County Commission - Regular Meeting

on the road, please. Okay. It is Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. Call me to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do we have any minutes or reports received in file? Yes, I told you I

got the county clerk's April 2026 fees recorders April 2026 fees and the auditor's revenue and expenditure report for April 206. Good. Glad you're working. Uh commissioner committee liaison reports upcoming meetings and events. We've got an extension council meeting this evening. It's usually on Thursday, but move to tonight. Tomorrow the in-person senior tax-free starts 10 to two, right? Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Wednesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Wednesday, Thursday. Thank you. Uh MAC board meeting Thursday. And then next week there's a Missouri State homeschool and national homeschool track and field meet at Lincoln University the 12th through the 14th. So just wanted to mention that I didn't change my calendar so I can't see exactly was that is that Tuesday? Yeah, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So yes, the first hopefully it's going to be the first annual state.

So I think that was about it. Mother's Day. Forgot that one. Uh on Wednesday, Jessica and I meet with the insurance agency about the worker to come. Um Thursday is Westside Business Association meeting and the chamber barbecue. Mhm. Right. Or blast. Jeff mentioned the homeschool track meetings. I had on my calendar sharers golf on Monday. Is that correct? Yeah, I believe so. It is. Yeah.

Oh, I got to get got to be whole sponsored to get money. That's it. Okay. Well, you're tax freeze tomorrow. Uh Thursday I have a cap region foundation meeting at noon. chamber barbecue Saturdays the American Revolution meeting at 8:30. So that's all I've got. Uh presentation from staff consultants and invited guest uh roadway treatment standards for residential subdivisions. Carla or are you going to you're not going to

Yes, please please please. Uh my name is Derek Miles. I'm a resident of uh Beverly Hills subdivision on the west side of uh Jefferson City outside the city limits of Jefferson in Cole County. Uh appreciate your all service to our community. I know what that means. I've worked with the state for 11 years in a prior role and I know that sometimes it's a thankless job. So I appreciate what you guys do. Uh I know government's hard work and sometimes it can be very difficult. Um, one of the things that's hard to do is balance the needs of your consumers versus what the needs are and budget constraints are for the county, cities, and state. So, I I get that. Um, why am I here today? Well, pretty simply, uh, like I said, I live out on Beverly's Hill subdivision. It's on Highway 179 about 2 miles past the soccer fields or coal junction down there. Um we live adjacent to another subdivision called Hartland Ridge out there and uh we found out that we are slated to get some road treatment and found out that it was going to be a chip and seal treatment and u after talking to all the residents of the subdivision we highly oppose that. Um, we know recently within the past uh few years H Heartland uh Ridge out there got a asphaltic treatment and we feel like we're not getting the same treatment. Uh been talking back and forth with Eric on the decision making process on that and the roads are graded out subjectively uh from year to year probably what on every two-year basis. Is that correct? Two or three. And uh with those grades, you've got variation in staff. Uh and it's pretty subjective as far as the grading system goes. Um you know, we personally myself, whenever I was looking for a h house to build about a dozen years ago, I looked for a

few things. I worked for the public service commission. I saw utility rates weren't going to go down. I wanted a place where I could put my own water well, my own septic, and had as or had asphalted access to it. I wanted um those were some of the three requirements and I wanted a couple acres and that's what I got. Um had I known it or had it been chip and seal, I probably would have bought the land to be quite frank with you. Uh I wanted asphaltic uh access and um looking at the road right now, I do know it's in need of some repair. There's a lot of uh what I call alligator spots on the road. Uh if you've ever driven the road out there uh Attelier Drive, it's it's getting bumpy a little bit. Um, so from that perspective, um, it's in need of some treatment. I get that. Uh, but I think asphalt is the way to go just because, you know, we're not being equally treated as a neighborhood that's adjacent to us. Now, I know there's doctors and lawyers that live in H Heartland Ridge. We're not doctors and lawyers. We're just bluecollar workers in uh, Beverly Hill subdivision. Uh, but if you look at the aggregate of the property values in our subdivision compares to theirs, about $40 million in market value, both of them. So, um, all things equal, I feel like we're getting kind of not equal treatment. So, um, honestly, my own personal opinion on this is I'd rather them do nothing than to put, uh, chip and seal down. Um, I think it's going to reduce the property values of our properties out there. Uh, I at Eric's request, I went through various parts of Jefferson City, Cole County that have chip and seal and drove those and I I'll be honest with you, my opinion of chip and seal wasn't that bad until I drove those roads and then I realized this is worse than I thought it was going to be. So, uh, with that being said, I guess I'm requesting that you all reconsider and pay attell. And with me is Carla Stack. I don't know

if she has anything she wants to state, but I'll let her talk to you as well. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Morning. I thought it was evening the last time I was here. Um, so Sam, you received a letter that we drafted. I'mma put that on the record. Um, and that's the date that we sent that to the commissioners.

I just did a little research. Um, and as the person that paid to build the asphalt road back in 2000, it's quite an investment to to do asphalt. And um, it's been almost 26 years and no treatment whatsoever. We we did a great road. We shot rock. we, you know, did it to the standards. So, there's been no prior preservation treatments and it's got alligator cracking. Um, Eric, we want to thank him for answering a lot of questions recently. Like, we got a few more.

