County Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. It is Tuesday, May 26th, 2026. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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.

Amen.

Comments or reports received and filed. We do not have any this weekend. Give me an extra day off. Okay, commissioner committee, liaison reports, upcoming meetings and events.

I'm not sure what I'm missing here, but my calendar is pretty empty until next week. So, yeah.

Nope. Okay, I have today a Mid-Mo Public Housing Association board meeting. I think we're going to do that by Zoom since it's in Columbia. Tomorrow, Mid-Mo Regional Planning Commission meeting, board meeting in Ashland. Thursday, do we have road and bridge? We have a road and bridge advisory meeting Thursday morning. Saturday, the Westside Business Association is doing a ribbon cutting over at the Ball Diamond in Washington Park for the Renegades game against Sedalia. Westside is doing a little bit of sponsorship this year on more support for the Renegades. That's what I have.

Okay. Tomorrow, we have a United Way golf tournament meeting, I believe. I think I get going on that. Saturday, I get to judge the little Mr. and Miss Independence for the Salute to America Day. And then, yes, the game opener for the Jeff City Renegades. And then Monday is a co-ed meeting. So that's all I've got. Tuesday.

that you said in the Sheriff's Barbecue. It is.

So we're serving 47. Yes. Bring one of my cars out.

There you go.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we have presentation from staff, but I don't see Elizabeth Anderson here, so we will have her at another time. Or if she comes later, we can fit her in. Do we have any commission comments?

You sent out an email to elected officials and directors about parking. Parking is one of the most important things we have to be concerned about, right? And you're the parking czar. Anything you want to say about that?

If anybody complains about it, I'll throw the file on their desk. No, we'll have some spots opened up at the Adams Street parking because we had about 26 spots. We were still renting from the city and paying more than what our spots were, renting us from the library. So it made no sense to do that. Might as well get some spots for our employees. So if you have somebody that's got a permanent parking and you'd like to be considered for Adams Street, I'll be taking bribes up until Friday. Well, just email me and we'll try to get everybody taken care of, hopefully. But we had, I think, 26 permits and 18 open spots. And I think one of those may have gone to maintenance anyway, so just let me know.

Okay. Bids and contracts, approval of a quote for the purchase of the radar speed signs.

So this is something we've been working on for a little bit. The company's called All Traffic Solutions and we'll be purchasing five of their interactive radar signs. They'll flash the speed and they'll flash like different colored lights if you're going a certain amount over the speed limit. And we've had issues with speeding. It seems like it's getting worse on our county roads. The city's facing the same issues. The city recently purchased, I say recently, within the past six months or so, bought about 10 of these and have them scattered about the city. I know there's the road I live on, I drive through it every day. And I believe they do work. And so, and I know I talked to the city and they've seen some success with them. So we would like to purchase five of these signs. They can be moved. Some we'll probably keep in an area for a while, but we might move them around a little bit. And they do collect traffic data too, so we can download that information. And this will come out of the safety improvements line item in the 807 sales tax budget. So the quote is from All Traffic Solutions for $20,999.82. And they are on the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing organizations. Any questions?

Eric, these actually have a red light and a blue light.

They can flash at you if you're going. And we can set it at a certain speed over. We can program it to do whatever we want to.

From a distance, watching the city ones, from a distance you think that's a police car up there because it's got, you know, which will really make you slow down.

Yeah, red and blue lights definitely get your attention. Right. How long did they last? That's a good question. They got a three-year warranty. I would assume they would last indefinitely. I don't know.

One of the frequent calls I get from constituents is they're going too fast in my neighborhood so I'm sure you get the same call and you know where you're gonna put these first five or

We got a pretty good idea of the first, you know, Henwick Lane is one area for sure that we've seen a lot of complaints.

Yeah, traffic and safety, we get a lot of complaints.

Good.

So we got the traffic. Trailers. I don't know what those cost. I'm sure they cost more than $6,000 apiece. You said this was about $30,000?

The trailer, John, do you remember what they cost?

I don't really remember. It slows traffic down and I think some people think they actually are taking pictures of your license plate. You don't tell them otherwise. Right. Unintended.

added benefit there so i'll make a motion to approve the vote for purchase of the radar speed side signs with all traffic solutions for the low price of twenty thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars and eighty two cents second any other discussion thank you all in favor aye aye aye

Okay, and I just saw Elizabeth Anderson come in, so we will go back to our regular agenda, presentation from invited guests, MU Extension program update by Elizabeth Anderson.

