HERMANN — The Gasconade County Archives Center is asking for $21,000 from county government for the coming year — the same amount it requested for this year’s operations.

Center Director Angie Walter presented the budget request Thursday morning to the County Commission. The money will be used to help pay the director’s salary and cover the cost of a Center staffer. The Center relies heavily on the support of volunteer workers, Walter explained.

During this year, the Center had 387 visitors from 23 different states. Many of those come to the Center to do research using the various county government records stored there.

Walter and Lois Kruse, the site’s former director,  mentioned the expansion project at the Center, which will provide much more room for additional documents to come over from the courthouse. “We’re looking forward to having all that extra space,” Walter said.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, acknowledged the work being done by the Archives Center. “Thank you, guys, for what you do. I can’t wait to see the addition down there,” he said.

Groundbreaking for the expansion was held in October of last year. “We’re very close to completion,” Walter said.

The Center’s budget request will be considered by the Commission in the coming weeks as it considers all funding requests prior to the adoption of the county’s 2026 operating budget in January.

In other matters taken up during last week’s Commission session, Southern District Associate Commissioner Ron Hardecke, R-Owensville, has coordinated visits by Gasconade County’s two state legislators. State Rep. Bruce Sassmann, R-Bland, is scheduled to attend tomorrow morning’s session while State Sen. Ben Brown, R-Washington, is scheduled to attend the administrator’s Dec. 29 budget workshop session. That meeting also will serve as the county’s first public hearing to formally kick off the budget process.

If they don’t have them already, the various officeholders soon will have budget request forms in hand. Those are due to be returned to the County Clerk’s Office in the first week of January. As the county’s chief budget officer, County Clerk Lesa Lietzow and her staff will use those departmental requests to craft a proposed budget for consideration by the County Commission. If it has specific questions, the County Commission will meet with individual officeholders about their funding requests.

The Commission has until the end of January to adopt a new operating budget.