VIENNA — The Maries County commissioners voted in March to submit a proposal for the county to continue managing and operating the Vienna license office.

At the March 30 commission meeting, Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said he had talked with Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) Executive Director Bonnie Prigge to review some of the requirements that the county would need to meet to continue operating the office.

One specification that the office still needs is a 32-inch monitor that scrolls through the documents needed to get a driver’s license, a commercial driver’s license,  a vehicle renewal or a real ID. There should also be a sign posted that names the office manager and hours of operation.

Stratman said there needs to be a sign that is visible from the nearest public street that identifies the license office. He talked about adding one before Deputy County Clerk Renee Kottwitz said there was already one posted on the front glass of the courthouse.

A sign near the entrance of the license office must display the name of the office and the days and hours of operation.

“It shall be professional and not printed on a piece of paper and taped to the window,” Stratman read from the 116-page handbook that listed the requirements for running the office.

Signs must look professional and receive pre-approval from the state agency overseeing the operation. The office may only use vinyl signs within the first 60 days of operation or with state approval.

The entity contracting the office must provide annual customer service training and cultural diversity training to all employees of the office. It must also keep documentation relating to the training.

The document also included security measures that Stratman said he would need to talk about with IT manager Shane Sweno. These included night-vision cameras and motion-activated lights.

“We should be in good shape,” Stratman said. “For Maries County, I think that’s as good a place as a license office could be. I don’t see how it could be any better for the public.”

Stratman told the other commissioners that though he was confident the county would continue to operate the license office, if the county was not selected, he did not think it should rent out the space in the courthouse for the license office to continue operation.

“We’ll use the space someplace else,” he said.

Interstate 70

Stratman is one of three Maries County representatives on the MRPC Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC), which according to its website, “identifies and prioritizes transportation issues as they impact the Meramec Region. He said that at the most recent TAC meeting, members voted to have MRPC write a letter of support for improvements to Interstate 70.

“While it’s not in our area, it’s requiring so much maintenance that while the state’s got some money they would go ahead and redo the whole thing,” he said.

The letter, addressed to the state legislators from MRPC’s eight counties, recommended that the project receive the entire $2.7 billion to $3 billion estimated to complete the project rather than the $859 million that Governor Mike Parson proposed for widening about 55 miles of the interstate around major cities.

“While I-70 is not in the Meramec Region, we recognize that it is an extremely important corridor in Missouri, and we know that it is a costly corridor to maintain, given its current condition,” Prigge wrote in the letter. “Meramec’s eight counties are a part of the MoDOT Central District, which includes I-70 in Cooper, Boone and Callaway counties.

“I-70 in its current condition demands a lot of maintenance dollars from the Central District, which reduces funding for other projects within the Central District,” the letter continued. “Completion of the entire project would free up funding that is currently planned for I-70 maintenance. This funding could be redirected to other priorities in Central District and the Meramec Region, such as the four-laning of Highway 63.”

Presidential primaries

Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said that coverage of the state capitol seemed to indicate that Missouri would bring back presidential primaries for the 2024 election cycle.

Last June, Governor Mike Parson signed an election bill into law that, among other things, ended presidential primaries in Missouri. Instead, the state would move to party caucuses to determine each party’s presidential frontrunner in the state. State parties run the caucuses in contrast with the county-run primaries.

The results of most primary elections are non-binding, but each party does have its own methods of determining delegates and deciding how they vote. When it comes time to nominate each party’s presidential candidate, the results could differ from what primary voters decided.

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said that the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities is against the return of primary elections. Primaries, especially in smaller counties, do not have a turnout comparable to a general presidential election. The cost of running the elections falls on the counties rather than the political parties like in a caucus situation.

Library Funding

Fagre asked if the commissioners had seen the news that the Missouri House of Representatives had voted to approve a state budget that included no funding for libraries. The budget bill still needs approval from the Senate and governor.

“Why are they trying to get rid of the books, anyway?” Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said.

“I just don’t understand why they’d want to take money away from libraries,” Fagre said. “Why cut the money from the libraries? My kids use the libraries a lot.”

“That’s the easiest way to get rid of something,” Drewel said. “Cut the funding and starve it out and you’re done. I don’t know who’s behind it, but I don’t agree with it.”

“I wonder how many people do use the library compared to 20 years ago,” Stratman said. “But people can go in the library and use computers.”

Fagre added that he sometimes sees people park near the library and use the free Wi-Fi from their vehicles.

Daylight Saving Time

During the March 27 meeting, Stratman read through some of the bills going through the state legislature.

House Bill 157 would establish the “Daylight Saving as New Standard Time Pact” with Missouri and surrounding states that would want to join. If the bill becomes law, it would go into effect the year in which at least two states bordering Missouri passed their own legislation to enter into the pact. Then, the states in the pact would permanently switch their clocks to Daylight Saving and eliminate Daylight Saving Time in those states.

“No matter what the clock says, there’s so much daylight in the day,” Fagre said. “All you’re doing is changing your habits.”

“It’ll be a bit better for the golf players,” Drewel said. “They can play in the evening longer.”

Solar Panels

Drewel revisited the commissioners’ discussion of solar panels. The commissioners have been in contact with Azimuth Renewables, LLC, a company developing a couple of solar panel projects in Maries County.

During the discussion, Drewel said that the sudden increase in tax revenue that would occur when companies built solar panels on former pasture land “wouldn’t really matter.” He said that the influx of tax revenue would require the county to lower its overall levy to meet state restrictions on taxes.

According to a property reassessment and taxation pamphlet from the Missouri State Tax Commission, “when the total assessed valuation in a political subdivision increases substantially, as often happens with a reassessment, it is allowed an increase in revenues to account for inflation, plus the revenues it receives from taxing new construction and improvements. Its governing body, after that, is required by the constitution to adjust tax rates downward.”

“A lot of people don’t understand that,” Drewel said. “They think the county is going to get all of this money, but you really don’t because you have to roll the tax back.”

Exhaust Fan

Stratman said that Maciejewski Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning had installed an exhaust fan in the storage room where the county keeps its voting machines. It has a thermostat that will turn on at a certain temperature and keep the equipment cool.