MARIES COUNTY — Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman has applied for grants that will supply his department with about $2,000 worth of Narcan, a nasal spray that can bring back a person who is at the brink of death because of an opioid overdose.

Heitman told the Maries County Commissioners that he has applied for two grants, one through the Missouri Department of Health, and the other through the Police Chief’s Association. The Narcan will be given to his department through the grant. He sees problems with it because of Narcan’s short shelf life, and it needs a climate controlled environment and will have to be brought in out of vehicles and stored inside. Also, it is expensive and once it is gone, his department will have to pay for replacing it.

Heitman said it is a nasal spray used for treatment in an opioid emergency when there are signs of breathing problems and sleepiness or not being able to respond. The Narcan can save lives. Heitman said the deputies will receive training as well. The cost is about $80 per vile and five to six doses might be used in an overdose emergency. He commented the person who over uses the opioids has made a choice, a bad choice. Heitman said the people he wants to go after are the ones selling it.

When asked about how busy the Maries County Jail gets on weekends, the sheriff said they generally begin the weekend with three inmates and by Sunday they have nine inmates, and then down to about five by Monday. 

Base Rock vs. Gravel

Presiding Commissioner-elect, Vic Stratman was at the meeting. He has dug in with the commissioners and is interested in getting all the information he can before he officially begins his county job on Jan. 2, 2019. Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel and Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre told him they both work every day at the road districts. In other counties, such as Osage County, they have road foremen who make the decisions about the road work. In Maries County, the associate commissioners do it. The road districts do have foremen, however and Bobby Wilson is the Road One Foreman, and Larry Piel is the Road two Foreman. 

Drewel said using base rock from the quarry instead of gravel from the creek has helped the county’s roads. He uses one inch minus from the quarry and it packs very well and stays on the road. “Gravel beats you back to the creek,” Drewel commented. When he became an associate commissioner, Road Two was spending $10,000 on year on base rock; now the road district spends about $140,000 on the base rock from the quarry. He estimates getting gravel from the creek costs about $55 a load, whereas a load of good base rock from the quarry costs $90 a load but it stays on the road. It also is not as hard on equipment when hauling from the quarry versus getting gravel out of the creek.

Also, having the road district’s graders under warranty is a big benefit because it costs too much to repair them. 

MAC Conference

Stratman asked the commissioners and County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers about whether or not they think is would be helpful for him to attend the upcoming Missouri Association of Counties (MAC) Conference at the Lake. Fagre said at the commissioners annual conference in February there is a new commissioner training program that Stratman might find helpful. Rodgers was not sure if Stratman could attend as he is not officially a commissioner yet, but after checking she said he can go if he wants to. Stratman said he’s not sure if he wants to go but is willing to if they think it would be helpful. 

They talked about the differences of the commissioners’ work in rural counties versus large, urban counties. In Maries County the associate commissioners work closely with the road districts. In urban areas, the commissioners attend more meetings. Drewel said they don’t work on the roads and like all those meetings at the conference at the Lake, he thinks a commissioner can better utilize his time in the county instead of out of it.

MCR 325

The commissioners were signing invoices for payment. One of them was to Capital Paving and Construction for $7,712.83. It was payment for the center line crack filling and transverse joint crack filling on 1.6 miles of MCR 325, which is Old Highway 63 that has a bit of traffic on it to Moreland’s Catfish Patch. Road One spent $160,000 to asphalt the road several years ago, which was a big improvement. Drewel said it’s a lot of money for a mile and a half but it has to be fixed to keep the water out. Fagre said they keep the salt out of it, too. About the asphalt work, he said the road was “in such a state we had to do it.”