HERMANN —  Five years after the new roof was put on the Gasconade County Courthouse, county administrators are looking at making the final payment on the loan that financed the project.

“We’re down to about the finish line” on paying off the loan, County Treasurer Mike Feagan told the County Commission Thursday morning. There is $18,000 left to pay and that payment could be made later this year.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said it’s hoped the payment can be made out of this year’s operating budget, but it might have to wait until the 2023 budget is in place. County officials should have a clearer idea about available revenue within the next month.

With the arrival of November, the process of crafting county government’s 2023 operating budget begins. The various departments will be submitting their budget wishlists to the County Clerk’s Office, which will assemble a proposed budget for the Commission to consider during December. Final approval of the budget usually takes place in late January.

Regarding the budget, Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, noted that the Missouri University Extension office in the county will be making its annual budget request to the panel of administrators in December. The Extension office is one of a few agencies outside of county government that receives funding from the county. The Gasconade County Historical Society also receives some tax dollars for the operation of the Archives Center in Hermann.

Feagan also reported that his office has allocated from the county’s Domestic Abuse Fund $250 each to Turning Point and Rape and Abuse Crisis Service. The fund receives money from fees assessed on court cases. The county budget this year allocates a total of $500 for domestic abuse services.

In other matters, Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, reported that he had yet to hear from a representative for a St. Louis elevator company that had met with the Commission a couple weeks earlier. Commissioners are hoping to learn soon what the construction of an elevator at the courthouse will possibly cost. The cost of the lift could determine how much money — if any — will be allocated to more than a dozen applicants seeking a share of the county’s remaining American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

The county has about $2.3 million remaining from its total of $2.8 million received from the U.S. Treasury as part of the ARPA program. About $600,000 was allocated to applicants out of the county’s first round of $1.4 million.

A representative of Archer-Elgin Engineering, the county’s consulting engineering firm, is scheduled to meet with the Commission tomorrow to discuss the issue of water problems at the site of a new bridge on Valentine Ford Road. Administrators will meet tomorrow (Thursday) at Owensville City Hall.

Coming up on the Commission’s schedule are Government Relations Day sessions at Gasconade County R-2 School District on Thursday, Nov. 10, and at Gasconade County R-1 School District on Friday, Dec. 9. Government Relations Day events allow school district officials to meet with local, state and federal elected officials, or their representatives and discuss issues of concern to the districts.

The Nov. 10 session of the Commission is scheduled to include an appearance by Missouri Department of Transportation Regional Engineer Preston Kramer and Bonnie Prigge, executive director of the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC), to craft the county’s priority projects for this year’s version of the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).

The annual TIP sessions usually result in three or four top priority items being identified. The local list — one of eight lists that will be developed in each of the eight counties within the Meramec Region — will be considered by MRPC’s Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC will pick and choose from projects recommended by the various counties and send it’s list to the MRPC Board of Directors. That panel will decide on a final list to send to MoDOT, which could include the region’s priority projects into the state’s newest 5-Year TIP.