MARIES COUNTY — Last week the Maries County Commission signed the paperwork needed for Hippos, LLC to obtain a tax abatement on Maries County taxes. 

MRPC Executive Director Bonnie Prigge was at a commission meeting last week to help the commissioners through the process and to get the paperwork signed.

Hippos, LLC is the marijuana cultivation facility located on Highway V in Vienna. The company bought and refurbished a spec building in Vienna’s industrial development park that had remained unused for years for its primary purpose of bringing jobs to Vienna and Maries County. Hippos bought the building from the City of Vienna, but later was able to have its purchase price refunded when it invested over $3 million in its business, which began operating in Sept. 2020.

At the commission meeting, Prigge said Hippos has 32 employees at its Vienna facility. That is 32 new jobs. She said Hippos had filed a motion of intent as is needed with the enterprise zone it is in. She said the company had to file and they have done so. Most of Maries County is in the Maries County Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ).

The Hippos North American Classification System (NACS) facility code is 111900, which is an agriculture eligible industry for the EEZ.  The company provided proof of paying at least 50 percent of employee health insurance and provided payroll records. The company provides the benefits the county approved in 2010 when the EEZ was formed and set out parameters for the tax abatement on real property. Prigge said if two new full time jobs were created with a $100,000 investment, the minimum tax abatement is for 10 years and 50 percent. The abatements are capped at 80 percent for 20 years. 

Hippos created 32 jobs as of May 2022 and that puts the company at a 65 percent abatement for 10 years. The company’s average payroll is $17.75 an hour for an extra five percent. On the company’s investment, that is $9.7 million, which adds 25 percent to the abatement, which adds up to 90 to 95 percent. Adding the company’s $72,161 investment in website, initial signage, branding and marketing brings the company’s investment to $9,724,375.90. Prigge said Hippos abatement will be 80 percent for 15 years, not to exceed the life of the EEZ. 

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said there has to be a lot of money in the emerging marijuana industry with the over $9 million investment the company made. Prigge said, “The numbers keep getting bigger.” She recommended Hippos receive an 80 percent tax abatement for 15 years on real property, not to exceed the life of the zone, so the company will get 13 years as the zone was established in 2010. 

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman asked if the state will change the enhanced enterprise zone. Prigge said the state may offer an extension, could form a new enterprise zone, or it may end it. 

She said the tax abatement is on real property improvements on the building and parking lot, and does not include equipment. Stratman said it is better to get some tax revenue from it than to get none at all. Prigge said there are 32 jobs and those people are coming to Vienna every day. They will spend money. They are decent jobs. The commissioners made a motion to sign the tax abatement agreement order, it received a second and all three commissioners voted to approve it. 

Drewel said, “It leaves a lot of tax money out there, but if not they would go elsewhere.”

Blood draws

Sheriff’s Deputy Major Scott John was at the commission meeting briefly to discuss the sheriff’s office’s blood draws the Maries-Osage Ambulance District (MOAD) does not want to do. This was part of an article in this publication following the MOAD board meeting in May. John said the article said the sheriff’s office didn’t return MOAD’s phone calls and this is not true. He said they are a few blocks away and can come to the sheriff’s office. It also said the district’s attorney said there is too much liability with doing a blood draws. “We are frustrated,” John said. “We have nowhere to go with them. There is no hospital here.” The article also said MOAD even did a Sunshine request the sheriff’s office did not respond to. He said this is not true. “First responders are a community, a family. We may argue but we work together,” he said. 

The blood draws are a problem because MOAD does not want to do them. John said at first MOAD cited the expense of the blood draws and that it would not stand up in court and about the time it would take for the blood drawer persons to go to court. He said they looked at it and the blood drawer might be called to go to court once or twice a year. The prosecuting attorney has a recoupment form MOAD could fill out to get reimbursed for any expenses. He said now they are saying it’s a liability risk. “We are in the liability risk business,” he said. They called around and found out Osage and Gasconade counties and Cuba PD all use ambulance district paramedics to do blood draws. 

Drewel said they can’t force MOAD to do their blood draws. John said they have to have someone do it. MOAD suggested the sheriff’s office take them to the hospital for the blood draw, but that adds time to it and the person gets less drunk and more sober as the minutes pass. There also are signatures they have to get from the prosecuting attorney and the judge, plus they have to wait their turn in the hospital’s emergency room to get the blood draw and by then the person is probably sober. He said it puts lives at risk.

Stratman said they need the blood draw to stand up in court and asked how can they do that if the person drawing the blood is not qualified to do it. John said EMT’s can’t do it, but paramedics can. Drewel asked if they can get someone in the sheriff’s office trained to do the blood draws. John said they looked into getting a phlebotomist to work at the sheriff’s office, but the training is eight months and will cost thousands of dollars. 

Stratman, who serves on the MOAD Board, asked John to come to a meeting. “We are throwing rocks at each other and not talking to each other,” Stratman said. 

John said the county’s dispatch is under-staffed. Drewel said the county has spent a lot of money there, but they still have to have a good dispatcher. John said it is improving slowly. He added MOAD responds to DWI accidents and should want the drunk drivers off the road. First responders wear many hats, he said. He told the commissioners a supervisor will come to the next MOAD meeting, which is June 13. 

Jail is full

Major John stayed for a bit more at the meeting. When questioned he said the jail is full with 23 people in it that day. He said when the weather gets warmer, crime increases.

They talked about the ballot question on the August primary election ballot which asks voters whether or not Maries County should change from a part time prosecuting attorney to a full time one. The raise the prosecutor will receive is $94,711 annually to increase the prosecutor’s pay to $146,812, the same as the associate circuit judge. John said the sheriff’s office works well with Prosecutor Tony Skouby. In court Skouby charges defendants with paying into the Maries County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund, which the sheriff and prosecutor split the proceeds of for equipment they need to purchase. Recently they bought body armor for the sheriff’s office with the fund. This is the first time Maries County deputies have had new body armor. Before they used hand-me-downs from the Highway Patrol and some of them are expired. They test them at a shooting range where the armor it shot at. John said deputies can still receive injuries if they are shot while wearing the armor, but it will save their life. 

Stratman mentioned what was in the county commission article about the prosecutor’s raise being unsustainable financially, he feels they said it in “an unfortunate way.” He told John the county can’t give Skouby a raise unless they follow the state statute as it’s the only way they have. 

John said, “He deserves it. It is a significant pay raise. He works full time, all hours, and has been fantastic to work with.” 

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said it is true it will be hard for the county to sustain the big raise. “It’s not that he doesn’t deserve it, it’s how do we do it. Somewhere we have to find one hundred thousand dollars, and we have to do it every year, and the sheriff’s too.” 

Drewel said all the costs of things are going up. “How much has fuel gone up?” John said he budgeted for an increase, but not that much. 

Stratman said the high price of gasoline is hard on people who commute to work. Drewel said it is expensive to operate a truck and that will be passed on to consumers. 

Alternate transportation

Stratman said he was attending a Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting at MRPC that day. One of the programs within transportation funding is alternative transportation and the federal and state money set aside for it can’t be used for anything else, such as repairing roads and bridges. He asked his fellow commissioners if they have any ideas how this can be used in Maries County. Some examples of alternate transportation includes bike paths, walking trails, sidewalks, bus routes. The grant program for this funding source is competitive.