MARIES COUNTY— The Maries County Commission and the Missouri Department of Conservation have come to an agreement on the 2021 amount of money Road One will receive in funding from the department to help pay for road maintenance on roads leading to conservation areas within Maries County.

Last week Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said he spoke with a conservation department representative who said they would like to keep the same agreement as they had last year. Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said he’s good with that. The conservation department pays x-amount per mile for white rock for county roads leading to conservation areas. Fagre said it pays for “so many tons per mile.” Last year the payment totaled about $25,000. Fagre said, “It helps.” 

Conservation areas in Maries County are all on the west side of the county. They include Paydown Access that has a long road to it. The county maintains the road to the access but not the parking lot there. Also on the list is Bell Chute, Rinquelin Trail Lake Conservation Area, and Clifty Arch. 

Fagre said someone from the conservation department comes once a year and does an inspection to ensure the county is upholding its part of the bargain by putting the rock on the roads to the accesses. 

BRO Project

Fagre was asked about the progress of the BRO bridge replacement project on MCR 608. He said the project hasn’t been put out for bid yet as they were waiting for the right-of-way paperwork. Fagre has met with the landowner, Robert Kasper, who he said is agreeable about the right-of-way needed for the project. He has asked for the entrance into his field to be changed and that a temporary electric fence be put up to keep his cattle in that field during the construction process.

Road Graders

Fagre said he’s been in conversation with a representative of The Maries County Bank about refinancing Road One graders because there is a balloon payment approaching and he may refinance instead of trading.

The road grader market is not good in this pandemic economy. The commissioners said the older graders are not selling. There are heavy equipment lots full of used graders. Fagre said in the past the county would “gain ground” and get the loan paid down and receive a decent trade-in price on their old graders when they upgraded to new ones. The goal was to keep the road graders under warranty. Now the new ones cost too much and the county can’t get a good price on their old ones.

Instead, Fagre said they have been very careful when using them and are watching the graders closely so they can do maintenance and replace worn parts before they become larger problems. He said Road One crew members are all good mechanics. They can do a lot without having to call Fabick CAT to come, which is expensive. Recently they did maintenance that would have cost $6,000 or more if done by the dealer’s shop.

Indigent burials

Stratman said he’s been working on completing the mandatory 20 hours of training required by the commissioners association. He’s been doing it on the computer and already has done 14 hours of it. He said the training is from 2019 and 2020 sessions. He commented the audio on it “is terrible.”

One item of interest is what he heard about counties paying for indigent burials. Fagre said the county has not paid for this before as far as he knows. Stratman said they talked about it on the training and one county said they pay for about eight burials a year for people who pass away and have no money or are homeless or in other dire straits. That county pays $600 for cremation and has an agreement with the local undertaker. Some places request money to pay for burials. The advice given in the training was if someone calls and asks for it they should say no. Hospitals and nursing homes have custody of people who die at their facilities. Stratman said the training said the county should refuse to pay and even though the hospitals and nursing homes don’t like it, it’s what the county should do.

Roads

Art Sandbothe came to the meeting and spoke about the Kaiser Branch that runs into the Maries River near the bridge on MCR 213. He’s concerned as he has put rock in but below it the trees are falling in and he thinks the washing out will get up to the road. Below the branch its plugged up with trees. Fagre said the county can’t work on private property. Sandbothe said he’s hesitant to do anything because of the way he was treated in the past by state agencies. He said there is a big Sycamore tree ready to fall in the creek. Stratman said he’s “a big believer in cutting trees before they fall in.” Sandbothe said the brush had plugged the branch up near the bridge. Fagre said the creeks are getting harder and harder to deal with. He will go and look at it. 

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said there’s “plenty of money when its tore up, but not much for prevention.”

At the next meeting Stratman and Fagre said they’d looked at the site and it needs some rock.

When talking about road work near streams, Fagre said a DNR representative told him they don’t do many permits anymore for work in a stream because what they do upstream causes problems downstream. 

On March 4 Stratman asked if they are grading roads. Fagre said Road One’s Jim Humphrey was grading Paydown Road that day. 

United Way grant

Stratman said the United Way has a grant program that has been opened up to other agencies who help people. He was informed of it by MRPC.

Kelly Sink of MRPC reported the United Way has available an opportunity for up to $250,000 in Community Support grant funding. These are investments United Way of Central Missouri makes to address immediate, critical unmet needs or support emerging needs in the nine counties United Way serves. Grant opportunities are open to any health and human service 501 (c)(3) that meets the grant criteria and serves all or a portion of the United Way of Central Missouri service area of Camden, Cole, Maries, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan, Osage, Phelps and southern Callaway counties. 

These one-time grants provide health and human service agencies the opportunity to start a new program, enhance an area of service or purchase needed equipment and supplies. Community Support Grants allow United Way to connect with community partners and strengthen efforts to fight for the health, education, financial stability and basic needs of every person in the community. Grant funding must be utilized to address a need in the area of behavioral health, education, food insecurity, financial stability, health, housing, transportation or other critical need. 

The Community Support Grant application process will be open March 22 through April 22 at 5 p.m. and grant recipients will be notified no later than mid-June 2021. To be eligible to apply for grant consideration, agencies must meet specific pre qualification questions included in the grant application. To apply go to the United Way of Central Missouri website or click on the following link: https://www.unitedwaycemo.org/grants. For questions about the online application, contact Theresa Verslues at theresa.verslues@unitedwaycemo.org or 573-636-4100.

DNR conservation easement

Stratman talked about the DNR conservation easement for the courthouse. It’s a historic deal the county signs as it agrees to not alter the exterior or interior of the courthouse, which is a historic building. A grant for $38,290 was used in years past to fill cracks, do other maintenance and paint the exterior walls of the courthouse and not altering the building was part of the deal. The easement is renewed every 10 years. Stratman said they can paint walls and replace carpet, but are not allowed to do things such as lower ceilings.