VIENNA — Maries County IT manager Shane Sweno visited the Feb. 6 commission meeting to inform the commissioners about an issue concerning the addresses of people who live on the Highway 28 Spur south of Vienna. In the dispatch center’s maps, addresses on Highway 28 Spur are incorrectly listed as being Highway 28 addresses and vice-versa. Sweno said the issue came to his attention when someone new to that block range reported issues getting packages delivered to his address.

Sweno said he had already made a list of the 11 addresses that need to change and proposed new addresses for each. He also recommended that the county send letters to the people at the addresses to explain the issue and reasons for updating their addresses.

The commissioners showed concern that changing the addresses would upset people, especially those who may have had the same address their whole lives.

“I guess we have to explain that it’s for police and fire,” Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said. “That will help some.”

“And for package delivery,” Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said.

“It’s like when we first did 911,” Fagre said. “You just got a new address in the mail, and that was it.”

“You’re gonna have to (change the addresses),” Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said. “Otherwise your UPS and your ambulance, everything will be screwed up.”

The commissioners all agreed to change the addresses. People affected by the address changes can expect an official notice soon.

At the Feb. 14 meeting, Sweno returned with more addresses to consider changing.

Properties on Maries Road 424 and Maries Road 426, which are near the Gasconade County line, did not receive addresses that conform to the county’s style when the county switched to five-digit addresses on county roads. Sweno said the properties’ addresses look like they are in Gasconade County when they are actually in Maries County. The county roads also have north and south designations, which set them apart from every other county road.

Sweno said he would fix the issue in the county’s electronic mapping for dispatch, and the county would not have to change the addresses for now. He said that the commissioners might eventually want to change the addresses to align them with county standards.

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said that St. James addresses in Maries County say “County Road” instead of “Maries Road.”

Sweno said that distinction sometimes creates issues for dispatchers. They have to enter aliases for roads to ensure emergency services reach the right address if there are discrepancies between streets labeled as “County Road” or “Maries Road.” He said 424 has the correct 911 address style, but 426 does not have the correct address style.

Sweno said that if the commissioners wanted to change the addresses, the next step would be to go to the county assessor’s office to change them.

Rental values

Stratman said he had attended a housing meeting with the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) and learned fair market rent values for different house sizes in the area. According to the data from the Phelps County Housing Authority, $660 per month is fair value for a one-bedroom house, $746 per month is fair for a two-bedroom house, $970 per month is fair for a three-bedroom house and $1157 is fair for a four-bedroom house.

Drewel did not believe the values were accurate to Maries County.

“You aren’t going to get that around Belle,” he said. “A two-bedroom house in Maries County (for) $750? You won’t get that kind of rent in Maries County.”

Drewel said the values were probably higher because the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was helping owners rent to tenants at a lower rate than the average person would pay by contributing to rent payments. He said he knew of someone who recently built one-bedroom houses and rented them for $500 per month.

“You won’t get the average person to go out here and pay $750 or $800 for those houses,” he said.

“That’s a lot of money,” Stratman said.

“Even for Phelps County, that’s pretty high,” Drewel said. “The three-bedroom is pretty well right-on. I’d say it’s about $200 off on Belle. The only reason they’re bringing this kind of money in Rolla is not because they’re renting to families. It’s because they’re renting to college kids. They’ll put three kids in there, or four, and split the bill so then it’s not so much per month.”

Stratman said there are many more people in the area looking for housing than houses available to rent to them.

“They need more landlords,” he said.

The mention of landlords reminded Fagre of Snidely Whiplash, the villainous real estate owner appearing in the “Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties” segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Whiplash was recognizable for his black top hat and curled handlebar mustache.

Drewel said he had noticed some houses in the area looking run down.

“You get to drive around up through these blocks and look at some of these houses (and) they’re not doing the maintenance on those houses,” he said. “All these small towns are kinda drying up, you might say. It seemed like 10 years ago you could drive through these blocks up here and all the houses looked a little neater (and) cleaner. A lot of them the siding is about to fall off. It’s just different stuff. What’s going to happen in another 10 years? Another 20?”

Fagre said he had noticed the same neglect in old barns and fences.

Stratman said that MRPC also discussed a grant it received to clean up lead paint in old homes. He said that any house built before 1978 likely has lead paint. The grant would help cover the costs of the paint if the residents of the house meet certain demographic requirements, such as being pregnant or having small children. It would even pay for the residents to stay in a hotel while the cleanup happens. The grant has gathered little interest so far, so it is still available through MRPC to those who qualify.

Stratman also said people who rent pastures should watch for mail from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the agency sends out land-rent surveys.

“Most people probably throw them away, but if they rent land, if they could respond to them, that makes the information more relevant to everybody,” he said. “If there are two people who respond, they won’t post it. You’d be able to be identified. If they get (at least) three responses, they’ll average them. And if they get 100 responses in the county, your average will be more accurate than if you only got three (responses).”

Stratman also shared data from the Missouri Department of Transportation that showed the mileage of county roads by surface type in the state as of the end of last year.

All county roads in Maries County are gravel or stone surface. Last year, the county added three-fifths of a mile to its county road mileage to bring the total to 411.2 miles.

Comm-Unity ambulance

At the Feb. 16 commission meeting, Stratman told the other commissioners about the February meeting of the Maries-Osage Ambulance District (MOAD) board, of which he is a member. MOAD’s board discussed the upcoming dissolution of the volunteer COMM-Unity Ambulance service in the Meta area with Monte Olsen, an adjunct professor with the University of Missouri’s Fire and Rescue Training Institute and the executive director of the National Association of Emergency and Fire Officials. He said that if the people of COMM-Unity Ambulance’s service area wanted to join an ambulance district, they would need to petition the commissioners of at least one of the counties in the ambulance district’s coverage area.

Either 10 percent of voters in the area or 50 total voters, whichever is fewer, would need to sign the petition. After receiving the petition, the county commissioners would decide whether to put the issue to a ballot vote.

Stratman asked Rodgers if she could look up how many of Maries County’s registered voters lived in the affected area.

Rodgers found a list of voters from the one Maries County precinct that would need to vote on the issue. MOAD already covers some of the voters in the precinct, so they did not yet have a list of voters affected by a potential annexation. At the Feb. 23 meeting, Rodgers said that five Maries County voters live in the COMM-Unity Ambulance coverage area.

Stratman asked if Rodgers had an estimation of an election’s cost.

Rodgers said the most expensive part of holding the election would be programming the voting machines. The cost of ballots would be negligible because there would be so few. Opening only one precinct would mean only paying four poll workers. She estimated the total cost to be between $3,000 and $4,000.

Vultures

Drewel asked Fagre if he had seen the news about the supplemental budget bill passed by the Missouri House of Representatives. His particular interest was the more than $600,000 allocated to the Missouri Department of Agriculture to address the impact of black vultures on livestock owners throughout the state.

“Why don’t they just give everybody a box of shells and forget about it?” Drewel asked. “They’re going to study that, to check it out, for $600-something-thousand. We already know what they are. And we already know that they peck the eyes out of calves, right? So what’s the next step? Shoot them. Why would you spend $600,000 talking about it?”

“The conservation agents would write you tickets for that,” Fagre said.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 includes black vultures as one of nearly 1,100 species of migratory birds it protects. The United States Supreme Court heard one of the earliest arguments against the act when the case Missouri v. Holland made it to the Court in 1920.

The case argued that Missouri did not have to enforce the act because the regulation of game was not a power granted to the federal government by the constitution. The Supreme Court upheld the law’s constitutionality in a 7-2 vote. The Court cited the federal government’s power to make treaties and national interest for protecting wildlife as reasons for upholding the law.

Any use of lethal force against the vultures or any other protected birds requires a permit. A recent guide published by the University of Missouri Extension outlines the process for obtaining such a permit.

Fagre also said that he often sees the vultures when he drives around.

“As long as they have stuff to eat, they’re alright,” he said. “But when they run out of stuff to eat, they start ganging up on stuff. They said they have ganged up on calves and killed some.”