The University Extension Center in Owensville is asking for a slight increase in the assistance it receives from Gasconade County taxpayers.

Lydia Arand, the top administrator of the local University Extension office, Thursday morning presented the agency’s annual budget request to the County Commission during its regular session held at Owensville City Hall. The Extension Center is one of a few agencies outside county government that receives support from county taxpayers.

The Extension Center is asking for $61,782 from the county in 2022, up from the $57,825 budgeted for the center in this year’s county operating budget. Part of that increase is attributed to an increase in insurance coverage costs and part would cover an hourly pay increase for the two part-time employees sharing clerical duties at the agency, Arand said. The two part-time employees replaced a longtime full-time employee who retired a year ago.

“We went to this model last year and it worked well,” Arand told the Commission. “It was certainly an experiment,” she added.

Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, acknowledged the success of the new model. “That’s one social experiment that’s worked,” he said.

A little more funding is needed for an increase in travel by agency personnel, she said, noting that a return to in-person activities is expected. “Zoom fatigue is a real thing,” Arand said, referring to the online meetings and activities conducted during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Miskel, who sits on the Extension Center Council, applauded Arand for her preparing the agency’s budget. “I want to commend Lydia for the way she worked the budget out,” he said. “I don’t think there is a stone that hasn’t been overturned,” he said.

The County Commission, along with County Clerk Lesa Lietzow, who serves as the chief budget officer, will be busy this month with compiling the budget requests from the various departments of county government and organizations such as the Extension Center. A final version of an operating budget will be adopted in January.

In other matters at Thursday’s session, county administrators heard that Sheriff Scott Eiler wants to return to a lease program for obtaining new vehicles for the Sheriff’s Department. After problems with the lease program used by a previous sheriff, county officials went to a purchase plan to acquire vehicles. But Eiler Thursday said he can take the same amount budgeted for purchases — about $80,000, which buys two vehicles — and obtain three or four vehicles.

“We prefer to go to a lease program,” he said. “We believe we can get a little more…and cost us the same,” he added.

The sheriff’s plan is to lease vehicles from Lou Fusz Ford, located in Chesterfield Valley in St. Louis County. “They do a lot of law enforcement,” Eiler said. “We need a lot more than two vehicles a year.”

The commissioners asked if Eiler had explored acquiring vehicles locally. Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, said he would prefer to the keep the business local. Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, said he would feel better going to a lease program if local sources were at least contacted about participating. He suggested Eiler contact Hermann Ford about participating. “Give them a chance,” he said.

The sheriff also told the Commission that he and county Emergency Management Director Clyde Zelch with recently with a representative of The Elliot Company, a Chesterfield-based security. “We walked around the courthouse, figuring out where would be the best place for cameras,” Eiler said.

The Commission recently gave the go-ahead to pursue increased security measures at the courthouse. The Elliot Company in recent weeks gave a presentation on some of the security services it offers to local government agencies. County administrators said they would like to see an upgrade of the surveillance system for inside and outside the courthouse.

Eiler said more information has been requested from the company and will present it to the Commission for consideration.

The administrators also learned that the three new doors purchased with CARES Act dollars will be arriving in February.

“They’re being built right now,” said Lietzow.

The new doors on the main south-side entrance will have automatic openers, aimed at avoiding touching as a way to curb the spread of the coronavirus. New single doors will be placed on the east-side and north-side entrances, as well. These are not equipped with automatic openers and are used mainly by courthouse employees.

The county used $40,000 from the remaining CARES Act funding (which totaled $1.7 million) for the doors; another $3,000 was used to purchase new touch-free water fountains for each of the two floors in the courthouse. Other CARES Act dollars were used to repair the floor of the south-side entrance portico.

And finally, Miskel asked Lairmore and Holland to consider whether the county should include June 19 (also referred to as “Juneteenth”) in the county’s list of observed holidays. Juneteenth is the recognition of the abolition of slavery and has been designated as an official holiday by the federal government. Missouri state government has decided to observe the date, also.

A key to observing Juneteenth locally might be whether observing the holiday is crucial to county government being eligible for receiving federal funds.

“Think about it,” Miskel urged the associate commissioners. A decision is needed by the end of the year, when the County Clerk’s Office publishes the county’s list of holiday closings.