Dec. 5, 2019

The Gasconade County Commission met with Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel at the Owensville City Hall beginning with Pledge of Allegiance.

PRIOR MINUTES

Commissioner Jerry Lairmore made a motion to approve prior commission minutes dated Nov. 25, 2019 and Nov. 21, 2019. Commissioner Jim Holland seconded the motion. The motion passed by vote:

Jerry Lairmore (Yes),

Jim Holland (Yes),

Larry Miskel (Yes).

WARRANTS FOR PAYMENT

Commissioner Jerry Lairmore made a motion to approve the following items: warrants for payment 114761 through 114824. Commissioner Jim Holland seconded the motion. The motion passed by vote:

Jerry Lairmore (Yes),

Jim Holland (Yes),

Larry Miskel (Yes).

ROAD CONCERNS AND COMPLAINTS

Commission met at Drake with road department first this morning in closed session to conduct interviews; when they convened at Owensville City Hall, they reported to Clerk Lietzow for the official minutes that four applicants were interviewed and the supervisors were reviewing the results and said an announcement would likely be made very soon. While there, they also discussed a road complaint received from Jack Baumstark about the condition of both Weeks and Old Iron roads; road department and Commissioner Holland talked with caretaker of the properties and it was agreed that the roads are better.

Commission received a written response from Ivan Schraeder, legal counsel, regarding the road barricade issue at Gascony Village and instructed Clerk Lietzow to forward it to both parties at Gascony that are interested.

Clerk Lietzow said the representative from Purple Wave online auction has photographed the items county is selling and she gave them the titles yesterday; the auction is open now and will close on Dec. 17.

Commissioner Holland reported speaking via telephone with Robert Schneider on Bickmeyer road and supervisor and issues have been resolved.

Joe Hendon came into Commission meeting to talk about what he considers sub‑standard county road conditions particularly in the area of the Highway T bridge construction site which is now scheduled for Dec. 12 completion; due to the extended time-frame of this detour being in place, he has encountered logs across a slab and it took two days for those to be cleared. Commissioner Lairmore ask for clarification on whether it was completely impassable and Mr. Hendon said almost impassable; Commissioner Lairmore went on to say he gets calls all the time, or the road department does too, about issues like this, as we should, otherwise we don’t know about it. Mr. Hendon thought someone from the road department should automatically drive the roads after a weather event looking for such things and that he shouldn’t have to call and considers that poor policy. He also asked status of the insurance claim he had filed when his oil pan was damaged on one of the county roads last spring, and it will be investigated. Mr. Hendon is also a proponent of hard‑surface roads and can’t understand why anyone would not be, and he also is supportive of another tax.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Bruce Paneitz and Rick Naught, representing Naught‑Naught Agency and Tom Adams from Travelers Insurance Company were at Commission session to present property and liability insurance proposals for consideration. Mr. Paneitz presented Commission with the renewal of current carrier MOPERM which showed an increase of almost 20 percent, which is significant, due to number of claims and the frequency of those claims. He then introduced Mr. Adams who reviewed the highlights of their policy as it compares to MOPERM, which is a large public entity risk‑sharing pool, whereas Travelers is an insurance company; further, while MOPERM has always been an occurrence based claims company, not claims‑made, Travelers is now that way also, which serves counties well. Essentially, it still allows county to be covered, if a lawsuit develops years later for an event while covered, but not brought forward until county has left the company. Travelers offers liability limits of almost $3 million versus MOPERM’S $2 million; in addition, there is an added umbrella coverage up to $5 million. Commission will review and hopefully be able to make a decision next Thursday, including the earlier presentation by Gallagher representatives. Lydia Nipper, Extension Council, presented their budget request for 2020 and reviewed for the Commission; it reflects less than one percent increase. Commission thanked Ms. Nipper for the annual Extension award dinner recently and for all the good work Extension does in Gasconade County.

Treasurer Mike Feagan presented his monthly account balances to Commission and reviewed for them; while balances at this time are considerably less than one year ago, everyone is hoping for a good December. It was mentioned that Peoples Savings Bank will need to draft a new loan agreement for another year, with the payoff moved to 2020.

Commissioner Lairmore reported attending GVEZ and GVEEZ meetings, where he was re‑elected chairman of GVEZ.

REPORT OF FEES

Commission reviewed monthly report of gross collections from Shawn Schlottach, Collector for the month of November 2019 in the amount of $2,148,046.25; and also, fees collected by Lesa Lietzow, County Clerk for the same month in the amount of $690.66 and from John Romanus, Sheriff in the amount of $410.00 DSSSF and $1,620.46 civil fee fund.

ABATEMENTS AND ADDITIONS

Commission approved abatements No. 2079 through No. 2098 and additions No. 8634 through No. 8664.

ADJOURN

Commissioner Jerry Lairmore made a motion to adjourn commission until Dec. 12, 2019. Commissioner Jim Holland seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned.