Commission eager to make decision soon on courthouse elevator plan

By Buck Collier, Special Correspondent
Posted 2/8/23

HERMANN — Not wanting to wait until next month to receive a formal briefing from its consulting engineers about the possible cost of constructing an elevator at the courthouse, the Gasconade …

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Commission eager to make decision soon on courthouse elevator plan

Posted

HERMANN — Not wanting to wait until next month to receive a formal briefing from its consulting engineers about the possible cost of constructing an elevator at the courthouse, the Gasconade County Commission Thursday morning decided to obtain as much information as it can as quickly as it can to begin considering whether to move forward with the project.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow during last week’s Commission session held in Owensville City Hall told the administrative panel that Jeff Meadows of Archer-Elgin, the county’s consulting engineering firm, would meet with officials Feb. 16 to discuss a road project but the engineer working on the elevator project would be able to meet with administrators in March to provide an update. But commissioners noted that Archer-Elgin has had a considerable of time to assemble cost figures on the project since the company was asked to do so by then-Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel.

“We can’t wait until March,” said Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville.

He suggested the County Clerk’s Office try to obtain as much information as is available from the engineering firm about the potential cost. The plan thus far is for the project to be funded with the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money, of which about $2.3 million remains available for use. But in addition to the elevator project — and the construction of storage buildings at the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department site in Swiss and the Road Department location in Drake — there are more than a dozen applications for a share of the ARPA money awaiting action.

The Commission can’t act on those requests until it learns just how much it will cost to install an elevator. A more definite cost won’t be known until the project is put out for bid. That will take time and under the rules for using the ARPA money, the county has until the end of next year to commit the use of the money. It has until the end of 2026 to write the checks for the projects to be funded with the post-COVID local economic stimulus dollars.

Obtaining a more definite cost for the elevator and storage buildings will enable the Commission to decide how many of the requests — and for what amounts — will be approved.

Meanwhile, county officials still are waiting to hear from a contractor on a project that will be funded with money from the earlier batch of federal dollars linked to the coronavirus pandemic — the CARES Act money. The county agreed to use $40,000 of CARES Act money for a new set of doors for the courthouse. The doors will be equipped with an automatic opening device aimed at stopping the spread of the virus. County officials have been awaiting the doors for some time — the check to pay for them was written in July of 2021 and remains in the hands of County Treasurer Mike Feagan.

The last word county officials received on when the doors would arrive said they would be installed in November.

In other matters at last week’s session, Elizabeth Anderson of the MU Extension Office in Owensville presented her agency’s 2022 Annual Report. She also invited the Commission to attend the Extension Office’s annual meeting on Monday, Feb. 13. She reminded the administrators that county government has a seat on the Extension’s Board of Directors. The presiding commissioner traditionally has represented the county, but another representative could be designated, Anderson said.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte appears prepared to succeed Miskel on the Extension board.

“I’ll try to make that,” he said of the Feb. 13 meeting, which is also the date of the board’s regular monthly session.

Anderson added that she hopes to report to the Commission once every three months on the various activities of the Extension Office.

“I want to be able to share that with you,” she told the commissioners.

Emergency Management Director Clyde Zelch reported that he will be meeting with the Morrison Fire Company Feb. 20 in an effort to get the community involved in the emergency preparedness drills conducted by the county’s Emergency Management Agency. Schulte said he would try to attend that meeting, also, to help encourage Morrison’s involvement in the drills.

Zelch is preparing for a Feb. 28 dress rehearsal drill. The graded drill, which is observed by federal and state emergency management agency representatives, is scheduled for April 18 at the Emergency Operations Center in the courthouse.

Gasconade County Commissioners are scheduled to return to session at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) at their first floor courthouse meeting room. The commission meets for the first session each month at 8:30 a.m. on the first Thursday at Owensville City Hall.