OSAGE COUNTY — During last week’s meetings, commissioners discussed recent road concerns with Osage County Road & Bridge Foreman Justin Bridges.

Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Peters reiterated his desire to see the roads rocked and graded from one end to the other.

“(That’s) pretty much a running thing,” Peters said. “We’re just short on material.”

“I’ve got them all running,” Bridges responded. “We will get there.”

“Most every road, in general, you can start on one end of it and lay three or four inches down the middle of it from one end to the other, and then keep track of what you’ve done, and what you haven’t,” Peters said. “That way, that road would be good for, in theory, a couple years before it would actually need rock — if you put creek rock on it instead of white rock. That stuff that Cole did down near Chamois end, that rock’s holding up phenomenal. It just needs (to be) bladed. That creek rock’s holding much better than any white rock.”

“If you can get it,” Bridges agreed. “In weather like this, it’ll be even better, because it’ll start working itself in as people track it.”

“So, that’s how I would like to see it done,” Peters said. “That way you get this county road done, and there’s not a bad spot on this one where you lack material.”

“Well, that’d be a new one,” said Western District Commissioner Dale Logan.

“That’s what he’s done over on our side, near Chamois. It’s working phenomenally,” Peters said.

“When we start them, that’s what we’ll be doing,” Bridges said. “But it’s not going to be that easy. It’ll hold for a while, but it’s not going to be a couple of years fixed.

“Yes, we can,” Bridges clarified. “That’s the general idea. Whenever we do it, that’s what we’ll be doing.”

“You said that it would need rock before two years,” Peters said. “There’s a lot of roads that ain’t had rock on them for two years. So, that would be a heck of a start.”

“No doubt,” Bridges agreed. “I wasn’t disagreeing. I wasn’t being argumentative. I just don’t want you to expect beyond what you’ll get out of a pass.”

“I’ll be tickled,” Peters said.

“I’d like to be tickled,” Logan joked. “Can we get some over on the west side?”

“It’s all over on your side right now,” Peters retorted.

Which side of the county gets more road work done is a running, but generally friendly, rivalry between Peters and Logan.

Peters then asked if the whippers were running.

“The whipper that we have up is not running today,” Bridges said. “The guy’s home sick.”

“So, let’s talk about them whippers,” Peters said. “What’s wrong with them?”

“The other one functions,” Bridges said. “The controls in the cab, they’re all shot, and the handle that you hold on to make the arm move where you want it to go — it rotates, and sometimes the arm doesn’t respond to it, or it doesn’t stop responding when you stop it. So it’s just, we got lots of hours on the machines,”

Bridges went on to say he’s been looking for a vendor to repair them, but the whippers have multiple issues.

“I mean, those two are both worn out,” Peters agreed. “There’s no doubt. But there’s an issue, though. The issue is, we’re going to be looking at a couple hundred thousand dollars to replace them. So, I’m not having anything to do with it until they run — until I see somebody sitting in the seat. They’re the ones we got. There’s no chance I’m voting for a new tractor, because you can’t spend that kind of money and have them sit. Nothing against anybody, but you gotta have guys for them. So, that’s my view. I definitely think we need them, and they need to be ran 100%. That’s probably one of my top complaints right now.”

Commissioners went on to talk about the possibility of hiring more personnel.

“I’m going to go ahead and tell you, we dropped the ball (as) commissioners last year with that budget, as far as salaries, as far as I’m concerned,” Peters said. “It should have been getting started there first time. I wish I would have known a little more about it before we got in to (it).”

“Well, for what it’s worth, we’ll all be a little bit better for next time,” Bridges said.

“Let’s hope,” Logan added.

• Logan asked how many culverts were left to replace, and Bridges said they wouldn’t be done replacing culverts for a long time.

“If we’re going to put a culvert across a county road, we probably want to do that before we rock that road, or else, but,” Bridges said. “But driveway culverts are last on the list.”

“Keep up good work,” Peters finished. “Stay at it. Keep ‘em going.”

• Casey Chastain and Alan Fay from Higgenbotham Insurance met with the commissioners again to tell them they had a unique opportunity to take video inside the closed jail for potential carriers, in hopes of reducing rates, but they could not provide any rates unless the commission agreed to switch to Higgenbotham. Commissioners decided to wait for more information before making that decision. After speaking with Interim Osage County Clerk Brooke Dudenhoeffer and Osage County Treasurer Valerie Prater, commissioners called their current agent, Jeri Ann Rackers, to discuss the matter. Rackers confirmed only the agent of record could provide pricing.

Dudenhoeffer and Prater requested they ask both their current health insurance and liability insurance agents, as well as the gentlemen from Higgenbotham, to attend a meeting to discuss coverage and answer any questions. Commissioners agreed to that.

• The Board of Equalization (BOE) meeting was held on July 21. No one came to contest their property taxes. The commissioners accepted the BOE results during Tuesday’s meeting.

ROAD & BRIDGE

Griffin asked if Bridges wanted to accept or dispute an AT&T invoice for approximately $3,000, for hitting a buried line AT&T says was marked. Bridges said he did want to contest it.