I got answers. But um preservation maintains the pavement early in life and rehabilitation restores pavement after decline. Um general pavement management practice recognizes that preservation is most effective early in the pavement life while rehabilitation is typically required as pavement reaches later stages of deterioration. And I've got some references on here and I'm going to put this on the record and you correct me if these references um aren't correct. Um so chip seal is a surface preservation treatment used to seal pavement and slow deterioration. Asphalt overlay is a rehabilitation treatment used to restore ride quality and extend pavement service line. So, as um Derek pointed out, there's a term alligator um surface or fatigue cracking. And I guess the best place you can see this is on Scott Station Road just down a bit from me. They've been um resurfacing and asphalt with chip and seal and it looks great until you get to the cracks. So the cracks are what can't be cured with chip and seal. And so it's because the motion over those cracks that they're going to keep revealing themselves under um chip and seal. Um so we have that cracking, we have grass growing up, uh surface raveling and aggregate loss, rough and uneven ride quality, latest stage surface

deterioration. Eric's told us about the Paser system. Um my research shows just a few limitations. Um, it's a visual rating based on observation using a reference guide. It does not measure ride quality, structural performance, or pavement age. Similar scores can represent different pavement conditions and stages of service life as reflected in this roadway's rating changes over time which show a shift from good to average back to good without a corresponding change in actual pavement condition. And I'm going to give you this. It was just obviously a a new employee um inspected. That's how it went from good to average to good again. Um, so Paser gives a condition score, but it does not decide whether a road should be preserved or restored. It reflects current condition, but does not account for pavement age or life cycle stage when selecting treatment. So this is an engineered subdivision road built and paid for by private developer to a defined standard. So we have like a year that we wait before it's accepted into the county maintenance program after building it. Um so these references, you know, lead me to believe that um Paser is not taking into account the age that asphalt has a life of like 20 to 30

years and we're at 26 years. And so will that um ship and seal um you know start wearing down after its four or five year life and the people that live there have to look at that again. I mean these are um things that we've thankfully been put on the road and bridge uh agenda by Jeff. Thank you Jeff. So we probably won't bother you until after we you know go to that meeting. So, thank you for your time and this is again for the record. Does anybody have any questions? Eric, you okay?

One of the other things I might state too I I feel like we're just okay. One of the other things I mean I understand you know the the county has many many assets roads bridges and whatnot and and you know you have to take in account depreciation and things like that for all of those items and sometimes you have incidents you know godly incences that you know take out bridges and things like that. I get that. So you you kind of balance that budget a little bit. Sometimes you got emergency fund you got to pull through. But in this particular situation I feel like we're just kind of kicking the can down the road to the next guy. That's kind of what I feel like we're doing a quick treatment um just to kind of push it out a few more years. You know, I feel like that's money wasted personally as a taxpayer. I mean, why not just go ahead and take that money and invest it in asphalt and get it done with? Just get it out of the way. So, that's another aspect of it that I feel as well. So, I and just strictly the um the the property value aspect of it, I think it's going to reduce property values out there. I call it chip and seal, call it crushed, you know, granite, call it what you want. It's gravel road. I mean, it's it's your turn an asphaltic road into a gravel road. And that's not what I bought. You know, I didn't buy that land to have either as or gravel road or chip and sill. I wouldn't I wouldn't have bought it. So, that's I'll go back on the record on saying that.

Do you want to say anything, Eric? Oh, just a few things. Um, I know I know I got to come up here. Um, so Heartland Ridge, we did overlay that in 2019, so it's seven years ago. And, uh, our plan right now is to do a chip seal on that next year. So, um, that's a comparable road to yours. I think, um, also one thing, Carla, you said the employee that did the rating was a new employee. Uh that's one of our longest term employees that has been doing that. Different employee. No, the same one's been doing it. Um

the names are there's two names. The good the average those are the same name and then when it goes back to good that's a different thing. Meer no. I got no the person that Meyer he's the one that manages the system. The one that does the ratings is somebody else and he's been with us for 25 years. Been doing this type of work uh previously with MDOT. He's a 40-year employee. So, you got a question? Yeah. Why are you chip sealing Harley rated? There's nothing in life.

So, it can stay in good shape. That that's precisely why we do this to keep it in good shape. It'll get to about a 70. It's about 70 this year. It'll dip below 70. And our threshold for a chip seal is when it hits 70 below that's when we want to do it. Now let me finish you. Um this this system that we're doing

we're in about year four or five or so of that. We started it kind of loosely over the past 10 years and kind of gradually getting to this point. Problem is asphalt, the cost of asphalt has risen so much that if we just focus on asphalt overlays, we will get so far behind that we will never catch up. Asphalt cost about a square yard price about $8.75 give or take. Chip seals about $2. And an asphalt pavement built a good pavement, you know, and and you do have a good pavement. That's why it's lasted so long. If we can apply a surface to it, extend the life, then it can stay in good condition. Okay? and it doesn't get to that point that we got to go in and reconstruct or whatever else. Um

