VIENNA — The county’s road districts have several projects in various stages from planning to near completion and a BRO bridge replacement project still in the engineering phase.

Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre reported the slab repair work on MCR 211 at the crossing known as Deeken’s slab, is finished but the concrete put there last week is drying. Last Thursday Fagre said the slab site will reopen to traffic on Monday, Aug. 17.

The slab had broken all the way across the concrete and that portion of it, about 80 feet, had to be replaced. This was during a rainy July and high water over the slab from the Little Maries River, which can go from little to big pretty quickly when a lot of rainfalls. Four two-feet pipes were put under the slab. The entire slab extends to about 160 feet.

Stricklan Concrete and Flatwork’s crew and about three men from Road One worked on the project. They took out the old slab, removing the rebar from it as required by the county’s work permit at the site from the Corps of Engineers. The concrete they removed from the busted part of the slab was used for bank stabilization.

Jeff Stricklan oversaw the flatwork and they put down rebar and gravel and poured the slab. Fagre said the project took about 170 yards of concrete. It’s a good water crossing now. He complimented Stricklan’s work. The water crossing was closed to traffic for three weeks but is open now.

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel is planning a large culvert replacement project on MCR 315. The site has a five foot culvert, which is rusted and is caving in. It is too small and can’t carry the water, which goes over the road. The culvert carries water that drains from two large fields. He has not yet decided how he will deal with the project. He has information on both a railroad car or using a larger culvert pipe, one that is six feet tall, eight feet wide and 44 feet long.

He thinks concrete will be needed to make is a good, lasting repair. Big trucks use the road so it needs a good culvert. The concrete would be used at the end of the culvert and he questioned his fellow commissioners about using concrete blocks instead of forms and if it would hold, or possibly lay over when the concrete was poured. Fagre and Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman thought the concrete blocks would hold it.

On the BRO project on MCR 608, Fagre received a flood plain application on the project. Fagre said the project is still in the engineering stage, and over $50,000 has been spent thus far and they “haven’t turned any dirt.”

Stratman said he traveled to MCR 448 to look at what Lawrence Mertz was talking about but said the road looked good to him. He commented the roads he drove over on the east side were in “excellent shape” and so smooth people are probably driving too fast on them. Drewel said he likes to use the smaller white rock because it packs better.

Down and Up

There are several improvement projects going on in the courthouse. On Monday, Aug. 10 Stratman said they repairing the floor on the landing that depends down into the sheriff’s office. The top two treads and in bad condition and Stratman said while they are at it, they probably should replace them. One is broken and the other is held together with duck tape. They look dirty and all of them are worn, he said. The treads are rubber and they’ve heard prices from $50 to $60 each. Stratman wondered if they should replace all of them on that stairway down to the sheriff’s office on the east side of the building. Fagre said if they just replace two of them, it may look worse. Drewel said its a high traffic area and they don’t want anyone falling. They thought the floor treads were expensive. Tom Campbell can do the work whatever the scope they decide upon.

On Thursday, Aug. 13, Stratman said Freeburg Home Center has the rubber stair treads for $44 each. He asked if they should also do the stairway going down into the basement on the other side, between the extension office and sheriff’s office as the treads are worn there also. He looked at the stairways and said there are 15 steps going down and 18 going up for a total of all stairways of 76 treads. At $44 each the cost will be $3,344, $170 for a five gallon bucket of glue, double sided tape, and labor expense. “Do we want to spend that much money?” Stratman asked.

Drewel said if they have the money they should do it because it is an investment in the building and their responsibility to keep up the building.

Fagre said five years from now the cost will be double. He thinks the labor will be about as much as the cost of the treads.

Stratman said they’ve have to stagger the work so that at least half of the courthouse stairways were open for customers. He chose a dark gray color for the new treads.

Health Insurance

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said Darrell Decker contacted Maries County about its interest in being part of the bid 12 counties have come together as a health insurance consortium in an effort to bring down premiums. She asked if the commissioners want to be part of this. Fagre said last time it cost Maries County $5,000 and the county received nothing for its money as the health insurance premiums bid by providers was higher than what the county already was paying on its own. Fagre said, “We didn’t get anything out of it.” But, if Decker would let the county join for free, they’d like to go ahead and see what kind of prices they can get.

To General Revenue

Clerk’s Deputy Renee Kottwitz reported receiving from health insurance provider, Anthem, a Covid-19 relief credit of $2,756.48 and she asked the commissioners which fund it should go in. After some discussion about splitting it among several funds and possibly among employees who use the county’s health insurance benefit, it was decided to put the credit into general revenue (GR). Drewel said it’s not fair to give money to some employees and not others. Rodgers said the rebate they get from Anthem at the end of the year is given to employees.

CARES Money

The Maries-Osage Ambulance District (MOAD) has been requested $15,598 from he CARES Act money the county received to assist entities and businesses with Cvid-19-related expenses. The approval is pending.

MOAD’s request included the AeroClave room decontamination system, a portable applicator and sprayer, and one case of Vital oxide disinfectant solution.

The Maries R-1 School District also has a request pending. As of July 16 funds remaining in the county’s CARES Act account totaled $813,098.47. The money earned interest of $83.87 in May.

Tax levies

Maries County’s tax rate hearing will be held Aug. 20 at 10 a.m. in the county commission room to set the tax levies for 2020. The levies have changed slightly. The county’s assessed valuation increased from 143,468,938 in 2019 to 145,889,181 in 2020.

Rodgers reported the proposed general revenue tax rate is 0.3719, compared to 2019 when it was 0.3714.

The proposed 2020 tax levy for Road One is 0.2747, compared to 2019 when it was 0.2748.

The proposed 2020 tax levy for Road Two is 0.2422, compared to 2019 when it was the same at 0.2422.

Muddle Through

The custodian has not been at work for about a week and his efforts have been missed. Others have had to take up the task of cleaning floors and restrooms. Several people have been approached about doing some paid hours cleaning at the courthouse with no takers. It was reported on Thursday that the custodian should be back on the job on Aug. 17. Stratman said they can “muddle through until Monday.” He said they could put the word out asking county employees if they would like to work and be paid for extra hours as the county can use the CARES Act money to pay for it. If the custodian is not back on Monday, they’ll have to do something.