HERMANN – The Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department has lost its K-9 Unit, thanks to the dog’s handler taking a position with a neighboring county.

Sheriff Scott Eiler last week told the County Commission that there are no immediate plans to replace the K-9 Unit, although he would not rule out such a move in coming years. He told the Commission there are no deputies interested in being paired with a dog trained to sniff out drugs or other items. The sheriff said during events when a K-9 unit is needed, assistance will be requested from one of the several neighboring counties, all of which have K-9 units.

In other matters taken up during last week’s Commission session, county administrators approved the appointment of Gasconade County R-1 School District Director Dawn Grosse as a representative to the Gasconade Valley Enterprize Zone. Grosse will take the seat vacated by Gasconade County R-2 Superintendent Jeri Kay Hardy, who is leaving R-2 for the superintendent’s position of a district in Farmington, Mo.

Grosse is R-1’s former social worker and was elected to the district’s Board of Directors in the April 7 elections.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow introduced Glenda Shockley as the new county collector after her formal appointment in recent days by Gov. Mike Kehoe. Shockley, the former deputy to Collector Shawn Schlottach, was named interim county collector April 1. Schlottach resigned March 31 after 40 years of service to Gasconade County.

Shockley is running unopposed this year to be elected outright to head the County Collector’s Office.

Meanwhile, Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, said the county is open to considering the use of bio-diesel in county equipment. That came after a presentation to the Commission by Darrin Peters of the Missouri Soybean Council, which is promoting bio-diesel use by local governments. Peters said there are few Missouri counties using bio-diesel and the Soybean Council hopes to enlist more counties in an effort to see how well the fuel works on a large scale.

“I don’t think we’d be opposed to trying it,” the presiding commissioner said.

A retired chemistry teacher from metro St. Louis who was recruited by the Missouri Soybean Council, Peters said there are five bio-diesel plants in Missouri, the number-two state in the nation for bio-diesel. Iowa has the most bio-diesel production facilities, he said.

The Commission is scheduled to meet tomorrow in Owensville City Hall for its first-Thursday-of-the-month session in the southern portion of the county.  The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m.