Courthouse News: Price of culverts goes up

James Lewis, bridge supervisor, met with the commission and reported his crew would be continuing repair on the shop this week. They will also be making repairs to tubes and bridges in Union and Jefferson Townships.  Discussion was held regarding the price increase coming Jan. 1 for road tubes.

Rip Anderson, Metal Culverts, left a message for the commission that a big increase in the cost of metal and poly culverts was going to take place Jan. 1, 2019. James will check county inventory and see what needs to be ordered. Commissioners Cox and Uthe will each contact their township boards and advise them of the increase in price.

Bills were approved and minutes from the last meeting were approved.

Dan Hegeman, Missouri Senator, met with the commission to discuss the new “Wayfair law” regarding sales tax collection on internet sales that will be debated this upcoming session of the Missouri Legislature. He also discussed funding for roads and bridges, lobbying rules, PACE protections, and other issues coming up this next session.

Sally Black and Diane McLey from the assessor’s office and Danny Kincaid and Sean Connelly with Dancomp Computers, LLC, met with the commissioners regarding their assessment of the county’s IT structure and the assessor’s office issues.

Brent Elliot, circuit judge, and Pam Howard, circuit clerk, met with the commission to discuss 2019 preliminary budgets.

Sally Black, assessor, Jane McKinsey, recorder, and Pam McNeel, collector-treasurer, each met with the commission to discuss 2019 preliminary budgets.

Andrea Patterson, circuit court reporter, met with the commission to discuss 2019 budget for court reporters.

Sheriff Ben Becerra met with the commission to discuss 2019 preliminary budgets.

Ryan Nelson and Melissa Ward, Key Refrigeration, along with Janet and Jay Hart of Grand River Heating, met with the commission to discuss options for updating the HVAC system for the courthouse.

Ronetta Burton, county clerk, updated the commission on the ongoing phone project. All of the new phones are installed. Magnets with the new number are available in each office in the courthouse as well as many businesses around the county. The next phase is to fine tune some of the phones and how they ring for a few of the offices, and to install and finish moving the fax machines to the new service. This should be completed in the next week. As soon as that is complete, the county will be working on finishing the cleanup of the main IT structure and security.

An invoice for electrical wiring work on the first floor was approved to be paid out of building renovation funds.

Discussion was held in regard to appointing an interim coroner effective Jan 1, 2019, as well as the coroner budget for 2019. Jim Ruse will contact prospective candidates. The issue was tabled until next week.

David Cox made a motion to approve a contract with Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail to provide courthouse security on an on-call basis when necessary; Wayne Uthe seconded, and the motion passed.

The commission instructed the county clerk to pay the 2018 Maintenance Agreement fee to the Daviess County Soil and Water Conservation office. The 2019 fee will be due in March 2019.

After discussion, David Cox made a motion to increase the yearly payment for clock winding and maintenance from $1,350 to $1,400, effective for 2018; Wayne Uthe seconded and the motion passed.

All three commissioners will be attending the mandatory County Commissioners Association of Missouri (CCAM) meeting Feb. 6-8, 2019, in Columbia.

The commission discussed Section 106 filings received this week for telecommunications monopoles being installed in four locations in the county.

This information is taken from the minutes of the Dec. 19, 2018, meeting of the Daviess County Commission. All commissioners were present.