VIENNA — At the March 16 Maries County commission meeting, the commissioners had a phone conference with two representatives from the St. Louis-based solar energy development company Azimuth Renewables. In the last few months, the company has sent two letters to the commissioners that asked them to verify that Maries County has no planning and zoning restrictions. After the commissioners decided not to return the letters, the company gave them a call.

Developer Tom Chiles was the first to speak. He told the commissioners that the name of the project is Jade Solar and the company is developing it along Route BB near Dixon. The commissioners seemed to learn that it was not about the project the company has been working on north of Vichy.

Then, Chiles introduced the commissioners to the president of Azimuth Renewables, David Bunge. Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel asked him how much land the project near Dixon encompassed.

Bunge said it was about 850 acres. He also said that the company was considering leasing from more landowners in the area for the project.

“It’s very early stage,” he said. “We’re probably in year one of a six-year process at this point.”

Drewel asked how much land the company leased in the Vichy area. Bunge said it was about 1,200 acres.

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman asked if the company was actively seeking more land in the Vichy area.

“That is my understanding,” Bunge said. “We’re working on a development partner with that one.”

Stratman also asked how far out the company is from completing the Vichy project because it began a couple of years ago.

“These processes take some time,” Bunge said.

He told Stratman that the company was waiting on some estimates of interconnection costs before moving forward on that project. The estimated timeline that Bunge said for construction to begin was about three or four years.

The commissioners realized during the conversation that Azimuth Renewables’ solar projects are independent of the project that the company Invenergy is developing in Maries County. Bunge clarified that the companies are not related.

Stratman said the commissioners’ first concern about the solar projects was for the people of Maries County.

“Our concern is that we don’t want you messing with our citizens,” he said. “(We) want to make sure they’re treated fairly.”

“We definitely negotiate mutually agreeable contracts with the landowners that we work with,” Bunge said.

Stratman also told Bunge about the commissioners’ frustration because of a lack of communication and transparency from Azimuth Renewables.

“We don’t really appreciate that because we’re charged with taking care of the county,” Stratman said. “We would like to know what’s going on.”

Bunge said he appreciated the feedback and he would like to increase the frequency of communication between the company and the county. He said that the reality up to this point had been that there was not much to report because the projects are in the early stages and the company is doing a lot of waiting.

“I’ll try to put the process in place to have some more regular touch-points with the commission,” Bunge said.

Stratman asked if Azimuth Renewables is better at keeping landowners informed than it is at keeping the county government informed. He also wanted to know if the people the company contacts get to talk with local representatives.

Bunge said the company coordinates closely with landowners on the status of its projects, and it has representatives in Rolla. He said that the company has a focus on the Midwest. Right now, it has projects in Missouri and Illinois, and Bunge said the company is looking to expand into other states such as Indiana, Iowa and Arkansas.

Drewel asked about the kind of work the company might need to do that would cross county roads and fall under hypothetical planning and zoning regulations.

“We’re not at the point in the design process at this stage where we really have a good view of right of way or things like that we would want to use for the project,” Bunge said. “We’re not far enough along in the design to really even have a specific request around additional county resources.”

Chiles said that once it was time to begin construction, Azimuth Renewables and the county would enter into a road use agreement that could help to ease the commissioners’ concerns about having no planning and zoning ordinances.

Stratman asked if the ground used for the project would be barren once the solar panels were in place. Bunge said that Azimuth Renewables would reseed the land with a local seed mix as erosion control, to meet obligations with the Department of Natural Resources and for aesthetic purposes.

Drewel asked if the commissioners could see a sample of the contracts that the company signs with landowners. Bunge said he would get back to the commissioners about that.

“I don’t see why it would hurt for the commissioners to see the same contract that you’re selling to the general public,” Drewel said.

“I don’t necessarily see an issue,” Bunge said. “I just want to make sure we cross our t’s and dot our i’s.”