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. We're in that really fun week where summer school has not yet started, but my kids are out of school, and so handoff to dad took a couple minutes longer than expected this morning, so sorry for my delay. I just have another packet of our impact reports for you all. The most recent information on the things that our faculty and staff that serve Colt County are doing. Everybody's busy. It's a busy time of year, especially summer camp for our 4-H'ers starts next week, I believe, or at least they open camp next week. And then by the end of July, they've got the fair. And so they've got a lot going on. Kathy Deacon is the person whose report is right there at the top. She is our Field News Specialist in Nutrition and Health. She has taken on responsibilities in an additional county in Pulaski and she doing an incredible amount you can see there I always tease her that her font is smaller than anybody else's impact report because she has to cram so much on there to show all the things that she's doing but she's doing a lot of really great things and Kathy is also I think personally really remarkable because she is really embodying the the extension mission insofar as being responsive and about her programming to the conditions that she sees in communities. And so, for example, Tai Chi for balance and for better strength and independent living is a program that we've had for a long time. And she had a lot of success with that in her counties, but then she went so far as to start piloting a 2.0 version of that class and went back for further training and is offering that now. And now she's also combining that with some other diabetes-based programming, including some where they do a cooking class and do some recipes. to help address diabetes and these are all pilot programs that she's been doing in her different counties because she sees the need and so she adapts instead of just saying well this is the thing that I know how to do, this is what I've been trained for and that's as far as we can go. She keeps pushing that envelope and trying to do more. I think that that's really admirable that Kathy's doing. Then we have a report from Dawn Seedian. She's our nutrition program associate. She additionally has picked up some more areas. And so she's got a lot going on, not just in coal, but also Callaway, Osage and Montauk. But you can see she's doing a lot with, excuse me, The Catholic Charities, with the library, with West Elementary, Boys and Girls Club. She does a lot. She really gets out in the community and does a lot of great things and is always looking for new ways to be an example of how to do really great outreach. The next report is from Druba, who is our horticulturalist. He has been quite busy working with folks with different programs about container gardening, raised bed gardening, tomatoes, garlic, all different kinds of things that folks want to know. He also gets a lot of really interesting walk-in customers with plants they've pulled out of their fields that he wants to try and identify, or they want to try and identify, or issues with their trees. and things like that. And both he and Rudra, who's a little bit later in the packet, are agronomists, are both really busy with soil test interpretation. And I'll talk a little bit more about that with the presentation that Rudra gave to the Cole County Extension Council at their last meeting. It was very interesting and illuminating. Then there's a report from Chrissy Brandel, who's our livestock specialist. She's been doing all kinds of great stuff with different cattlemen, with heifer sales, pearls of production, and a variety of different programs. She also helps a lot with the fairs, with helping the kids be prepared for how to be good. handlers of their animals, how to recognize different diseases and things like that, and how to provide good health and showmanship of their animals. So she does a really great job with them as well. So then that next report is from Rudra Baral. He's based in Miller County, but he serves Cole. And he's our agronomist, which is all about soil health. And at our last Extension Council meeting, he came and talked about the results of a lot of those soil tests. We had an incredible uptick in them. Our soil lab on campus, throughout the course of the year, they normally process about 20,000 soil tests. And by the end of March, they had already hit 10,000. And so a lot of people are sending in soil from all around the state. They're very interested. And Rudra mentioned that he has his producers test a lot of their soil that he works with because they're trying to determine, you know, do I need to fertilize this year or can I hold off a year because the cost of inputs has raised so much in the last year. And so they're trying to be thrifty. But he also... looked into a lot of not just the soil health itself, but what it's producing. And he's bringing in a lot of programming that has to do with the quality of the hay, the nutritive quality, and that if your soil isn't healthy enough, the hay that you're feeding your animals isn't going to be healthy enough. And so it was really interesting, and I know he's doing a lot of great work in the county. Then you'll also see a new face in your packet, Bethany Kringer. Currently is hovering whole county for 4 H, Sean everly had been our 4 H specialist, but he moved to Oregon a couple of months ago. And so we are going to be refilling that position. It has not hit the website yet, but as soon as it does, we will be broadcasting that out everywhere to let folks know that we'll be hiring a new 4-H specialist that'll cover Cole, Callaway, and Osage again. We have our YPAs, which are the individuals in each county that are responsible just for that county's 4-H program. But our foreign specialist oversees those three and helps do some more big picture type things with those triads. And so Bethany is currently based in Miller, but she's helping to cover Cole right now. And so just wanted to get you all familiar with her. And then there's just my report with some of the things that we're doing with councils and then some of the items that I'm working on statewide. I'm helping with rewriting some of the curriculum, and we've also got a new cohort called Forward, which is future opportunities for rural workforce and rural development. We had a training trainer with Purdue come down, and we've got a cohort where there's two folks in each region in that, and we'll be rolling that out over the next six months. It's a lot of different things and then I always try and put some data in there from our Missouri economy indicators which are published from our AC program. This one is about some in and out migration and population density in the state. That's just kind of a snapshot of some of the different programming that's happening in Cole County right now. But we always welcome feedback or questions or concerns if there's ever, like I said about Kathy, you know, she recognized there was a need and so she, you know, pivoted and used some resources to bring in some different programming and adapt some different programming. And it's kind of the same for everybody in Extension. If there's a need that anybody's aware of or something that you feel could be addressed with Extension resources, I would always love to hear about it because we want to be responsive and relevant to the people in the county.

You're also helping the Cole County 250th Committee. You're going to have a float in the 4th of July parade for Salute to America.

Yes, we will for sure have a 4-H float. And then I'm also asking the council if they would like to put together a float for our Century Farms. And then we'll have a booth on that Avenues of History out there. And with the history of 4-H in the county, we'll have a cool banner with some pictures of different decades of things that... youth were doing as they grew up in the county um and then also our century forms rest jeff up destroy washington sure yeah

So on the soil test, you mentioned those. How much are those?

So the base cost for one soil test is $20. But if you get more, a little bit comes off of that in volume, I think, by the time. I know that I personally tested my soil this spring, and I think I did like six or seven. And by the time you get to that volume, it's like maybe 16 apiece. The test from the lab itself is $15, and then we have a little bit extra for the shipping.

So you all set them up too in Missouri, right? That's where they do the testing and the results and that can be for your house plants, garden. Yep, we have different forms for different things.

Everything. And it gives you a lot of really detailed information about the different nutrients and what you can increase or decrease for better yields, all of that.

I messed up about nutrition and health, but I didn't have any questions about that. You're out. You're out. You got it perfectly. No. I'm doing way too much, and they like fruits and vegetables.

Do you have any other questions or feedback or anything for me?

No. Thank you. OK. Thank you all. Thank you, Elizabeth. OK. We'll go back to our agenda. Approval of amendment to the professional services agreement for the shop expansion.

So the project is out for bid right now and we have our... Prebid meeting and walk through tomorrow, but I've mentioned this previously. We did part of the project as we were developing plans for it. We did realize that we would have some space available above the oil room and the washroom, mechanical room for the wash bay and added an office and a meeting room area. and so with that extra work it did require some additional engineering architectural design work and that amount additional scope added to the project was two two thousand eight hundred seventy five dollars so original contract was one hundred and six thousand eight ninety and this will increase that to one hundred and nine thousand seven hundred sixty five dollars i would request approval of this amendment to the professional services agreement

I'll make a motion to approve the amendment to the professional service agreement for the shop expansion at a cost of $2,875. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. A bid award for 2026-14, Vehicle Equipment Install and Repair Services.

Our recommendation is to award this bid to Wireless USA, and we do have a contract for this.

Do you all have a bid to ask?

Yeah, just for curiosity purposes.

i don't know the guy's last name is halsher right he's not closely related he's probably okay good okay i'll make a motion to award the 2026-14 vehicle equipment install repair services to Wireless USA and sign the contract.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. New business, accounts payable review.

Ask for approval of accounts payable pending review.

Motion to approve accounts payable pending review.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, first reading of budget adjustment number four.

This is the first reading of budget adjustment number four. It's for the road and bridge budget in the amount of $446,592.86. There's no action needed today. We'll bring it up in ten days.

approval of revisions to rules for excavation in Cole County right away and approval of the updated peace schedule.

So two weeks ago I presented the draft of this document and so we've had the rules for excavation of Cole County right away. The last revision of that or maybe the original document was done in 1995 and have been operating under that and knew that we needed some changes. What really prompted the changes was the influx of the broadband cable installation throughout the county. And it's become something that has been very challenging to manage from just dealing with the issues and complaints within the right-of-way, but then the staff time that it's taken out of other normal tasks that are, in my mind, maybe a little more important as far as projects and inspecting those. So we've been run pretty thin with our staff. Realize that we needed to start charging the fee. We've actually had fees in the original document, but we had not been charging fees as long as I've been in the county. So 20 plus years, I don't know when we stopped prior to my being here. So we went through and utilized some of what the city did when they updated their policies. Some of the pulled out some of the things that would be applicable to us and beneficial to us to get some of this under control. And so I listed those and kind of went through those last two weeks ago. And really all we did with this updated and final draft is just kind of clean it up and any other comments that that we've been working on since then we've updated. And 1 thing, I know Jeff, you've mentioned general right of work within the right of way in the residential area by the homeowner. And we did add a section in there to address that for when a permit would not be required and that's on page. So things like installation of seating inside a mailbox installation, there is a mailbox policy and they would have to follow that, but there would not be a permit required for that minor landscaping, such as small plannings, mulch and edging. and then any grading of the right-of-way that would be part of another permit such as a residential or commercial building permit or a driveway permit if they've already gotten that they don't have to get an additional one with this the majority overwhelming overwhelming majority of the permits for this that would fall under this would be utility work there will be a few one-offs of somebody doing some work at their residence or You know, maybe a private sewer lateral or something like that that has to be replaced where they have to get into the right of way. Some of that would occur with most of this will be for utility work. So we do have the document, the updated document, and then I did pull out basically it's within this document, but just summarize the fee schedule as another page. But I believe that if we approve i know it listed as two items to approve but really we just approved the one document it's it contains the fee schedule in it so do you have any questions so did you mark it up which changes you made from the last time that you sent the previous draft i did not i basically just combined or just basically anything that was highlighted in yellow that was a change from the 1995 document i

cleaned all that up and then took the highlights off so i don't have that i could put that back on there if we wanted to see that because i know i'd like to run it by the hba for one but then look at it i mean you've mentioned that the last time you were presenting that this affects everyone that's doing work on right-of-ways whether it's a mailbox or putting a statue of Sam Bushman up there. So I think the stuff with the complex things like the fire optic and stuff like that's definitely worth having in there and stuff. I just want to watch It also takes down with them. I know you're trying to make it like the cities, but it's not always a good thing.

Well, it's not really like the cities. We kept the original document and just imported a few things that we wanted to be consistent in dealing with utility companies throughout the county, not just within our unincorporated parts. But we really... We took some of what they did and when they updated theirs and incorporated into our document. We didn't completely scrap our document and make a new one copying what they did. One thing as an individual homeowner, so there is a permit fee if there's excavation at a residence or whether it's commercial or a commercial property or a residential property, it's $60. and that's generally for one lot and what you would normally see with that if somebody has to do some water line work or replace their water service or electrical service or I think most of it you'll probably see is somebody replacing their sewer lateral and in that case they get in and have to dig up the yard maybe the street we've seen some where they have to Dig into the street, have a street cut, and that is something that we need to know about, and there needs to be an associated fee with that if it does do damage to our street.

So are they able to appeal if they disagree that they should have to pay this?

Is it for a residential or a utility?

Yeah.

I guess they can. They could come to the county commission, but the fee here is relatively minor. A driveway permit, for example, which that's already in place, is $50 for a street cut or curb cut for a driveway.

I didn't get to see what changes you had in there since the last time. I think you sent it yesterday. I saw it come through, but I didn't really get to look at it, so we'll see all of that. How much revenue are you anticipating getting out of this? I didn't do those figures.

We're not, because a lot of the utility work, for example, the broadband, I know one of the companies is almost done in the county. We'll have another one or two coming in.

Because you mentioned hiring somebody, possibly, you know, even part-time to do that. And the fees just didn't seem like there was going to be that much there. It's like somebody's just going to have to step up and take care of it or keep taking care of it. So what's going to make them come and get their permits now as opposed to what they didn't before?

Well, they've always... I shouldn't say that. Some utilities don't get the permit and we have to go tell them they have to or it will shut them down. They do get permits. They submit. Most companies do it and it's working okay. This would just add more ability for us to manage it and deal with the issues you get. I know the commissioners, you all get phone calls with people upset that their yards are torn up or The utility did some work and left it a mess and didn't come back for three, four weeks or a couple months. This does give us a little ability. And so when they're being charged a fee per week, the longer they have that permit open, the more it's going to cost them. So there is an incentive for them to get the work done and move on. Right now, I know the number two weeks ago was about 40 permits we've gotten since the first of the year and I saw another one come in last week and I think there was two weeks prior there was a few that had come in that hadn't been issued yet so. These are mainly utilities? Yes, most of the time. occasionally just something i can recall in recent years we've had somebody that wanted to you see this a lot especially more in maybe a little more of a rural area where they want to fill their ditch in and put a pipe in because they know they can't mow it and take care of it you know they're trying to do some good and we generally you know grant them that permit and work with them but there are things if you're filling in the ditch that does impact drainage that does impact the street And so we have to make sure it gets done correctly and there is a cost to us to manage that. Now it's rolled into just our normal daily work, but things like that do take away from other things that we are working on at the time.