26 years the road's 26 years old

and and we have some uh and then that's another thing the paser rating system is is something that we do use. It does base it on condition. Every payment's different. You could have a payment built two years ago versus 10 years ago and they could be the same rating. It just depends on a lot of different factors. cross slopes under what's underneath, how much water is getting in and out. There's there's so many different things. Traffic. Oh, yeah. Traffic is a huge one that a road that higher speed like a Scott station or you know 179 for example, um higher speed, heavier traffic has an impact on that. So, um the chip seal is is the method and I I think we have a very good plan in place. We're not where we want to be yet. Just because we were slow to start this. We should have been doing this about 2008 or so when asphalt just started going through the roof. About 2012 or so is when we started chipping a bunch of these roads just because that was going to be the only way we could take care of them. And we we've done a lot of sub subdiv residential subdivision streets like yours without curbing gutter. I gave you a list. There's about seven or eight. Uh, Case in Court is one off of Ston Road. We're going to do that this year, too. It's a newer road than yours. I didn't check the condition, but it's again, you know, another problem we have with asphalt is the quality of asphalt is not what it used to be 25, 30 years ago when Eurov was built. We've seen a decrease in the, not to get too technical, but um, you know, crude oil, they're finding more ways to use that. And so what they use for asphalt binder is the it's the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, and it's it's the whatever's left over. And what's left over is worse than what was left over 30 years ago. And so the quality of asphalt is going

down. So we're having to apply these surfaces sooner than what we would in your case where you have a good road like you do. Yes, there's alligator cracking. We've chip seal or crack sealed that. That's another another thing in in the plan that should have gotten addressed earlier, but again, we're still trying to catch up. So, I think we have a good plan in place. I'm very happy with where we're going. We implemented scenario builder. Purchased it added as an add-on to our our asset management program two months ago and in the process of developing that. And the thing with that, it's it's never going to be, okay, we can say 10 years from now, we're going to do this road, and here's why. Conditions don't roads don't deteriorate the same. And so that's why we got to rate them. Now, the the model, it will deteriorate it for us, and it'll implement different things that we do to the road. It'll add to the the score. There's a bunch of different factors. Um, but it it will deteriorate it, but then we rate them and check it. Um, another thing with that prices. Okay, let's say asphalt or chip seal next year goes up 10%. Well, then we got to put that back into the model and it reruns everything and so it may have to kick a road one way or the other. Another thing we got to look at is a a chip seal contractor doesn't want to come in and do 20 roads in the county and have to go all over the place. That's just going to cost more. And so we will try to group some things a little bit if we can. Um, for example, Heartland Ridge, let's say there's Heartland Ridge, Heartland Court. Okay, two different roads. We got to we got to call that one road in the system. Um, it would be nice if we had all the roads in your area and that's why we're doing Scott Station, uh, Ston, Wade, I think, um, King's Chapel. We're doing a lot in your area just to take advantage of that pricing. we can get a better price if we get it more geographical in the same

area. So, a lot of different factors go in. I understand your situation. Um, again, we don't and I think one question was, do you look at, you know, the values of the homes and all that. The model doesn't do that. It strictly looks at the pavement condition. And we're just trying to do the best we can to keep up with uh a changing, you know, industry that keeps on getting more and more expensive. and the revenues just aren't keeping up as as much as the costs are going up for us. So asphalt's $105 a ton this year roughly when I started the county was in the 30s so 20 20 years ago. So we're just trying to do the best we can. I understand your situation. You know I wish we could lay asphalt on everything 30 years ago. That's what we did. We just laid asphalt because it was cheap and it was better than it is now. But it just the reality of the situation is we got to try to take care of the roads as best we can and the chip seal or there's other preservation methods too that we're using but the chip seal for the value the quality of what you get and for the cost is is the best value. You had a question Carla?

Yeah. So back to the fatigue of asphalt and cracking. Um, I don't think that ship and seal will ever cure that. I think that is a matter of fatigue in the asphalt.

If you have a lot of transverse cracking, those are the ones that are perpendicular to the traveled way. You'll see some of those separate quite a bit. Those will reflect through any overlay you put on it. So, that's a problem. We crack seal those. There's a, you know, it's the black tar or whatever. watching my car and and that's something that you you have to do and you'll see that on a 2-year-old pavement. You have to do it. I've lived for 12 years. That's the first time I've ever seen any treatment. Yeah. And that's only in prep four putting down.

Then I've got 26 pages of pictures. 24 of them show alligators. And I I guess my question is, you know, the grading today today, not not a year ago. Uh what would the grading be? I know you all classify and kind of have a scoring method, you know, 0 to 25, 25 to 1550 and so on. Uh, and we're right above the 50 mark, which means we're due for an overlay. Um, but when was it and who rated? It's always subjective. Um, we just got through another winter. We know what winners do. Um, the road's in pretty bad shape. I mean, it's got tons of alligator out there and um I think chip seal is just booting the can down the road. That's what I think it is.

Well, I disagree with you. And the road it rated at 63 or something 63 and a half. And uh the crack seal that we put on it that actually adds to the the rating. So, that's figured into the system as well. So, it might be what does a crack seal do? Five points I think. Yeah. And crack seal for that's another one of those. And then again, you know, we're trying to catch up. We're right now and I think this year might be the first year that we'll go in and crack seal roads that that hit that mark or next year will be what they'll hit that mark. Is it 80? Yeah. When they hit 80, we'll go crack seal it. We haven't been doing that. We've been crack sealing the year that we chip it or overlay it, which it's better than not, but we're again, we're still trying to catch up. The model that you talked about earlier said it takes into consideration costs which it should right. Um we know costs don't go down in anything. So in five years from now I'll expect that we get another layer of chips still.

