Grant will help put more deputies out on patrol in Scott County

BENTON, Mo. -- Sheriff's deputies in Scott County will spend more time on patrol, thanks to a state grant.

Capt. Kenneth Kinder of the Scott County Sheriff's Department advised county commissioners during their regular meeting Tuesday that the department was approved for a grant of $28,592.54 from the Missouri Department of Public Safety's 2014 Deputy Sheriff Salary Supplementation Fund.

"It's not for new hires," Kinder said. "It's to supplement the salaries of the ones already on the payroll as of the first of the year."

Kinder said the grant works out to about $100 per month for each deputy.

"It's not a raise," he said. "They actually have to put in additional hours to get the money, but it is an opportunity for them to bring in more income."

Kinder said the grant's funding comes from money collected for serving civil documents.

"For every civil paper served in the state of Missouri, $20 goes to the state of Missouri and is placed in a central repository," he said. "That money is held by the state to be reissued to the sheriff's offices to supplement deputy salaries."

The grant requires "no matching funds at all," Kinder said, and "allows us to put deputies into cars, on the street into communities that don't have full-time law enforcement."

He offered the examples of Vanduser, Mo., and Blodgett, Mo., that do not have municipal law enforcement, as well as towns such as Oran, Mo., and Morley, Mo., that have only a single full-time officer.

The additional pay opportunity for deputies will result in a more regular law enforcement presence in those communities beginning in July, Kinder said.

In other business during Tuesday's meeting:

• Jamie Burger, presiding commissioner, said Drury Co. roofers probably will have completely removed the old roof layers from the south wing of the courthouse by "the end of the week."

The reconstruction project has resulted in plenty of "noise and dust and aggravation with one of the courthouse entrances being closed," Burger said, "but so far, so good."

Associated Sheet Metal of Jackson was scheduled to come Wednesday to lower heating, ventilation and air conditioning units to the height of the new roof.

"When everything is dropped and set then the new roof can be put on," Burger said.

The "very minor" water damage was from an air conditioner's condensation line, he said.

• A June 11 letter from Burger to a list of state legislators and officials of the Missouri Department of Transportation, Union Pacific Railroad and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. is requesting plans to build a new overpass at Rockview, Mo., for Route M, include addressing drainage issues at the site.
• The county soon will put out the call for those interested in building a new county bridge.

"It's going out for bids," Burger said. "The notice will be in the paper this Sunday and every Sunday through July 7 with the bid opening at 2 p.m. July 16. It will also be posted on the MoDOT website."

The bridge, located on County Highway 468, will be replaced with Off-System Bridge Replacement Program funds, according to Burger.

The program, commonly referred to as BRO, provides funding from the Federal Highway Administration. In Missouri, the funding is allocated by MoDOT to counties based on the ratio of the replacement costs of the square footage of deficient bridge deck in the county to that of all counties of the state.

• Sales tax received by the county for the first six months of the year on a half cent sales tax is down about $12,260.57 from last year -- but higher than what was received for that time period in the four preceding years.

"That just must have been a good year for us," said Dennis Ziegenhorn, county commissioner.

Sales tax received in June on a half cent is down $1,177.15 from what was received in June 2012, Commissioner Donnie Kiefer noted, but also is higher than received in 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011.

Kiefer said sales tax revenue the county receives in June actually reflects what was collected by vendors from customers in May.