VIENNA — T.C. James with Show-Me Land Surveying came to the March 7 Maries County Commission meeting to share the survey he finished on Maries Road 306 as part of the court order regarding Fish Hollow.

In January, Judge John Beger ruled that Maries Road 306, its hammerhead turnaround and the boat ramp into the Gasconade River are public land while the parking lot at Fish Hollow is private land. The finalization of the order was dependent on the county paying for a survey of the road, which was done in February.

Photos from the commission’s trip to Fish Hollow with James appeared in the Feb. 28 edition of the Maries County Advocate. James said during the March 7 meeting that someone had contacted him following the publication of the photos to share a deed from the state archives. The deed is for 30 feet of road right of way from Ed Picker to Maries County at the spot that is now Maries Road 306. The date is 1936.

None of the commissioners remembered ever hearing about the deed.

“How many people ever did something like that?” Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said about donating land for the county road. “We have 450-something miles of county road. How many people have ever done that and said ‘Here’s this land?’”

The commission thanked James for completing the survey and bringing in the deed. They said they would pass both documents along to Prosecuting Attorney Tony Skouby so he could turn them in to the court.

Solar Bills

The commissioners attended the annual county commissioner training at the Lake of the Ozarks earlier this month. During the March 4 meeting, Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman shared information with the associate commissioners about two solar energy bills in the state legislature.

House Bill 1836, introduced by Republican Aaron McMullen of Independence, would modify the assessment of properties used for solar energy. If passed and signed, the bill would take effect next January and deems the value of “all real property, excluding land, or tangible personal property associated with a project that uses solar energy directly to generate electricity and that was built or was contracted to sell power, on or before December 31, 2024,” as de minimis. It would also limit the tax liability of such properties to 1,000 per megawatt. The last action on the bill was the completion of a public hearing on Feb. 28.

House Bill 2651, introduced by Republican Kent Haden of Mexico, would modify and create new provisions related to electric utilities. The eight-page bill has many facets. If passed and signed into law, it would, among other things, set the assessed value rate of “all real property, excluding land, or tangible personal property associated with a project that uses solar energy directly to generate electricity,” at 37.5 percent of the original cost. Original costs reflect either the original documented cost to the taxpayer or the estimated cost of the property by the county assessor. The last action on the bill was the completion of a public hearing on Feb. 28. The full text of the bill is available online at house.mo.gov/LegislationSP.aspx.

Stratman said he favored HB 2651 and opposed HB 1836.

It Management

Following a brief adjournment in closed session citing existing or proposed security systems as the reason, the commission reopened the March 4 meeting with news that county IT Manager Shane Sweno had resigned.

Stratman said the security system referenced is the new camera system set up around the courthouse. The new cameras came from federal security grants the county received. When Sweno came in for the meeting, he said he planned to discuss some of the places the courthouse was compromised, which warranted closing the meeting.

“We’ll be looking to hire somebody,” Fagre said when the meeting reopened. The county has run newspaper advertisements for the position for the last two weeks, but as of March 11, no progress ha occurred in finding a replacement.

Hazardous Waste Registry

The commission received a letter from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) about the places in the county that the agency lists as part of its Abandoned, Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Registry.

According to the interactive map included on the MoDNR website, the registry includes three active sites in Maries County. One site is in Vichy at the former U.S. Army airfield. Another is just outside Vienna at the Feeler Lumber Co. site, which is also a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund Site. The other is the Vienna Wells project where the old hat factory used to stand. The EPA demolished the factory last year as part of a Superfund cleanup.