It may not be five but seven or another layer of chips. Yeah. And then and then another five or another layer of chips. Sure. Get asked again. Well, it depends on you know the the road will go down even though the chip seal gets added. It added it adds a percentage. It doesn't add into a certain number. It doesn't increase to a certain number. And what do you think the life of asphalt is? Is it over 30 years? No. Okay. So, we're six. So, I don't see how, you know, we did build a good road, but I don't see how underneath the chip and seal that that has gone to the FL. It truly needs

it. It'll last good on your road because you don't have heavy traffic or a lot of traffic. Overlay is asphalt. That is, you know, resurfacing can be both, but overlay is as Would you not agree with that? An overlay is asphalt. But what what as opposed to what? Felt like it needed to come in, you know, after watching the meeting last week because some of the definitions seem to be blurred. So what meeting last week? Uh your the commissioner's meeting. I think we approved the chip seal. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The program asphalt in the chips seal program. We approved that for this year. Yes.

Yeah. And so um the word overlay got a little bit confused there. But um Jeff has put us on the agenda for the bridge and um hopefully we can you know go a little deeper into this there unless you want to here. Well, an asphalt and a chip seal is an overlay because it's overlaying the pavement. Now, there's penetrating sealers that actually go into the pavement and rejuvenate it. That's something we'll do, you know, in year one. Um, and there's another product that we're we're doing in maybe year five or so.

So, a friend of mine is an engineer that would for the state check, you know, roads. She said resurfacing that word could be used for both tube seal and asphalt but overlay is definitely asphalt. It's just how you how you view it. The way we view it in our system is it is an overlay because you're applying a surface to it doesn't penetrate down in. So it's an overlay.

I think the people that um invest and pay the taxes, you know, property before the lots were sold. I'm paying a lot of taxes out there to you know get the benefit of the asphalt road and um you know maybe the assessor is where we go next. I don't know. Yeah. Well, like I said the tip seal that that's what we're doing this year and that that's that's our plan as part of our plan and if we deviate from the plan we start picking and choosing overall score goes down and it costs more. That's what we found. overall score in our whole system. Can you explain that?

So you take the aggregate of every road and add it into you know the whole you know as a as a whole system of 330 paved or how many how much as we about 300 300 miles of asphalt roads. The overall score you know right now is about a 65 66 and we want to get that up into the well into the 70s. Well, you would never ask for all the chip and seal that came from uh Rob. You know, when we were building our road, there was plenty of gravel roads out there that wanted to be in the system. And eventually, after years of begging, they would get chip and seal over the top of it. Okay. But we spent the money to get in the system with an asphalt road. So, I think that our buyers out there are expecting, you know, the same treatment and they'll pay taxes on, you know, valuations that are based on things like that, I would assume.

Yeah, that's that's another point I'd like to bring up. You know, I talked to the developer, which was, you know, Chuck, and he he made the comment to me one time that, you know, he tried to not just meet the county's requirements and specifications for roaded, but exceed it. And I think that's indicative of the fact that we've got 26 years with zero treatment with zero treatment. 26 years of zero treatment on that road. And so now we're putting putting chip and seal down, you know, sealing it up and then and putting asphalt asphalt to commulsified stuff down and then we're going to throw a bunch of rock on top of it and I the only reason you put the rock so you don't get tar all over. We know the emulsified tar is what seals the road. Um but um you know just it's a band-aid. So you said chip seals gravel road and I I just I'd have to disagree. I've been I'm on same roads you all are different areas of the county and we get a lot of people that complain about them. Um between the roads and dead animals on the roads that's probably what we get most complaints about. So it's just I think we've got a system that is very objective and I I know you may not agree with it. People I talk to don't always agree either because the road's always the last on the list. But I I I haven't been out there. I got tell you, I haven't driven out there since you offer emailed a week or two ago. But I think we've got some worse roads that are needing attention more and that's where they're at on the list. And then like Eric said, when you're in that area, you try to take care of more stuff. I appreciate your information on it, but I feel like we're trying to get as much more time out of it before we have to put another actual asphalt over top of

Well, if you do go up, I would encourage you to go down Harland Ridge first and then come back. Okay. Okay. I I think one m one thing missing from the discussion is this is not a through street. It doesn't carry any arterial traffic. Correct.

It maybe 12 parcels or so out there and 10 or 11 residences. Uh you compare that dem that volume to another street that's the same age. Uh I think we missed we're the 20 this the first year. How many houses were there? How many times, you know, did a vehicle go down that street that first, second, third, fourth, fifth, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th year. I don't know how quick the buildout was, but there wasn't much much usage. And if you just did it based upon usage, you shouldn't compare this to Scott Station Road, which is high-speed and heavy traffic, or to any other county road like that. And I I do I agree with with the Eastern District that what Eric does not subjective, it's objective. And how do we squeeze our dollars longer, get more out of them, and it's to preserve the pavement as long as possible, as good as possible with the most amount of money. Uh because we've got 300 miles plus of this to worry about. And if if we would let the policy changed upon the request of about a dozen residents, we've opened a door that uh we can never close. So I'm good to stay with the program as you have an area. But

and it was last year about a 100,000 per mile to asphalt. So I I don't know what it is this year, but I would assume it's considerably more with the cost of Yeah, it's over a 100,000 per bile to overlay an inch and a half.

Well, we've got 1,800 ft. So, how much is that? I do agree with Harry not to compare rural roads with um developments and subdivisions that have been entered into the program for maintenance of a specific type of road. So, you know, whether there's 12 people on that road or one person on that road, it entered into the county's system for maintenance. 26 years no maintenance, you know. Yeah. We've got a good road, but asphalt still dies after 30. Correct. Have you known asphalt last longer than 30?

