“Unsolved Mysteries” is coming to Dent County the week of Aug. 12 to film interviews and re-enactments on the Lena Chapin case, Sheriff Bob Wells told county commissioners Monday. Chapin vanished from the area without a trace in 2006.
The TV show, being rebooted this year by Netflix, is requesting the use of the upstairs courthouse conference room and the courtroom for about a week, he said. Commissioners had no objections, but asked Wells to check with the University Extension Service on scheduling.
The show has submitted a location agreement and also sent someone to scout locations a few weeks ago, Wells said.
The 12-part reboot of “Unsolved Mysteries” will use reenactments in a documentary format to profile real-life mysteries and unsolved crimes, lost love, cases involving missing persons and unexplained paranormal events. Each episode will focus on one mystery.
In other business, Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles said millions of dollars owed to Missouri counties for boarding state prisoners will likely be a legislative priority for the County Commissioners Association of Missouri next session. Skiles attended a CCAM board meeting late last week.
The state owes $32.8 million to Missouri counties, including $221,444 to Dent County. Last year, the rate was $22.58 per day for the number of days state prisoners are in county jails awaiting trial and before being transferred to the Department of Corrections after they are convicted.
That and other priorities will be presented to the CCAM membership at the fall meeting. “One of the big ones is encouraging the state to get counties reimbursed,” Skiles said, subject to appropriation by the legislature.
At Friday’s session, the CCAM board discussed the feral hog issue. After a presentation by the Conservation Department, commissioners shared their concerns “about putting a ban in place when they don’t have the resources and manpower to address the problem when hogs show up and landowners are left in a bind on what to do,” Skiles said.
He said the U.S. Forest Service and representatives of Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley and Rep. Jason Smith were also on hand.
“And the message they got was they’re going to have to make sure the Forest Service and all these agencies have all the resources they need if they’re going to be serious about this attempt to eradicate feral hogs,” Skiles said.
Under commission reports, First District Commissioner Dennis Purcell said road crews would use Monday’s rainy weather to catch up on shop maintenance, including servicing brush cutter No. 8, dually truck No. 121 and performing a windshield repair on truck No. 125. A crew is also stockpiling chips for upcoming chip and seal work.
Crew would also be responding to calls about road washouts, trees and limbs down and clogged pipes if it rained enough to cause problems, he said.
Second District Commissioner Gary Larson said crews were cutting brush on 2070 and repairing a washout on county road 2270. Rock is also being stockpiled and service performed on truck No.75. A man was also sent to Springfield to purchase oil for chip and seal work.
At Thursday’s meeting, Treasurer Denita Williams reported the county received $60,278 in County Aid Road Trust funds for July. CART funds are down 1.37 percent year to date from 2018.
In the First District, Purcell reported that crews would be out grading county roads 5080, 5090 and 5015, brush cutting on 4210, hauling material to 5090 and repairing chip and seal on 4110 and 6300.
In the Second District, Larson said a crew would be out grading on county roads 4380, 2380 and 5260, cutting brush on 3233 and 2070, hauling material to 2340 and hauling brown rock for screening.
