VIENNA — Maries County received its first payments from the state following Missouri’s nearly $500 million dollar settlement with opioid distributors McKesson, Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health, and Johnson & Johnson.

Deputy County Clerk Renee Kottwitz said the county got its first two payments in December, which together totaled $23,359.54. She stopped by the Jan. 23 commission meeting to ask the commissioners how they wanted to set up funds for the money.

Other counties have created special funds to track how they spend the settlement money. Kottwitz said 85 percent of the funds must go toward programs or projects related to the opioid crisis. The county may spend the other 15 percent of the payments as it sees fit.

Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said they would need to talk to the sheriff’s office to begin setting up an opioid program to benefit from the funds.

The commissioners decided the other 15 percent will go toward the county’s General Revenue fund.

At the Jan. 26 meeting, Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman checked in with Prosecuting Attorney Tony Skouby about the county’s process with the opioid settlement.

Skouby said the county seemed to be on track. He also said he had heard that a second opioid-related settlement could occur soon with companies such as Walmart, CVS and Walgreens.

Last fall, each of the companies sent out press releases stating they had begun working on the framework of settlement agreements related to opioid lawsuits filed against them. In November, Walgreens and CVS estimated they would each pay about $5 billion in their settlements. In December, Walmart estimated it would pay more than $3 billion as part of its settlement.

“We want to be in on that,” Skouby said.

Stratman said the commissioners had received a letter saying the state had opted in for those payments. The county must also opt-in, so he wanted Skouby to make sure the county was following the proper guidelines.

Skouby said that as soon as his office had updated the statement of facts form he had presented at a previous commission meeting, he would send it where it needs to go.

Fish Hollow

While at the Jan. 26 meeting, Skouby gave the commissioners an update on the lawsuit pertaining to ownership of 550 feet encompassing the end of Maries County Road 306 and the locally-known Fish Hollow Access to the Gasconade River. Commissioners learned of the lawsuit last march. It asked the Circuit Court of Maries County to determine the ownership of the road and Fish Hollow Access. Eugene M. Appel and Jacqueline M. Appel filed the lawsuit.

Skouby came to the meeting to tell the commissioners that the Appels were trying to take the lawsuit to a trial. He said he thought the proof that the county had received County Aid Road Trust (CART) funds for the road was enough. He said he would try to find out what exactly the Appels are trying to resolve through a trial.

“I don’t know how you’d go to a jury trial for something like that,” Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said.

Fagre said he thought the area had been an access point for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

“Boy, I’d love to get on the old conservationist magazines,” Skouby said. “I don’t know where we’d search. That would be like trying to find a need in a haystack.”

He implied there would be difficulty getting confirmation directly from the MDC.

Later, Fagre used his phone to look at the United State Geological Survey map of the area. He said that map showed the road continuing on right down to the Gasconade River.

License office fees

Stratman said State Representative Bruce Sassmann had called him to ask for the commissioners’ thoughts on a proposal in the state House to increase license office fees from $12 to $18.

“I told him what I thought,” Stratman said. “Three years ago it doubled.”

“That’s a big jump,” Drewel said.

“That’s what I told him,” Stratman said. “It was a big jump, and it hadn’t been that long ago (that it increased). That would help us (the county) out, but that’s a burden for everybody else. So I told him that I would recommend that we pass on that.”

Stratman asked the other commissioners if they had differing opinions, but they agreed with him.

“That’s a pretty steep jump,” Fagre said.

Courthouse

equipment

IT manager Shane Sweno visited the meeting to let the commissioners know the detainees broke the new TV in the jail. He said the TV was behind a protective metal case.

“I think it was that the mount for the TVs stuck right against the plexiglass,” he said. “I think they were able to bang on the plexiglass and that sent vibrations, so we have to get more of a flush mount for it.”

At the following meeting, Sweno said that for safety reasons, he did not want to use the new TV in the jail because it was a smart TV that required internet access to use. The commissioners told him he could take it back and get a new TV that did not require internet connections and instead got channels over the air.

The county recently upgraded its dispatch communications system. Sweno asked the commissioners if he should list the county’s old radio system on the government surplus auction website GovDeals. He said that once a new transmitter arrived for the old system, the county could sell it as a complete and functioning set. The commissioners said to list the equipment on the website.

Courthouse

Maintenance

Sweno also told the commissioners that the sink in a basement conference room had a leak.

Drewel went down to look at it. He said that the faucet was not really leaking. Water runs down behind the caulking when the sink flows. The water builds up and seeps underneath the sink.

Drewel said the sink was not a good fit, and a deeper sink would work better. He recommended that the commissioners get a better-fitting sink because redoing the caulking would mean taking out the sink that is already there.

“You should be able to pull it out and drop it right back in the hole,” he said.

Later, Stratman went down to look at the sink. He said the countertop measured 78 inches and there is a stove on one side of the sink and a refrigerator on the other side.

The commissioners called one government surplus seller, but they did not have any sinks available.

Stratman said Jim Hale and Dale Wieberg had been back in the courthouse taking care of some maintenance projects. They installed a threshold compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

“They did a great job,” he said. “It doesn’t drag at all. That makes the door work better.”

Hale had noticed water damage in the courtroom ceiling while replacing ceiling tiles and told Stratman about it. The ceiling was leaking where air handler pipes were coming through. They had not replaced the tiles that were leaking, but Stratman said he told them to work on it as soon as they could.

Stratman also said someone was going to look at the water softener at the courthouse. It had not used salt for about a month, and the gauge on the side showed red instead of the usual blue.