Can it just depends on the quality of the time? There's so many things that go into that. And I I'm not going to say that asphalt lasts 30 years and then you overlay it. I'll tell you, asphalt lasts as long as it lasts. And that's why we rate it and have a plan. We try to take care of it because we can't let it just deteriorate to the point that and and we have some out there that have deteriorated to the point that they're they're far they're too far gone to even touch. We've got to go in and do a rebuild. Okay, that's that's just reality because we we got a little behind back in the early late 2000s. We just didn't keep up with the way the industry was going. So if we did nothing today, we didn't put that in Chips Hill, 5 years from now, probably pretty good likelihood we wouldn't need an overlay, right?

Just depends. I mean, pretty good likelihood. Let's just go that route. That's what I Yeah. I don't you can I mean Matt's responsible for taking care of

so in my expert opinion because I am the one that designed all this yeah we could wait 5 years let the road fall apart and try to reoverlay it but then we're looking at 120 $150 $200 a ton put a chip seal on it this year get five 710 years out of it come back and do another chip seal get 5 10 seven years out of it I can today's prices I can get three chip seals for the same cost as what I'm overlaying. And on the flip side of that, we'll take MODOK for instance, route B, one of the highest traveled routes in this county aside from 54 and 63. They're doing they did the exact same thing that we plan on doing to your road this year. They put a chip seal, same oil that we're using, same rock that we're using. One of the highest traveled roads in this county that is a rural road has the same percentage of trucks as what 63 does going to Raleigh. If Modoc can use it, I can use it. I'm trying to extend the life so that we don't have to come in rebuild the road. You've got a good road. We we chip sealed my own road a couple years ago. It'll last me another 10 years before I have to do something else to it. This is a preventive maintenance option so that we don't have to come in and completely rebuild the road. For the cost that it cost, I'm going to chip seal as much as I can. If you look at the history since I've been here in 5 years, we're averaging 24 to 26 miles on chip seals to keep these roads in good shape. We average about 5 to 6 miles of overlays. It's just cost comparison. I have to do what's best for the taxpayers for the whole county. I can't just overlay just because somebody wants it overlaid. Gypal is a good product and it will last. It's not a gravel road. It's not just gravel thrown

on oil. It is an engineered product that takes an emulsified asphalt with a specific type of rock that gets pressed into the oil to make it last. concern. So when there's fatigue cracking like I see on station everything has fatigue cracking that tends to be a base problem specifically where the crack is that ship and seal is gone. It looks nice up into the crack. So how

and we are looking at redoing Scott station. We may have to go in and do a digout repair to address the base issues that's underneath. Asphalt is a flexible pavement that moves. Concrete's a rigid pavement. It's not supposed to move. Asphalt will move. It expands. It contracts. Everything does. If there is that severe cracking in it, we will go in and do a dig out repair to address the base issues that is causing the overlaying problems. I trust you all know your roads, but we're talking about a development where people live, kids buy. You know, we paid money to get into the system.

You all took you all paid for it and you did it. You turned it over to us. Now we're going to maintain it to the best of our ability. But asphalt would be maintained always with seal. As far as I'm concerned, yes, because at this point in time, it is the best dollar for my what I'm getting. Okay. So, at 30 years, do you know? Eric said he didn't know, but what is the life of asphalt? There's too many factors involved to make that judgment. Okay. I I we need to kind of keep moving along. You're going to be going before the road and bridge committee. So, thank you. I would say do that and then see where we are.

That's fine. Yeah. Do you know when the date is? I think it's the end of the month. Yeah. The last Thursday, I believe. Okay. Thanks, Jeff, for getting

I mean, thank you'all. We we get these concerns and we do have to address them. And there's reasons why they do it that way. And there's probably hundred different ways of doing it, but I I feel fully confident in supporting our director and engineer taking care of the roads and getting as much life out of it and as much bang for the buck as we can. So, and if there's ideas for doing it different, I you know, consider it. It's not always going to be taken. The only thing I took out of this meeting really is you're going to do what you want to do and you know the chip and seal is a cheaper method than asphalt. We know that. We've established that it's about a third fourth the cost rate and we do that every 5 years but asphalt lasts 25 years. You're spending a third to half whatever third quarter to a third the cost every five years seven years versus just putting half down. So if you all when you all had this subdivision before you even moved there, say they didn't turn the roads over to the county and they built in pavement and you had to repave it every 5 years because it deteriorates and you don't want chip seal on it and you've got to spend I'm just going to throw some number out there $250,000 every four or five years to repave it. Are you going to do that instead of going seven to 10 years and spending 120,000 years? I mean, your money.

Yeah. Yeah. The initial investment, the initial investment lasted 20 26 years. We had no preservation on our road until this last month they did some drip seal or whatever. And yes, I I would not be opposed to if if I knew it wasn't a county maintenance road and I had some type of neighborhood fee association that maintained the road and it was $100 a month or whatever. Yeah, I'd be okay. This month's not going to get 12 houses. So, we pay more taxes than hard land.

I do. We We can argue all day long about it. Y'all, like I said, all I took from this is y'all going to do what you going to do anyway. So, just wanted to voice my opinion in it that I oppose it. Um, it is what it is. I'm just a one measly voter. Attend Bridge. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate your time. Thank you, hearing. Thank you, Jud. Thank you all. Okay. Uh, do we have any commission comments? Bids and contracts signing of the Otus Elevator contract. Good morning. Good morning.

The renewal of elevator maintenance services with Otis Elevator has already been approved and signed, but Otis Elevator requested we sign another contract in order to be compatible with their system. It should all be the same as the last one. You can't just make a copy of it. They contract and so nothing's changed. They just want another original. Yep. Okay. I'll make a motion to sign the second copy of the contract with Otis. Second. All in favor?

