HERMANN — A member of a business development organization last week leaned on Hermann’s top administrator to find the money to make more street improvements.

“We have to find a solution,” said Susan Stiers, treasurer of the Hermann Regional Economic Development (HRED) Corporation at last week’s regular monthly session.to City Administrator Patricia Heaney. “We just can’t let our streets deteriorate,” Stiers added.

The discussion about street upgrades took place as Heaney, also a member of the HRED board, gave her update on city government activity. She explained that the city is limited in what revenue it can tap into for street work.

“We do everything we can to maximize the dollars we have,” she said, explaining there is no grant money available to the city for street improvements.

Still, Stiers urged city government officials to pursue whatever avenues might be available to find the money needed to upgrade more streets. “It feels like we keep kicking the can down the road,” Stiers said.

City Hall usually identifies two or three streets each year for upgrades in its operating budget that runs from July 1-June 30. Other streets might also need repair work when the city replaces utilities such as water lines lying beneath the streets. City officials attempt to schedule significant street upgrades at the same time utility work in the street’s right-of-way is planned — such as the case with Schiller Street in the past couple years.

Meanwhile, Hermann Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Lensing told her fellow HRED directors that her agency’s capital campaign is ongoing. The Chamber is looking to raise money to fund a Strategic Plan to guide the business development of the area in the coming years. The goal is to raise $1 million to finance the project. A significant amount of work has been done in the past year and talks with potential donors are continuing, Lensing said.

“It’s been challenging to get people to sit down and have a meeting” about the capital campaign, Lensing said. “But,” she added, “when we do, it’s a lot of good feedback.”

Lensing quipped that lining up support for the project is akin to “herding cats.” The effort is requiring “a lot of follow-up,” she added.

The overriding aim of the capital campaign is to position the Hermann Area Chamber of Commerce and its member businesses to capitalize on the opportunities that many local business leaders believe will result from the long-term development of the industrial megasite taking shape in Montgomery County.

Gasconade County Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hemann, attended the HRED session online and reported that county government is taking steps to establish a 501(c)3 organization to accept and solicit donations that would be used to upgrade three buildings on the courthouse grounds. Those buildings have been donated to the county. The Doerr Building for years has been used as additional storage for county government offices. More recently, county administrators have been viewing the Doerr Building as a possible site to house either the Gasconade County Public Administrator’s Office or the county’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

The Public Administrator’s Office is located in a city government building and county government pays rent to the city; the EOC is housed in the basement of the courthouse. A remodel of the Doerr Building would provide county administrators one of two options: Avoid rent payments to the city by relocating the Public Administrator’s Office; or, move the EOC to the building, which would free up some badly needed storage space in the courthouse.

HRED’s next board session is scheduled for Tuesday morning, Dec. 2, in the board room of the Gasconade County R-1 School District Administration Building.