Scott County may get FEMA relief for courthouse flood damage

BENTON, Mo. -- Scott County commissioners now have a better idea of how to proceed with repairing flood damage.

Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger said commissioners received answers during their regular meeting Tuesday from Theresa Weldon, public assistance crew leader for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to several questions they had about aid from FEMA's Public Assistance program. During the meeting, Weldon advised commissioners of a hazard mitigation program specifically for courthouses.

Burger said Weldon is working with the county to apply for the program.

Burger said water damage to the courthouse included damage to the north wall in the law library and in the prosecuting attorney's offices on the third floor and damage to the ceilings in the Division 4 courtroom and hallway on the second floor.

The plan, Burger said, is to remove carpet and replace it with ceramic tile in all affected areas on the third floor. Rebuilt bookshelves in the law library should all be on the south wall, according to Burger.

County officials will also need to look over law books from the library to see which ones need to be replaced or professionally cleaned.

Commissioners also advised Weldon the bridge on Route W between Oran and Perkins that was damaged by the flood will be closed until late August.

The closure is resulting in a huge increase in traffic on county roads 277 and 268, as these are the detour route. The additional traffic is breaking asphalt on ounty Road 277 and requiring the county to do more grading and use more gravel on County Road 268, commissioners said.

Weldon said the county can apply for reimbursement for resurfacing on County Road 277 and reimbursements for gravel and grading on County Road 268, but FEMA will not pave the gravel road because that would be improving the road, not restoring it to the condition it was in before the flood.

In other business Tuesday:

• Commissioners approved an arrangement by which the recorder's office will purchase digitized record images from SEMO Title in Sikeston after the firm has their records converted to digital form by Records Management Solutions of St. Louis.

Tom Dirnberger, county recorder, said he was seeking bids for the conversion of county records from microfilm to digital form and discovered SEMO Title was also working on digitizing records. "I think it would work better if we did it together," he said.

Under the arrangement, SEMO Title will sell the county those records for half the cost they pay to Records Management Solutions, according to Dirnberger. He said the county's records are in a variety of forms that would have cost about $75,000 to digitize.

As SEMO Title has the records in a format that is less costly to digitize, Dirnberger said the county's cost to get them from SEMO Title in digital form may be less than $26,000.

Money for the project will come from the recorder's records preservation fund, according to Dirnberger.

• Commissioners approved the purchase of five computers for the county assessor's office and one for the county clerk's office at a price of $449 each through a state bid.

Also approved was the purchase of a monitor for $175 through a state bid for the county assessor's office.

• Commissioners reviewed a letter from the Missouri Veterans Commission requesting the location, a brief description and history of all veterans memorials within the county.

"I'm going to be collecting that information," