VIENNA — After attending a meeting at the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) office about building a regional jail (see related story), the Maries County commissioners discussed the potential to build a jail.

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said he doubted the meeting would result in much progress on a regional jail.

“How many of those people are going to be around in 12 or 15 years before this is all squared away?” Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre asked. “It’ll take a long time going through all the grants. (If) it’s a $15 million contract, it will take a while to build.

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers asked if anyone who attended the meeting had a spot picked for the jail.

“They do but they don’t,” Drewel said. “But that really, to a certain extent, doesn’t make any difference to me because where’s this money going to come from? You have to pass a tax first, and all three counties have to pass the tax. That’s not going to work.”

Fagre said that he had heard people already saying that taxes in Vienna are high.

“I think people have enough taxes right now,” Drewel said.

“It’s going to be hard to pass,” Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said.

“The cost of materials is going up every day, so if you do that (calculate costs) today, then by the time it’s built, what’s it going to cost?” Drewel asked. “There’s no outlet there. I think you ought to do a lot of thinking about that one.”

Drewel said that the best thing about the meeting was having the media there to let the communities know about the idea.

“No one was talking about this, and all of the sudden, here it is,” he said. “Now it will be in the paper where people can see what’s going on.”

Tax Legislation

Stratman said he had contacted state legislators Rep. Bennie Cook, Rep. Bruce Sassmann and Sen. Mike Bernskoetter about bills in the state legislature that would eliminate or significantly reduce personal property taxes and sales tax on food. His concerns are that cutting taxes would put “extreme hardship” on schools and counties that depend on the revenue. He asked where the money would come from to supplement the lost revenue. He also asked the legislators to oppose the bills.

Cook was the only one who had responded at the time of the meeting. Stratman said Cook had told him that it would be nice to reduce taxes, but the problem with the bills was that schools, libraries, first responders and county governments would still need funding. The bills had not yet reached the House floor, so Cook had not read them at the time of the meeting. Stratman said Cook told him to expect a lot of discussion about the bills.

Waste Management

GFL Environmental, Inc., sent letters to many Maries County residents and businesses to inform them that the company will end its waste management services in the area at the end of March. The Maries County courthouse and the county road shed at Highway 28 are two of the affected addresses.

“You’d like them to give you a little more notice than a couple of weeks,” Drewel said.

During the meeting, Stratman called Swinger Sanitation in Cuba. They told him that they would check to see if the addresses were in their service area. He also called Rural Waste Disposal in Iberia and left a message.

At the March 27 meeting, Stratman said Rural Waste Disposal planned to cover the area including the courthouse and the road shed.

Road Signs

Drewel asked Fagre if road signs were staying up in his district.

Fagre said they were not. Stratman told them that he had heard about a road sign missing in the Safe area of Highway 68.

“We put them up down near Dixon and they take them down the same day,” Fagre said.

“Yep, go by the next day and it’s gone,” Drewel said.

Fagre said that sometimes he greases the poles to prevent theft. Drewel said that works sometimes, but sometimes thieves still get away with the road signs.

One idea Fagre had to prevent theft was using engraved cement blocks as road signs.

Rodgers said that someone had recently stopped by her office to compliment the condition of Maries Road 527.

He told her that he had lived around there for a long time and he had never seen it looking so good.

Air conditioner

Rodgers said that an air conditioner on the third floor of the courthouse had stopped working.

Stratman called Rehagen Heating and Cooling and talked to a technician there who had looked at the air conditioner the day before.

The technician said that the air conditioner needs a new disconnect because some melting occurred on the disconnect and the breaker.

The breaker only produced 100 volts when it should produce 210 volts. He said an electrician would need to do the repairs.