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 
Thx for the following of these meeting and keeping us informed!👏👏
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Typical, none of the Commissioners live in Macks Creek, so why should they give a crap about what happens here? We live 5 miles from the retreat, and the music was so loud my windows were shaking. I couldn’t imagine being 400 yards from it. Even the owner of 1776 Bar lives at the lake, so she didn’t care about her neighbors right across the street. Here’s a thought: prior to next year’s event, the retreat is advised all loud music be turned down at 11:00 PM. I’m thinking next year the Sheriff’s Department will be getting a lot more calls about the noise…..
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There is much more to the history of “Tranquil Woods Road” than Kris Franken will admit. That is why back then we the people of Camden County fired him as Presiding Commissioner. The reason “Tranquil Woods Road” was even brought up at this meeting is because of “Big Island Road.”
Back in 2007 the condition to get Tranquil Woods Road paved by the then Commissioners was to get the half cent Police, Road and Bridge sales tax passed. The commission was always rejected by the voters until the Camden County residence surrounding Tranquil Woods Road with the help of the Chamber of Commerce campaigned and got the tax passed, and then they initiated it. To date today, the people surrounding Tranquil Woods Road road are responsible for generating over one hundred million dollars in revenue for Camden County; and all they got was a widened gravel road prepped for blacktop that Google now rates at 60MPH, where bodily injury and property damage is frequent due to it’s steep inclines and declines incorporated with curves and gravel. All three presiding commissioners Ike Skelton, James Gohagan, Don Williams approved and promised that Tranquil Woods Road road would be completed and paved within two years on October 18th, 2023. After October of 2023 the Commission did manage to repave over 200 miles of already paved residential roads. This accomplishment is questionable and suspect.
As of today the Tranquil Woods Road has not been completed but there is now “Big Island Road,” which suddenly appears today.This road is a residential road that goes nowhere and is already paved to be beyond being more than acceptable. At an April of 2026 commission meeting John Beckett, Chairman of the Camden County Republican Club and Stacey Shore, a Realtor requested $700,000 to repave and beautify their residential road to nowhere. This road is in the 2nd district where the newly elected 2nd district commissioner Steve Dougan objected because the money was needed to be used on other roads in his district that are truly in bad shape. But he was overruled by Ike Skelton and James Gohagan. The people of Camden County have made objections to the waste, fraud and abuse brought on by sham hearings, sunshine law violations and Quid Pro Quo. Unfortunately, we are not being heard.
We need to draw attention to our accomplishment of generating over a hundred million dollars of revenue for our County to improve our safety with the continued traffic and growth, and how the Commissioners have ignored our pleas and efforts for a safe County road to be running through our neighborhood.
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I’m sure that promises and past secret agreement have been made and broken, but the fact of the matter is that in 2018, the Commission voted in a policy that established that paving a gravel road requires a financial contribution from the residents to pay for the asphalt materials. Big Island is already paved and requires re-paving. Thus, the policy doesn’t apply to the repair of its pavement.
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“Tranquil Woods Road” does not apply to resident participitation because only ten people actually live on it, also it is a dangerous main County throughfare crossing ten residential roads. The completion of the road was indicated and approved by all three commissioners on 10/18/23 to be completed within two years knowing at the time the people were responsible of generating over 95 million dollars in revenue for the county and the falsely obtained ordinance expired in December of 2023 anyway. The other objection is the repaving of “Big Island Road” a perfectly good paved road that does not require repaving. Repaving of that road ia waste, fraud and abuse of County funds and reeks with Quid Pro Quo.
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I’d like for you to show me some record that proves that Gohagan ever voted for the paving of Tranquil Woods.
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40 pissed off witness. The room was filled several times and I fear bringing them back in, as to what they would do to those two weasel s. Especially Gohagan!
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What makes you think the county’s paving ordinance expired in 2023? I’ve read it and I see no expiration date on it.
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Everyone talks about Data Centers use of water and electricity, but has anyone addressed the wastewater that is contaminated with forever Pfas? (Forever chemicals)
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Maybe that is an issue that could be better addressed at the federal level?
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While I was on the City Council, and Mayor of Belton, Missouri for 6 years. During this time I was on the Planning, & Zoning commission. I went to a University of Missouri extension coarse that was offered for Planning, and Zoning. The classifications of zoning in order is Agricultural, Residential R-1, R-2, and R-3, Then Commercial C-1, C2, Then Industrial, and Manufacturing designations. Agricultural is the highest use of land because if someone wants to build on raw ground they will need a rezoning to one of the other uses. This guy was alright having a home in a lower classification, and no need to change. You can build down in classification, but you can’t build up. This is to protect other’s property. I know, this is Camden County, and part of the Wild, Wild West, and they make up their own rules. LOL
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Welcome to Hooterville, Bill.
Often the zoning is lowered because the owners want to sub-divide and avoid minimum lot sizes or they want to consolidate the lots into one larger lot and they can’t do that unless the zoning matches.
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Nothing really matters anymore. With the Sham Hearings, Sunshine law violations, illegal ordances, Quid Pro Quo, and conspiracies of fraud, the Camden County Commissioner bench is a crime seen. The main stream press is ready for the eight auditors of the State of Missouri Audit to come out with their findings and the Feds are in the background licking their chops on what will be handed to them.
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