Senator McCaskill representatives visit with Maries County Commissioners

Laura Schiermeier, Staff Writer
Posted 10/3/18

MARIES COUNTY — Two representatives from United States Senator Claire McCaskill’s office met with the Maries County Commission last week to talk about a variety of subjects on the federal …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Senator McCaskill representatives visit with Maries County Commissioners

Posted

MARIES COUNTY — Two representatives from United States Senator Claire McCaskill’s office met with the Maries County Commission last week to talk about a variety of subjects on the federal government level that impacts Maries County, directly or indirectly.

Justin Klocke, Field Representative, and his colleague Aaron Carter, a UMC political science student, met with Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre, Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel, and County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers. As Senator McCaskill’s representative, Klocke meets with the county commission several times each year and he shares information and the commissioners speak of some of their concerns. Senator McCaskill’s office is the only federal-level representative who regularly reaches out to the Maries County Commission.

He began by talking about what is happening in the US Senate that day, Thursday, September 27. The Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford pertaining to Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court. The judiciary committee was expected to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday and the full Senate expected to vote this week, Klocke said.  

In other information sharing, Klocke said there is an Assistance to Firefighters Grant that Senator McCaskill’s office can assist local fire departments with if they will contact the senator’s office. The grant has money available to purchase equipment, uniforms and fire safety gear, training, and even fire trucks. He said the fire department in Fayette is using the matching grant to purchase an expensive fire truck. 

A big thing the senator is dealing with recently is the impact of tariffs on farmers, business owners, manufacturers, and ultimately on consumers. A new list of 194 products with tariffs was recently announced. And, China has retaliated by placing tariffs on goods sold at Walmart, The Gap, and Maceys and on products from US corporations such as Coke, Apple and General Motors. The list includes televisions, home renovation materials such as sheetrock, solar panels, beer, electronics and clothing. The tariffs are expected to hit consumers’ pocket books to the tune of $127 a year for the average person. 

Drewel asked why are all the manufacturers overseas. Fagre said labor costs is one reason, recalling when VCR’s cost $500. Drewel said maybe President Trump has a good idea with these tariffs. The reply from Klocke was that corporations will pass on the cost of the tariffs to the consumer. These are the same corporations that were given large tax cuts yet they will raise the prices of products on consumers. Fagre said, “They don’t want to pay anybody.”

“It all boils down to the dollar,” Drewel commented.

The truly unfortunate part is that China is reacting strongly. Senator McCaskill is not in favor of the tariffs because the cost is passed on to people. Senator McCaskill prefers to use negotiations to get to the root of the problem rather than punish the people.

Fagre expressed his concerns about cattle producers, saying if they overproduce, they have to have someone to purchase their products. He said beef producers were left out of the agriculture subsidies in reaction to the tariffs. The subsidies were announced during the period of severe drought and the subsidy amounts reflect that. For cattle farmers, not having hay and paying $75 for a bale of hay is a problem, Fagre said. In northern Missouri, a hay bale is selling for $100 or more. Another problem is that the rules for the subsidies say you can only have one cow per two acres of land and in Missouri it’s not like that. He said they are still trying to figure out the rules. Fagre said they see everybody else getting help but not cattle farmers. The agriculture team in Washington DC is aware of this, Klocke said. 

Drewel said some farmers have sold off their cattle, and Klocke said he’s heard recommendations to sell off 25 percent of their herds. This makes sense but the farmers don’t want to see their cattle. 

The commissioners asked about the reporting of cattle  and if accountability was attached to it. How do they know how many cattle a producer really has? Drewel said he thinks it should be done the same way as the same way farmers report to the assessor for tax purposes. Dishonesty hurts these programs, he said. 

Fagre asked about the expansion of reliable broadband into rural areas. He said he saw that Maries County is to receive $3 million for upgrades by a company called Whisper. A number of companies bid to bring broadband to the unserved and under-served areas, Klocke said, and the action is still in the planning stage. The amount of money used to make upgrades in a particular area is based on a census block, which there are some concerns about how accurate it is. The FCC is allowing people to challenge the map to obtain more funding to make the improvements to broadband access and service. “If you are aware of an area that is not covered, call us,” Klocke said.

