The Dent County Commission held a regular meeting May 25. After the meeting was called to order at 9 a.m., the commissioners reviewed the agenda and previous minutes. District One Commissioner Wes Mobray suggested an addition to the minutes, adding the name of Boyd’s Seal Coatings, the company where the commission purchases chip and seal oil. The minutes were then approved with the addition.
In road reports, for District One, Mobray reported that clay and rock were being hauled to County Road 6485 to fix a bad spot in the road.
“There was like a little sinkhole coming up, but it had tires; the top of the tires is what you could see in it, and brush. I don’t know if when they built the road, they’d burn it back there or something, I don’t know. But we’re fixing that today,” said Mobray.
Mobray also reported that crews were working on vehicle and equipment maintenance, as well as patching chip and seal. County Road 6280 will be graded, he said. As he concluded his report, Mobray said that a pre-construction meeting for FLAP project 56 (County Road 6670) will be held at the commission offices at 9 a.m. on May 30.
“Hopefully they’ll get started on that pretty soon and get that project done,” said Mobray.
For District Two, Presiding Commissioner Gary Larson reported that brush was being cut on County Road 2060, material was being hauled to County Road 2210, and a grader would be coming into the shop from Sligo for repairs. He also reported that crews would be installing two driveway culverts on County Road 2210.
He also said he would be turning in an invoice to the Department of Conservation. He said the county takes care of some roads for the Department of Conservation, and the invoice is for $20,273.96 worth of white rock that was installed along the roadway.
During his presiding commissioner’s report, Larson commented on the ongoing courthouse renovations.
“I would just like to comment that the work on the restoration of the courthouse is going, I think pretty much on time, on schedule, as they told us it would. It looks like they’re making a lot of progress on it,” he said.
He said that there would be no meeting May 29, due to Memorial Day. He said he had some meetings with entities like MRPC coming up, and he would be reporting on them at the next meeting.
Larson also said that he believes the governor will appoint a new District Two commissioner sometime during the week of June 5. He reiterated that the commission has no say in the governor’s final decision.
Dent County Collector Shannon VanKirk delivered a sheet outlining tax sale deadlines. According to VanKirk, delinquent real estate taxes from 2020 will need to be paid in full by June 30 during regular business hours from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the collector’s office. If not paid by the deadline, then on July 1, taxes from 2020, 2021, and 2022 will be declared due by Friday, August 25. If the amount is not paid in full by that deadline, the parcel will be sold at the Delinquent Tax Sale that will be held on Monday, August 28. Vankirk said that check payments are no longer accepted, and taxpayers will need to use cash, cashier’s check, or money order.
Vankirk encourages anyone with questions about the how the system works or if this applies to them to contact the Dent County Collector’s Office at (573) 729-3911, or stop by the courthouse.
Starting July 1, there will be an additional $25 per parcel added to the tax bill to pay for advertising costs.
“Remember, only the taxes for 2020 need to be paid in full by Thursday, June 30 to give you another whole year to pay the other outstanding years,” said VanKirk.
