HERMANN — Gasconade County officials will get a financial health checkup next week as the County Clerk’s Office delivers its mid-year budget assessment, a review that’s likely to show the local government continuing on a very lean diet for the rest of the year.

However, the financial outlook for the remaining six months could be influenced significantly by the size of the July sales tax reimbursement check. Through the first six months, Gasconade County’s sales tax receipts are running $13,500 behind the total received during the same period a year ago. In 2019, the county received a total of $990,969 in General Fund sales tax money. Two years ago, sales tax topped $1 million.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said the budget review will not be ready in time for the County Commission’s first-Thursday-of-the-month meeting tomorrow at Owensville City Hall, but that it would be finished by the July 9 session back at the courthouse in Hermann. Also, by next week County Treasurer Mike Feagan should have in hand the amount of the July sales tax reimbursement.

More fitting perhaps to have the mid-year report unveiled at the courthouse, where the various elected officials are closely watching their departments’ spending during a year with what some officials would characterize as a painfully tight budget.

Even the county’s Road Department, which enjoys what might be seen as a generous operating plan compared to the county’s General Fund, is keeping a tight grip on its dollars. “They’re watching the budget close,” said Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville.

In other matters, the County Commission reappointed Diann Wacker of Owensville as a member of the Scenic Regional Library District Board of Directors. That agency is in the midst of crafting its 2019-20 operating budget, which is expected to be given final approval Sept. 1.

County administrators are recognizing the damage being done to area highways as a result of increased dumptruck traffic primarily hauling product from quarry operations. Fortunately for the county, most of the damage is being done to the state’s secondary highways — such as Routes F and J — and not to the county’s gravel roads.

Indeed, Missouri Department of Transportation crews spent much of last week taking out damaged sections of Route F and replacing it with gravel as the first step in making repairs. Much of that damage is being done by trucks loaded with rock and clay being hauled out of a new quarry on Benson Road.

The damage to Route F was described by Lietzow, who traveled on the highway last Wednesday to attend a meeting with Feagan in Rolla on CARES Act funding. She noted the recent increased damage to the highway, which in the past couple years received a chip-and-seal coating.

Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, recognized what he called “a significant increase” in the quarry operations in recent years in Gasconade County. “In the last five years, we’ve probably had 10 to 12 permits come through here,” he said.

In addition to rock, the quarries are producing clay that is used in making concrete.

County officials lamented the lack of action that can be taken against the operators of the heavy trucks that are damaging the highways. “Some statutes need to be written,” said Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann.