unanimously.
The second agenda item was “Rewrite A-1 & Appendix L.”
Nobody present at the meeting wanted to discuss the revision of the 904 A-1 Agriculture zoning section of the Unified Land Use Code (ULUC). The Commission approved it unanimously.
The proposed Appendix L of the ULUC regulates the development and operation of data centers in the Camden County Planning and Zoning areas. It was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission 6-0.
Blake Hodits spoke to the Commission in opposition to this Appendix. He clarified that he was not asking to build a data center. He objected to the idea that the definition of what was regulated by this appendix was defined by a 2,000 square foot floor server room size. He was concerned that the appendix would place restrictions on business ventures that were not data centers.
County Attorney Dickman said he had reviewed the proposed appendix. In his opinion, the appendix was valid and legal.
Kris Franken spoke in favor of the appendix. He is one of its authors. He pointed out that while other government bodies have simply blocked data centers, Camden County chose to write an ordinance and enact regulations that provided guidance and rules for how they could be safely established.
Mike McDuffey, the Democratic candidate for Presiding Commissioner, told the Commission he supported the appendix and expressed his opinion that the committee who wrote it have done a great job.
The Commission approved Appendix L unanimously.
The third agenda item was “Bid Opening – 260820 Transportation Treatment Court.”
There were bids from MTS Transportation Services and Lake Ride Pros.
MTS is the current transportation service used by the Treatment Court. The representative from the court asked if this item could be tabled so she could review the bids. It was tabled unanimously.
In Open Discussion, some folks from Mack’s Creek spoke to the Commission about the Gathering of the Juggalos concert event that was taking place at the Mother Nature’s campsite. One resident lives 400 yards from the campgrounds. The venue had been playing loud music until 5:00 a.m. and their posted schedule had musical acts performing until 3:00 a.m. Attendees had also been throwing trash into the Niangua River.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton told them there was a Missouri state statute (574.010) that forbids noise after 11:00 p.m. The commissioners suggested that the residents should contact the Camden County Sheriff’s Office if the music was unreasonably load.
It was mentioned that some citizens had been reluctant to complain because it was well known that Skelton was friends with the person who runs the campground.
Commissioner Skelton stated that he had been working at the event, but he had not been protecting the venue in any way. He promised to talk to the operator and make him aware of the complaints. Skelton explained that the Sheriff and the Southwest Fire Protection District met with the event organizers weeks prior to the event.
Commissioner Gohagan expressed his concerns regarding the impact the event might have on the lake, wear on the roads, overtime costs, and damage to the venue after the concert goers departed.
In the end, their main recourse seemed to be contacting the Sheriff’s Office for any disturbances or criminal activity.
You might be surprised to learn that as of just a few years ago, the method that Camden County used to handle loud noise complaints was that someone would call the former Planning and Zoning Administrator late at night and she would call the restaurant or bar and tell them to turn their music off.
After this issue was discussed, another gentleman asked to speak to the Commission about Tranquil Woods Road. He stated that two years ago, the Commission had voted 2-1 to pave their gravel road, but the work was never started. Recently, he heard that Camden County is planning to spend $700,000 to pave a different road.
Presiding Commissioner Skelton explained that he voted in favor of paving Tranquil Woods Road, but he subsequently learned that Camden County had an ordinance that dictates that the county will not pave a gravel road unless the residents pay for the cost of the asphalt materials. Skelton also mentioned that despite reports to the contrary, the county still has $6 million in reserves and the CD’s for that reserve money have not been touched.
Commissioner Gohagan noted that the road washout at Ozark Isle has been a significant and unexpected expense for the county. He said that Camden County should find out next week if the county is going to receive FEMA money to repair the damage.
The gentleman said that he had heard that the Commission modified the paving ordinance, but the commissioners assured him that it was unchanged since 2018 and still in effect.
Kris Franken was a former presiding commissioner and he spoke to the Commission about the history regarding Tranquil Woods Road. Most of the county’s paved roads were paved using Neighborhood Improvement Districts (NID). A NID finances the cost of such community projects through property tax payments that are shared by the community based on assessed property value. The NID financing typically stretches out over 20 years. When he was a Commissioner, he met with the Tranquil Woods Road community and the estimated cost if they formed a NID to pave the road was $1.27 per $100 assessed value. (I’m sure it would be more now.)
And that was that.
Among the Dogwoods 