HERMANN — Gasconade County’s General Fund half-cent sales tax has topped $1 million and is posed to set a record for the third consecutive year.

However, the county’s chief budget watchdog says the reimbursement check received from the state in December might not be big enough to push the year-end total to the $1.2 million that was projected in the budget for this year.

“Sales tax looks good,” said County Treasurer Mike Feagan in presenting the County Commission with figures showing receipt of $91,419 in the November reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue. That’s the second-largest November payment received in the past six years. With the final check yet to be received, the county has collected $1,086,701 — the third consecutive year the General Fund sales tax has topped the million-dollar mark. To reach the projected $1.2 million contained in this year’s operating budget, the December check would need to be about $120,000.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow, the chief budget officer, Thursday morning expressed some doubt about the year-end total reaching the projected amount. Last December’s check was for $110,562, the largest December check received by the county. Still, a check of at least $40,000 would push Gasconade County’s annual sales tax receipts above last year’s total of $1,122,323, marking the third consecutive record-setting year for General Fund sales tax revenue.

According to Feagan’s figures, the county is running almost $75,000 ahead of the amount received by this time last year.

“If we do $40,000 next month we’ll surpass what we did last year,” the treasurer said. As for reaching the amount budgeted for this year, Feagan said “it’s going to be really close.”

Meanwhile, the county’s use tax — the sales tax applied to purchases made from out-of-state businesses — has far exceeded estimates in its first full year of collection. The November check for the use tax is for $15,986, which pushed the year-to-date total to $212,122.

Also, the first reimbursement check for the county’s newest sales tax — the half-cent tax for law enforcement that was approved in April — has come in. The total received was $9,197 with the county keeping $6,897 and allocating $2,299 (25 percent of the total) to the five municipalities receiving a share of the funding.

Here’s what they will receive out of the first allocation: Owensville, $1,057; Hermann, $827; Bland, $183; Rosebud, $160; Gasconade, $68. The amounts are low because the tax became effective Oct. 1 and, as Feagan explained, the state doesn’t require businesses to submit October receipts until the end of November.

He said the money contained in the reimbursement check primarily reflects the sales tax that was applied to motor vehicle title activity. “Next month we should have a better idea and a more accurate” indication of how well the law enforcement tax will perform, Feagan said.

In other matters at last week’s session of the County Commission, administrators agreed to move forward with consulting engineering firm Archer-Elgin conducting a feasibility study for an elevator at the courthouse. With the county doing some work on its own regarding the elevator, Archer-Elgin adjusted its estimate from $28,000 to $25,700 for the feasibility study.

The county has received an estimate of $165,000 from a St. Louis elevator company for the mechanical equipment that will be needed, which means a construction estimate still is needed.

“We’re moving forward,” said Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann.

But Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, quickly noted that the county is moving ahead with the feasibility study and approval has yet to be given to go full steam ahead with the project. “This is just for a feasibility study,” he said. “It’s not saying we’re going to do it,” he added.

The feasibility study will include work also on three structures planned for county government sites — two storage facilities at the Drake site of the Gasconade County Road Department and one storage building at the Sheriff’s Department location in Swiss.

Miskel also announced that a Linn plastics injections company that makes recreational furniture is buying the soon-to-be-shuttered Pretium building in Hermann. Pretium is consolidating its operations at its St. Charles County location. Miskel said the new company, which now rents space in Linn, will have a local workforce of 25to 30 employees with some others coming from the Linn operation.

And, finally, Lietzow announced that the new doors for the courthouse are scheduled to be installed by the end of this month. Purchased more than a year ago with CARES act money, the $40,000 doors are being produced by a Montgomery County milling company and will be installed with an automatic opening device on the main entrance on the south side of the courthouse.

“He’s going to have that front door installed this month,” Lietzow said of Mike LeRoy, the manufacturer of the doors. The job has been delayed because of a lack of the special glass panes that will go in the doors. That problem has been solved by LeRoy obtaining what he needs from a local glass company.

“He’s got to have it out there in November because he’s got other jobs,” Lietzow said.