The most common complaint I hear is, you know, the inconvenience when they cable companies or whatever we want to call those internet companies come through is the inconvenience, but then the definition of that subcontractor who, their definition of returning it to its original state is not good enough. The topsoil becomes clay and rocks and the bluegrass becomes

ragweed or something like that so i don't know what you know what you can do to follow up on some of that but you've got something in there about the top soil yes top soil and that is i'd have to do one more but it's the top the top six inches has to be clean top circle okay of any disturbed area that is in here that was added from the previous Now, in some cases, I know our friends at City Hall, they require sod if the resident had sod prior. So you get into all kinds of issues with that, whether it's watered properly, you know, that brings in a lot of other issues. And I didn't feel we wanted to go that route now, but that is, you know, a step that you could take.

I have no problem with that. I'm in the city, so I should have known that I didn't have to go to Lowe's to get the sod. I could have called my councilman. That is a new provision. Oh, it is? Yes. Okay.

But just in general, we've been fighting this for a little while since all the broadband, you know, there's a lot of that work going on. And it had been manageable just because it was maybe just one company at the time and they were not, they didn't have, you know, four or five different locations. They were working at once. It was usually just one area. But the influx of money towards that, I think there's a lot of grant money out there for broadband. There's a big push for that to especially get to the rural areas. And so we've just seen a huge increase in that and it's been challenging for us to maintain.

I don't get calls on when are they going to come to their home because their services. not the best. So I've had more people who want Google or Socket or whoever it is to come to them.

There's things in here for addressing a pull box or access hold box or whatever you want to call them. We call them pull box. We can't locate those in a ditch. We've seen contractors do that. We've seen like on older roads, especially some of the more traveled roads where the edges are broken off a little bit anyway. We've seen issues with, as this work's being done and they've got their equipment along the edge, they tear up the edge of the road even more. Seen issues where they're pushing a conduit underneath the road and it heaves up and creates a bump. We've had problems with that. And we just need to get this addressed to where we can resolve it in the best way possible. if there is a if there is a street repair needed there is a fee for that and there is a requirement that it be fixed back a certain way and if you begin work without a permit the fee is doubled we see that quite a bit too they just start working and no notification no nothing and all of a sudden we get phone calls from people hey what are they doing nobody contacted me and You know, it's something that, you know, we are trying to address, but if we don't know, then we get the phone calls, not so much utility. So we're having to address it.

I'm okay with what you're proposing. I'll defer to the Eastern.

I don't see anything major in there, but I know if somebody comes up with something that we can address it if we have a certain section or something and that... I don't necessarily see anything that's worth holding the whole thing up. So I don't know. The one thing, if they did want to have it appeal to us, if there's something in there, then... Because it kind of sounds like you have the ultimate decision power on that. So if they don't agree with you, then can they come scream at us? I really don't want to have anything to do with it either. We'll leave it in your lap and...

I highly doubt we'll have any issues with utility companies. And Jeff, I know you mentioned talking to the HBA about it. I think that's a good thing. And I think you did have some conversations. I don't really anticipate this affecting a new home build. It really won't at all. Individual homeowners, to some degree, it could.

But you also got stuff in there basically dealing with kind of residential stuff that's already there too, so.

Yeah, that was already in the document, yeah.

Some of it, so. Yeah. Okay. I'm fine, let's go ahead and roll with it. So, you guys are good, as all the questions are. And like I said, if there's something that is a sticking issue with the address, I mean it's,

And generally, you don't want to go 30 years before you update a document. We look at it every year. So, you know, if there are things that come up. If it's not broke, you don't have to fix it. Understood. I agree with you there, Jeff. But 30 years is a little bit much.

I like it having some teeth, though, because then we can make these guys get stuff done. They can come in and fix stuff and not park on the roadways and different things like that. So I think this actually gives it some teeth, whereas before it didn't.

I'll make a motion to approve the revisions to rules for excavation in Cole County right away and approve the updated fee schedule. Second. Okay. I think we've had discussions

Already, so all in favor?

Aye. Aye. Okay, thank you very much on that. I didn't want it to be too easy on you. Nothing's easy. Okay, but we're going to breeze through that. So I did get a senior tax freeze update because I think LV's out and they may have another employee or two out. Basically, they're still helping on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 through 2 p.m., and you can go online and do it. On average, they've been assisting between 15 and 20 residents each Wednesday and Thursday, and they'll continue to assist the seniors with the new applications and renewal applications at the windows and the collector's office and all other times during regular business hours. So I think that's about it.

And that is open until June 30th. Correct. Let people know they've still got time. Okay. Anything else?

I'd like a motion to stand adjourned until 4.30. I'm sorry, stand in recess until 4.30 p.m. Second.