Fagre said thanks to Senator McCaskill’s office for helping Maries County get contacts to AT&T. Fagre called several legislative offices and Senator McCaskill’s office is the only one that helped him. 

To contact Justin Klocke email him at justin_klocke@mccaskill.senate.gov or contact him at the Columbia office at 573-442-7130.

Hazard Mitigation Plan

Representatives of the Maries County, City of Vienna, and the Phelps/Maries Health Department met with MRPC representatives on Thursday to work on the update of the Maries County Hazard Mitigation Plan. Present were Tommy Snodgrass from MRPC who chaired the meeting, Sherry James and Shon Westart from Vienna, Katie Strawbridge with the health department, and representing Maries County were Renee Kottwitz, Chris Heitman, Scott John, Doug Drewel and Ed Fagre.

The group reviewed the current plan and worked on making the updates. When the commissioners joined the group, they were asked about any work the road districts did on roads and bridges. 

Drewel said they replaced culverts and low water slabs. Snodgrass said they are asking these questions in order to know what progress has been made in the past five years and if enough progress has been made, they can remove it as an action item.

Drewel said there is a new bridge on MCR 408 that used to have a slab and now it’s a bridge with a box. On MCR 450 there is a new, longer slab. MCR 422 has an extended, longer bridge, and MRC 411 has an extended bridge, adding eight feet to keep the ends from washing out. On MCR 320 there is a new, high bridge, a BRO Bridge project that cost over $400,000. On MCR 409 pier work was done on a WPA era bridge that was washed out by the stream.

Fagre said Road One extended the slab on MCR 218, extended the bridge and added an apron on MCR 605, and on MCR 607 a new bridge, 162 feet long, cost about $53,000.

Drewel said it seems the FEMA and SEMA only want to pay to fix a road or bridge after it has washed out, but won’t pay for work to prevent the washout. Snodgrass said there is that but later they come back with mitigation. She said they have been seeing change in how FEMA/SEMA do things and they are doing more mitigation to prevent the washouts and having to pay for them in the future.

Drewel said they are raising roads up every time rock is put on them and this raising makes the ditch deeper. Fagre said the county roads are “worn out” with some roads low and high banks beside them. 

Snodgrass said if the commissioners think of other projects to let her know. She said it sounds like they are making progress each year. Snodgrass said improving the roads actually is hazard mitigation.

End of October

Mitchell Wilson, the individual who will be laying the carpet in the sheriff’s office hallway, foyer and elevator area, contacted Fagre about the project’s progress. He said he has ordered the supplies and expects to be ready to go on the carpet project when it arrives, about the end of October.

A Small Big Problem

Clerk’s Deputy Kottwitz, Clerk Rodgers, and Treasurer Rhonda Slone all came into the commission room and the commissioners knew there was some type of problem they wanted to discuss. Kottwitz said they had “a small big problem” in that they need an upgrade to the payroll and accounting software, as reported by the technician from Tyler Tech of Texas. The tech called and got into the server, which has a 2003 operating system with no upgrade available. They were told they needed an operating system of 2008 or newer. 

Capital City Computer gave an estimate on the cost. He wanted the Tyler technician to do the work on a Saturday, but that carried an additional $1,200 charge. So, Greg Langendoerfer of Capital City Computer Services agreed to do his work on Saturday and the technician will come on Monday from 1 to 5 p.m. The cost of the hard drive, CDROM Windows Server 2012 R2 standard is $3,149.95 and the cost of setup for the new server and domain, move over all programs and settings, setup all PC’s on domain and setup software and setting for two technicians work for 12 hours each is $1,800 for a grand total price of $4,949.95. 

Kottwitz said Capital City Computer Services needs a check before ordering the server and Fagre suggested writing a check for the whole thing. Drewel said they have to fix it and he’s fine with it. “It has to be paid today or tomorrow,” he commented. Slone said the bill will be paid out of general revenue and since it is an unanticipated expense, it will put the budget “out of whack.” Fagre said they always have to make budget amendments. Drewel said he’s glad they have the money to pay for it. 

Leaking Boiler

Fagre contacted Harold Libbert who will be at the courthouse early this week to see what is wrong with the boiler because it is leaking.