I I I don't know. I just find it funny. Approval of agreement for point of care testing with epoch no Star Trek. Uh good morning.

Uh this is the final contract with uh Seaman's Healthcare to purchase the Epoch mobile lab testing equipment. Uh total price is 31,891. and 20 which is a little bit more expensive than um the original quote because we added the carry cases to it. So uh this wraps up the project buys the equipment and uh we'll be full on into the working with uh our consultants that we approved a couple weeks ago to get our lab license and then get everybody trained once the equipment arrives to get this implemented. happy to answer any questions. There's lots of spaces for signatures for S there.

Think it's the initial two. Uh, no, I think it's just signatures. I make a motion that we approve and agree on with the point of care testing with Epoch at a cost of 31,000 patients. Second. All in favor? I I purchase an additional creator license for ArcGIS. I guess I should just podium.

Um, so, uh, one of the things that kind of came out of the, uh, springtime storms for a couple weeks ago was, um, looking at how we collect data, uh, related to damage assessments in in times of disaster. And kind of what we're doing now is uh you know we have a staff of two and a half to three people and they'll go out in the community and they'll take photos and and try and find as much damage as they possibly can. And after we learned uh through this most recent event is that you know we'll get public uh requests to come look at their property or um they'll send us photos but we don't have really a way to crowdsource that information and nor do we have really a process in place to um store or map that information once it's collected. So, I challenge the EM staff to come up with a better solution and uh they've had a few conversations with Melissa and the GIS team and ArcGIS allows us to create a public facing form that will allow folks to take their own photos, gather their information about any damage to their property and it will plot it as a layer into our GIS mapping. We can also use that internally um instead of form informally gathering these photos, we can also take the photos, fill out the form and plot it um via GIS automatically as well. But in order to do that, we need another ArcGIS creator license which is approximately $500 uh for our EM staff to get that up and

that one was 750. The one that's compatible is 750 a year.

Yep. 750 a year to to make that work. Um, one of the things that we've really learned in the first couple events since, you know, kind of taking on this project is um we are kind of data poor and we want to be data rich uh as the incidents unfold so that we can make effective decisions. uh and we feel like crowdsourcing this information and putting this public facing will allow us to gather that information that we would have otherwise missed. So, uh just asking for approval to purchase that um out of EM um I believe it would be equipment service contracts and then get that up and running for

I'm asking this question for the Eastern District Commissioner. He's too embarrassed to ask, but how does that half person get around Um well a as you'll remember uh they are indeed a whole person they just split their time between our our agencies and uh and and depending on the needs of their days uh you know times of emergency they wear that hat and others they wear okay I hope this one doesn't

but In in the long run, it does help us get a truer picture of damage done and when we're getting reimbursements with emergency management and stuff like that. This app is one that they've actually used to gather data during the tornado. Some of the different um um teams that came out after the tornado use this. You know, one of the one of the interesting conversations that we've engaged with all of our partners in the last couple weeks is how do we start leveraging this real-time data? You know, if we were to have a natural disaster, um you know, there are several different platforms that um all of the public safety agencies use. you know, obviously um uh the resources to the north with the uh Missouri Task Force One, they have an independent um mapping software that they use in in those times. Um you know, some of the other software that we're looking at um uses GIS data. So really getting into ArcGIS is a central repository where we can shift all of that information um and we don't have independent people working on on different things. Um, and one of the things, you know, we found on the on the 17th was there are pockets of extreme rural Kulk County that have damage and it's hard for us to as we're driving down the roads, which takes a tremendous amount of time to see all of that sort of stuff. Um, so it just makes a lot of sense for somebody to be able to go out in their backyard, snap some photos, and us be able to compile that data without really having to get involved. Uh, this is a somewhat related question. Um, is there any way that you or anyone else would ever know how many people were alerted on a phone? U, is there is there any software that captures that information?

I'd have to go back and ask that question. Um, I I I would assume possibly that we can capture that information, but I'm not entirely sure. Okay. I mean, everybody who carries a phone has been hearing these beeps or or more uh for the last couple weeks, right?

And you know, if you'll allow me to just kind of go off on a tangent and address, you know, one of the common questions that we get every time these events uh kind of happen is that um the software that we use for not only the phones, but out also the outdoor warning sirens is a technology that is specifically targeted. So when the National Weather Service issues alerts, they draw what they call a polygon of where they think that storm is moving. If you are in that alerted polygon, you will receive the phone notification if it's worthy of that and the outdoor sirens will activate. If you are not inside that polygon, you will not receive the alert and your sirens will not activate. Um so after uh again this last round of events there were quite a few questions of why did buy sirens go off and you know the cities didn't or vice versa and that is strictly due to we alert based on where the threat is not the entire county system.

Maybe someday the outdoor sirens will be in teams quite possibly if if if coverage is obtained. Yeah. Well, then how are they going to know to go stand outside and look for a tornado? I'm still stuck on the half the man. Didn't that song half the man I used to be or something? I thought maybe that was so Let's go back to the reason you stepped up for the I forget what it was. I I I'd like approval to purchase another creator license for RPGs for EFO, please, for $750.

For $750 annually. I'll make a motion that we spend $750 to purchase an additional creator license for ARCGIS. I'll second. This is actually a higher license level than we got the last time. I'm trying to remember what that one was, but anyway, contributor. It was the one that me got put that in the motion. Okay. Okay. Do we need any more discussion of it? Clarify. All in favor? I. Okay. Is this yours too? Approval and signing of FY24 EMPG mini grant.

