VIENNA — Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel did not attend the first part of the April 24 commission meeting because he was clearing debris from roads. Maries County resident Angie Shanks arrived at the meeting to speak with him about a dispute over property lines. After County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers called Drewel and Shanks requested that he talk with her in person, Drewel arrived at the meeting.

Shanks’ concern was about a fence that she said her neighbor Dan Georgevitch had built that blocked an access to her property. Georgevitch’s tenant is an employee with the county’s eastern district road crew. Shanks said that when she asked about the fence, the tenant had told her that Drewel told him he could put up the fence. The area in question previously was part of Maries Road 422, but the road moved decades ago.

Drewel said that because the county road had shifted, the land in question no longer belonged to the county.

“The best thing to do is survey it,” he said. “That’s the only way to get out of the argument. Or go to court. It’s up to you.”

Shanks said that the fence blocking the access meant there would be no way for her to get to the road if it washed out. She asked Drewel if he knew who now owned the area that used to be the road.

Drewel said he thought the land belonged to either Georgevitch or a neighbor, but there was no way to tell for sure unless someone surveyed the area.

Shanks asked Drewel why he would say they could build the fence if he did not know who owned the land.

“He can put a fence up if he wants to,” Drewel said. “It’s up to you to dispute it. Unless you get the sheriff to say ‘You can’t put it on my ground,’ they can put a fence any place they want.”

Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre recommended that Shanks visit Recorder Mark Buschmann’s office to see if there was any record of surveying the land.

The commissioners looked at the geographic information system map of the area and gave Shanks a printout of the area to take to the recorder’s office.

Solar Panels

Rodgers played the commissioners a voicemail from Tom Chiles, a developer with Azimuth Renewables. The commissioners talked on the phone with him and the company’s president David Bunge at a meeting in March. Azimuth Renewables is developing a couple of solar projects in Maries County.

During the call in March, the commissioners said they did not appreciate the lack of communication from Azimuth Renewables about the projects. Bunge told them that he would like to increase communication between the company and the county.

In Chiles’ voicemail, he said he had sent information to her to share with the commissioners. He also said he planned to attend an upcoming commission meeting that representatives from Vesper Energy, another renewable energy company, would attend. During that meeting, he will be available to answer the commissioners’ questions about ongoing projects in the county.

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said anyone interested in solar panel development can visit the University of Missouri Extension office in the basement of the courthouse to pick up an informational packet.

Motor Vehicle

Taxes

Treasurer Angie Stricklan provided the commissioners with an update about motor vehicle taxes so far this year.

Year-by-year comparisons show more motor fuel taxes collected in each month this year than its 2022 counterpart. January was higher by more than $7,000, February was higher by nearly $4,000 and March was higher by nearly $9,000 this year. April, the lowest month in 2022, was more than $10,000 higher this year. The value of motor fuel taxes is $149,319.02 so far this year.

For motor vehicle taxes, January was higher by nearly $1,000, and February was higher by about $2,000 this year. In 2022, March had the lowest value for motor vehicle taxes, which were $5,652.09 in total. March motor vehicle taxes totaled $9,381.27 this year. There were $11,056.75 in motor vehicle taxes collected in April. The value of motor vehicle taxes is $38,832.04 so far this year.

Collected motor vehicle fees also saw increases each month this year in comparison to last year. January increased by more than $1,000, February increased by almost $1,000, March increased by about $350 and April was almost $1,000 more this year. The value of motor vehicle fees is $19,262.75 so far this year.

Presidential

Primaries

A recent vote in the Missouri House of Representatives on House Bill 267 failed to return presidential primary elections in Missouri, which a 2022 election reform law eliminated. Rodgers said she did not know of a county clerk in the state who supported the bill because primary elections cost Missouri counties millions of dollars. Counties pay the costs of running primary elections. Political parties pay the costs of running presidential caucuses, which will replace the primaries in the 2024 election cycle.

Rodgers said she had reached out to both State Rep. Bennie Cook and State Rep. Bruce Sassmann to tell them about the burden the bill would put on counties. Both representatives were among the 65 who voted in favor of the bill. It needed 82 votes to pass.

“I was disappointed,” she said. “I sometimes feel like maybe before you run for a state office like that, maybe you ought to hold a county office for a little while.”

Drewel asked if they were just following party lines.

“I’d say that’s what it was,” Rodgers said. “It’s too bad that you have to play the politics like that and not do what your constituents want you to do.”

Other Business

Stratman said IT manager Shane Sweno had told him that the son of a sheriff’s office employee wants to intern with Sweno over the summer break from school.

“It would be an extra set of hands to run some wires,” Sweno said.

The commissioners asked if they would pay for the internship. Rodgers said the county had not paid interns in the past. They plan to offer the internship if he accepts no pay.

While Sweno was at the meeting, Stratman asked him how things were going with dispatch training. Last fall, the commissioners approved the purchase of emergency medical dispatch training and software from the company PowerPhone. The software gives dispatchers questions they can ask callers to potentially help during emergencies before emergency services arrive on the scene.

Sweno said the software had hit a few snags during installation, but it should be ready sometime this week.

Stratman said that on April 22 he met with someone from Cummins about the courthouse generator. In February, he said the generator was having issues with its starter.

“He seemed to think like we do that it’s just a relay someplace that’s not disengaging that starter,” he said.

Stratman expected a service technician to check on it soon.

Rodgers spent part of the April 27 meeting going through photos of storm damage. The county plans to turn in the photos to fulfill requirements for grants that will reimburse some of the money spent on cleanup following the April 15 storm.