September 1, 2026, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the September 1, 2026, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

Commissioners Gohagan and Skelton were present.

The only agenda item was “Private Road Name Change ‘Beacon Point’”

The owners of this private road wanted to change the name of Beacon Point to Griffin’s Way. They owned all of the property connected to the road. The E-911 employee stated they found no other road conflicts with the new name and they were willing to approve it.

The Commission approved the name change unanimously.

In Public Comment, Wes Grant and Joe McDevitt spoke before the Commission.

They inquired why there was a metal detector installed at the entrance to the county courthouse when Missouri citizens could carry concealed at the State Capitol? And why were employees able to bypass the metal detectors?

Commissioner Gohagan explained that the metal detector was installed because of one person in the past.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton said he didn’t agree with the metal detector, but the security area had already been made part of the plans for the building remodel when he came into office. Skelton commented that in his opinion, most workplace violence was committed by employees.

Grant also mentioned that he had Sunshine Law requested some recorded video footage from the interior of the courthouse and been informed that those cameras had since been removed by elected officials. He didn’t feel there could be much of a concern for security in the building if they were removing security cameras. Grant asked who owned the internal video cameras in the courthouse?

Skelton answered that they were owned and operated by Camden County.

Grant observed again that the cameras had been removed after he and McDevitt made the requests for the video that was recorded by the cameras. (I was later informed that one of the cameras in question was in the Recorder of Deeds’ office.)

Next to speak was Dan Hare.

He ministers to several of the inmates in the Camden County Jail and he was worried that they don’t have daily access to the Bible. He had heard that the tablets and the wi-fi in the jail don’t always work and he was willing to provide physical Bibles to the inmates if this was an issue.

The Sheriff explained that the inmates do have access to the Bibles through their tablets from 8:00 a.m. until the evening. As far as he was aware, there hadn’t been any problems with the tablets or the wi-fi. Physical books aren’t allowed in the jail because they can be used to sneak contraband into the facility.

And that was that.