Yes. So, we once again applied for the EMPG mini grant and we were awarded um the program to replace our siren batteries. Um the uh units that are uh going to be replaced are over the 4year mark and they are recommended to be replaced every 3 to four years. So, we have exceeded that timeline. Um the uh submitted quote from Outdoor Warning was 64 batteries plus label and labor and travel for a cost of $12,670 and no cents. And that is what we have been authorized uh and awarded via the EMPG mini grant. So, um the only action I need today is to accept the grant and then we will bring up the uh approval of outdoor warning.

Make a motion to accept the uh FY 24G mini grant of $12,670. Second. Okay, other discussion. No halves or anything. So, it's free money. So, get free money. All in favor? I I I Okay, new business. Accounts payable review. Ask for approval of accounts payable pending review. Motion to approve accounts payable pending review. Second. All in favor? I I uh discussion of shut off valve replacement at the sheriff's department. Morning. Morning. Morning.

Uh every time we have to shut the water off, replace a water line or anything over jail, we kill the building, kill the water to the whole building. This would allow us to isolate certain sections of the building so we can keep water on, keep Sheriff Wheeler happy, and keep the prisoners happy. Um, Sheriff Wheeler is I think you said contingency fund for this. Uh, we also want to bring it forward to you. It's for uh 90 $165 to replace a bunch of valves and put new out. Good.

I'm good. Just curious. Was that a chart coming on the beginning of the building? I mean, why wasn't that I'm not going to answer that. I was not here at the time. Um, it should have been Sorry. It was value engineered out. Thank you, John. I don't know what that means, but I don't either. just I'd say it should have been on there from the get-go cuz when we were talking about it and it's not and it makes absolute sense to do this and shut down the whole building just to make some kind of a another repair. So

I think I know where you were going and I don't remember exactly because that's been 18 years of building. Come on Jeff, you were here. I was not here when the building was designed. Remember the carpet color picking up carpet to be critical of of I'm not going to do it. Not going to do it. I'm not going to throw Jeff under the bus. It was not the bus. I'm driving it. So So I just need a signature. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the repair to install the ball valves with United Mechanical Services. Second. Any other discussion? All in favor? I I that is on state contracts.

Uh this we actually have a cooperative agreement. Oh, the cooperative agreement. Yes. I just need you to sign down there. Approved by Yes, I will do that. Thank you. Okay. Bid award of 2026- 10 ton tilt deck trailer with hydraulic axle side. Um so the recommendation is to award the bid to purpose record.

Say again who this is for. Purpose record. this right here. Okay. Yeah, that copyy's about the same size as the one on on the computer. Okay. And that's our low boy. That's our low boy trailer that we're having to replace. Landol. Landall. Yeah, it's a you all heavy equipment in it till this one's been galvanized. The frame and everything's galvanized, which should last a lot longer.

So, how old was the other one? It wasn't spring baby. 2012 or 13 when we got maybe 12 years, 15 at the most. So, unfortunately, those get into some heavy use and they're notorious that just the way they're designed and built. They get stuff trapped in and they start to rust with the type of stuff that we're hauling sometimes during the winter. So, well, you don't just get to park it inside to keep it out of the elements and stuff like that either. These they take a lot of part of the problem, too. Yes. Yeah. But this one's galvanized. Should last a lot longer. That's why we went that that way just because of what this one's used for. So the upgrade you'd be able to wash it more and maintain it better. Correct.

Correct. Yes. That that way being able to wash a lot of wash it and maintain it. Why don't you just get a new one? Sorry that was a chip. I was going to bring that up next, but I didn't I didn't go there. I will tell you that Greg's he's going to be installing full valves. There'll be no half ball half valves installed in it. It's just interesting, you know, there five five bids received. Uh, three of them were out of Florida, right? Yes. Uh, one from Missouri and one from Pennsylvania. And the low bid is the Missouri, but they were close.

Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion to award the U. 2026 10 ton tilt deck trailer with hydraulic axle side to purpose record for 110. Second. All in favor? I g I want to go to Florida and pick it up.

Okay. All in favor? Do we? I don't know. I don't remember being said. Remember the motion? Motion. Yeah. Harry and Jeff. Yeah. All in favor? I I Okay. And you're giving me crap about not remembering something 20 years ago. What color carpet did you choose? It was shag. It was shag. Oh god. I'll tell you. Okay.

Harvest green. Unfinished business. Senior tax freeze update. Is that what our collector is here for? I guess since Lexi won't do it. Uh we start helping people take applications tomorrow. I think we're doing some refresher training starting at 9:00 for the people that are going to help the taxpayers of Cole County. And then at 10:00, we'll from 10:00 to 2 uh tomorrow and Thursday, we'll take care of people as they come in. Uh so we should be ready to go. Let's

see. Over 100 600 67 62. It's one of these days. Okay. Any questions? Just want to make sure everybody's aware of that. And people can come out on uh Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10:00 and 2 here to the commission chambers to get help. Otherwise, they can go to the collector's office to pick up applications are completed online uh at the county website under the collector's uh web page. There's a link to the senior tax-free both the renewals and for new applicants. I'm going to be Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. commissioners, real quick. Um, with the discussions that's go been going on going forward, we're in a situation where our expenses are growing faster than our revenues. You all know this. So, we're going to going forward have to make sure we spend the money the best we can, which we have been doing, but that may result in less services than the citizens want to receive. But that's where we're at and where I see the next couple of years with the budget that we have.