As the conversation came to a conclusion, Stratman told the representatives from Azimuth Renewables that he did not want to sign the letter until he had more information such as sample contracts and road use agreements.

“Let us put together some more information, and we’ll go from there,” Bunge said.

“If they’re wanting to do it, they should come up and see us,” Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre told the other commissioners after the call.

Election integrity

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said that she had heard reports from other county clerks about election-denying conspiracy theorists visiting county commissioners to request that they take away the money budgeted for elections.

“The budget’s been approved, and as far as elections go, there is a statute that says that you have to have the money for the election,” she said.

Rodgers also mentioned discussions in the state legislature about switching from machine-counted ballots to hand-counted ballots.

“I just don’t understand,” she said.

“How can that be accurate?” Stratman said. “I would think there would be potential for a huge amount of error. When you go down  (the ballot) and there are 15 people you can vote on and 10 amendments on each ballot…”

“Think how long it would take to count them,” Rodgers said.

“I’ve got complete confidence in our county that they’re doing it right,” Stratman said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” Fagre said.

“We test the machines before the election,” Rodgers said. “They vote. We test the machines before the canvass to make sure they’re still counting right. Then we run those ballots through and then hand-count them.”

Rodgers said that the county had done recounts in her time as county clerk, but they had never changed the outcome of an election. Sometimes a few votes may change due to ballots with stray pen marks or incorrectly filled bubbles.

COMM-Unity Ambulance

Rodgers said she had checked the list of registered voters in the Maries County portion of the COMM-Unity Ambulance service, and it was more than she previously thought. There are 140 registered voters in the area.

If voters in the area wish for the Maries-Osage Ambulance District (MOAD) to annex the service area following COMM-Unity Ambulance’s dissolution in June, 10 percent, or 14 of them, will need to sign a petition for the commissioners. Once the commissioners received the petition, they would begin the process of putting a measure on the ballot for MOAD to annex the area.

Rodgers said to ensure there were enough valid signatures, the petitioners should probably gather more than 14 signatures. Valid signatures must come from registered voters in Maries County who live in the potential annexation area.

Courthouse

Maintenance

Stratman said Kevin Bullock with RSS Roofing Services & Solutions had been to the courthouse to look at a reported leak in the roof that was sending water into the women’s jail. He said Bullock had found the source of the leak and would be back to fix it. There was also an improperly patched hole that Stratman said they would repair.

Another facility repair that Stratman said he would like to see completed was repairs to the caulking around the edges of the courthouse.

“Remember, some time ago we were getting water in the meeting room down there?” he asked the other commissioners. “It (the caulking) is pulling away and giving that water a chance to get in.”

Stratman said he would talk to Jim Hale, who has done some other repairs around the courthouse, about redoing the caulking.

The commissioners opened lawncare bids for the courthouse from Snodgrass Lawncare and Ash’s Lawncare. Snodgrass Lawncare placed the winning bid at $40 per visit.

Vietnam War Memorial

Stratman said the Vietnam War memorial outside the courthouse would be a stop on the 2023 Tour of Honor Motorcycle Ride. The program, which runs from April through October, encourages motorcyclists to hit the road and stop at a list of war memorials around the United States. The ride is self-directed, so riders could stop to visit the memorial at any time during that span.

The Vietnam War memorial sits on the side of the courthouse facing Main Street alongside memorials for local people lost in combat during World War I and World War II. Along with the Bible verse John 15:13, the Vietnam War memorial displays the names of two fallen soldiers from the area: Ralph A. Branson, Jr. and James S. Jordan.

Heifer Replacement Program

The University of Missouri Extension sponsors the Show-Me-Select Heifer Replacement Program, which works to improve heifer development programs, increase marketing opportunities and create reliable sources of quality replacement heifers based on management, reproduction and genetics. Stratman said that the program’s local sale this year would move from its usual Friday night spot to Saturday, May 20 at South Central Regional Stockyards.