“You don’t think it was marked,” Griffin asked.

“I’m not saying that there wasn’t a mark,” Bridges said. “There wasn’t a mark where we were.”

“That’s something you guys look for, obviously, right?” Logan asked.

“Certainly,” Bridges responded.

Griffin said they would pull that invoice out of the bills to contest.

• Griffin said he’d contacted the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) about the large asphalt “lump” where CR 801 meets Hwy. 50, and was told MoDOT agreed to feather it out to correct it.

• As no road report was provided the previous week, Bridges provided two during last week’s meetings.

For the week of July 7-13, quarry rock was spread on CR 202 (slab project, 21.05 tons) and CR 274A (90.33 tons); asphalt was placed on CR 612 (293.32 tons) and CR 625 (64.84 tons), and road work was done on both; trees were removed on CRs 412, 731, 733, and 734 (including brush on 733 and 734); and grader operators were active as follows: G01 (202, 501, and 502), G03 ( 201, 212, 300, 621, 805, 821, 822, 823), G04 (602, 612, & 625), G06 (235, 236, and 263).

The following equipment was serviced: Backhoe 10, Whippers 41 and 43 (2006 & 2007 John Deere 6615s w/Alamo Machete Mowers).

Contact was received from citizens regarding road conditions on CR 612, brush needing cleared on CR 721, and private culvert installation on CR 821.

For the week of July 14-20, creek rock was hauled on CR 263 (48 tons) and CR 503 (32 tons); quarry rock on CR 274-B (26.99 tons), CR 524 (15.91 tons), CR 611 (18.1 tons), and CR 612 (16.39 tons), CR 632 (81.5 tons), CR 736 (262.44 tons), and CR 740 (33.31 tons); line poles were painted on CR 412; potholes were filled on CR 602; brush mowers was working on CRs 608 and 609; and grader operators were active as follows: G01 (CRs 503, 504, 505, 608, and 609), G02 (CRs 726, 727, 735, 735A, 736, 737, & 740), G03 (CRs 221, 801, and 811), G04 (CRs 522, 524, 527, 610, 611, 632, 636, 637, and 638), G06 (CRs 223, 232, 251, 274A, and 274B).

The following equipment was serviced: Dump Truck 32 (blue 2004 Peterbilt) and whipper 43 (2007 John Deere 6615 w/Alamo Machete Mower).

Contact was received from citizens regarding private culvert installation on CR 512 and grading/brush hogging CR 613A.

Compliments were received about potholes filled on CR 420, and work done on CR 612.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Osage County Health Department Administrator Kim Sallin said Brian Reichel from Remote Computer Services found evidence of over 50 attempts to breach her department’s firewall, mainly from Russia and Bulgaria. The firewall was not breached. 

“He said that they might have to implement a new program that he is implementing when he’s starting people up, just because it gives more protection, which will obviously be an additional cost,” Sallin said.

Griffin said he thought the health department’s firewall was provided by the state, but Sallin said the state now provides a stipend to assist with the cost.

• Sallin noted the Miller County nutritionist has begun meeting with Osage County’s high-risk WIC participants, now that the health department no longer has a nutritionist on staff. “They will see our clients remotely,” Sallin explained again. “They are charging us $200 a month to see our clients, and that is with our current caseload. We are able to have all of our high-risk clients seen in a pretty short amount of time. So, that’s kind of the minimal amount. We were paying anywhere between $300 and $400 a month for our nutritional services in-house, so it’s actually a little bit of a savings for us.”

Sallin clarified that the department’s cost for those services will increase if their high-risk caseload increases.

Sallin said she was really looking forward to attending an upcoming leadership seminar.

“There are actually (anonymous) surveys sent out to my staff, that got sent straight back to this workshop,” Sallin said. “So, I’ll have actual data of questions that were answered by my employees to help me to better myself as a leader and continue to hopefully run a successful department.”

• When asked by Peters how grant funding cuts were affecting her department, Sallin said, “I’m very, very concerned about funding for the health department for next year.”

This will be covered in a separate article in the near future.

FINANCIAL

• Bills totaling $239,926.07 were approved by commissioners, with the following totals by department: 911/EMA ($1,788.80), Assessor ($1,746.38), Building & Grounds ($423.18), Circuit Clerk ($260.88), Commission ($52.60), Health Department ($674.83), Juvenile & Family Court ($3,124.50), Misc. ($14,217.84), Prosecuting Attorney ($138.33), Public Administration ($946.58), Recorder ($455), Road & Bridge ($78,263.74), Sheriff-Jail ($14,465.54), Treasurer ($500), and Road & Bridge Misc ($122,867.87).

• County Aid Road Trust (CART) distribution received from the state of Missouri for the month of July was $86,680.82, including Motor Fuel Tax ($67,840.96), Motor Vehicle Sales Tax ($13,750.80), and Motor Vehicle Fee Increases ($5,089.06).

• Checks were submitted for signatures.