HERMANN — The city of Hermann has been named as Gasconade County’s Designated Marketing Organization (DMO), the lead agency for other local entities looking to obtain tourism funding from state government.

The County Commission tabbed Hermann as the DMO in a resolution adopted at last week’s session held at Owensville City Hall. Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, noted that Owensville city officials could seek tourism funding through the DMO for such potential projects as the Rock Island Trail.

In other matters at last week’s session, County Clerk Lesa Lietzow reported that Emergency Management Director Clyde Zelch has been invited to attend next week’s meeting of the county’s Salary Commission, which will include all elected officeholders. Zelch will join the officeholders in discussing possible security upgrades at the courthouse.

The Salary Commission is convened every odd-numbered year to consider pay raises for officeholders elected, or re-elected, in the next year. Any pay increase does not apply to officeholders who will be in the middle of a term as of Jan. 1, 2023.

The Commission was approached about possible security measures recently by a Chesterfield-based company that has provided security measures for other counties, including Montgomery County. Gasconade County administrators have been considering addition security measures for some time and want to receive input from the various officeholders before any decisions are made on specific upgrades.

Next week’s session also will feature a meeting of the Commission, Meramec Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Bonnie Prigge and MoDOT Regional Engineer Preston Kramer on the county’s 5-year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). That plan outlines the county’s priority transportation projects. The county’s TIP is updated each year with some projects coming off the list and other being added. Representatives of Owensville and Hermann have been invited to attend the meeting.

After the county TIP is adopted, the list of projects goes to the regional planning agency’s Transportation Advisory Committee for consideration, along with the plans of the seven other Meramec Region counties. After a master plan for the region is crafted and approved by the agency Board of Directors, it then goes to MoDOT for consideration of placing local projects in the state’s 5-year TIP.

There is no County Commission meeting this week in observance of Veterans Day. Noting the significance of tomorrow, Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, a Vietnam War veteran, urged Gasconade countians to mark the occasion.

“Remember the vets,” he said. “The ones that have served; the ones that are serving.”

Also at last weeks’ session, Miskel noted that the city of Hermann has pledged to become more involved in the Gasconade County Enhanced Enterprize Zone, an area targeted for economic development efforts. “There are a lot of people from the Owensville area (involved) and Hermann needs to get involved,” the presiding commissioner said.

Regarding the city of Owensville, Mayor John Kamler Thursday morning told the Commission that redistricting of the city’s two wards are proving to be a difficult chore.

“It definitely could affect our elected officials,” the mayor said.

Indeed, if new lines were drawn according to the initial conversations, both Ward 1 aldermen would wind up in Ward 2, the mayor said, adding that the city will be looking to the County Clerk’s Office for guidance in putting new ward boundaries on the city map. “We’ll need a lot of help from Lesa,” Kamler said.

The county clerk acknowledged the task facing city officials.

“Your (population) numbers are off and this would be the third census they’re off,” Lietzow said.

Redistricting is required after each population census, aimed at creating wards as equal as practical in population. One possible way to avoid the problem of putting all four aldermen in the same ward, Lietzow confirmed, would be to draw a north-south ward boundary rather than the historical east-west demarcation. Any change to the ward boundary would be in effect for the 2023 elections.