There's a lot. Thank you. Daryl Downer. Sorry, Daryl Downer. We don't have any more. I guess technically we do have some more money that's going towards the juvenile center, but and we had to return how much for the marijuana. 580. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, six, it was six It was in the 625 range, but 580 we had moved over um into the health insurance fund. So,

right, we were going to do that to try to make it healthy again when it's still losing money. So, we're going to have to look into that. Um, and those those potential reduction in services could impact each citizen totally different. Um, but that's that's where we're at. We're a conservative county with low taxes and we want to stay there, but as our expenses continue to rise greater than our revenues, we're going to have tougher decisions going forward.

We got less federal funding coming down, less state funding coming down. It looks great for them, but then it gets dumped on us. We've got the VOCU attorneys that we're about to make a decision on coming up soon. Our 911, we've got a request for stuff with that as well. emergency management. I'm sure we're not getting near as much money as we used to on that. Nope. That grant was about one fifth of what we asked for.

So, I I plan on starting the budget for next year earlier. Um I've talked to several of the department head and elected officials. I may talk with you all individually to find out if there's certain programs that are handsoff that we can't make any adjustments to things of that nature. But sorry, as Daryl Downer would say, we're in a going to be a little rougher, tougher budget season than we've had the last couple of years. So, I guess if somebody's coming up with a request that's not in the budget, I mean, do you just want them to send it through us again or do we need to send it through Jay and, you know, give us a another outside view of what this is going to do to our budget? And I mean, you can just throw it in our lap, say, "Here's the information and how you take it." Or

I think Jay needs to be a part of it for sure. The auditor needs to be a part of it. He doesn't get to vote on it. So, y'all can make him mad if you want to. So, when he puts that last column in there when it comes to us, it says auditor recommends, he he's kind of weighed in. Yeah. Yeah.

on things. But Jessica and I will work as we go through um we'll work with the department heads and elected officials and just you know the the purpose today is just another warning that tougher times are coming and that we're not going to be able to fund everything we want to going forward. Absolutely. It's not very news, but it's true. Okay. Anything else? This is off. It is off until weather is a little bit better. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah,

totally agree. With the rain, we got two of our crews that aren't out working today. And that is what what I wanted to go see there. We could go see Tanner Bridge or Rainbow Drive, but I just wait a couple of weeks or so. Maybe like Jeff said, we'll do an afternoon team trip or something. We get the side by side too. We can go down by the Tanner Bridge if the river's down. Yeah, because they've got that uh they're making a lot of progress on the project's coming along pretty good. So, yeah. Do you do you have any uh estimate of the additional mileage and time it's people have to keep rerout

well how inconvenient is this for I'm having to do it more often now than I used to cuz my son moved out that way and so I'm having to take Friendship Drive up to Wartsville and down it's couple five minutes at the most. It's not bad depending on what time of day you go through there. I mean, mileage wise, it's the same distance. Um, I think it's actually a mile longer to go through Wardsville than if you would cut if you're on Terra Road or Grand Highland or something. You have to

um otherwise, you know, most people once they realized we were doing this, they were instead of cutting through Tanner Bridge, they're taking Route B. Now, I have been told that the light backs up a lot of ways first thing in the mornings trying to come to work, but a lot of people I've talked to, they adjust their work schedule and they go through earlier than later. So, it's 10 10 15 minutes difference is and if you at 7:00 you can get through there, but 7:30 gets a little crazy school traffic and stuff and then it's backed up for a bit, but then 10 15 minutes it's cleared back up. So just got to remember to leave a little earlier or even leave a little later. So

good thing about this once we get done with that bridge and the road realignment project, we're also working on the stretch of road from there to Friendship, we should be done at least for a while doing any road closures on that. So couple more years when we have to rechip it. I mean yeah, I mean we'll we'll rechip it in about 10 or 15 10 or you know seven or so maybe. But, uh, well, you're going to have to put speed bumps on there, too, probably at some point. You're making a road speed bumps. That's a good start. Yeah, we neighbors out there got 2x4s and traffic is safe, do we?

No, I think that's going to be the worst thing is the road's going to be in nice shape and hopefully people still don't drive through there too fast. But that's not on us. But it's once we get done with that, that bridge is kind of the icing on the cake. That's been a long time coming and we're trying to fix everything we can while that road's closed, that section. So, be in good shape. That's got to be a project going there. And as we said before, I think that project, the bridge project by itself is costing us about $70,000, give or take, give or take.

$2.3 million project. So, and and that to add to Jay's comment about costs going up, you know, if we don't search for those things and apply for those types of grants through through the state, uh it's federal money that's out there. We just got to go for it. You know, we're we're having to do that to be able to keep up with the expectations. So, just have going to have to keep doing that. Okay, update on the 250th committee. GBH, in case you're wondering what they're doing, has started uh preparing the the lawn for the base for our statue that will be dedicated in June. And last Sunday, we dedicated a liberty tree out in Centertown. and we will be uh dedicating a Liberty Tree in Russellville on May 14th at 5:00 p.m. So, everyone's invited to come out for that. Need to have a picture of that statue up there. It's got that picture of you in the middle.

I thought you were going to do that at the state of the county. I was waiting for it. It was up there on the I thought it kind of looked like you the ears. The ears. That's what I was waiting. Okay. Do we do we have anything else? I would entertain a motion to stand in recess. So move stand in recess until 4:30 p.m. Second. All in favor? Bye-bye.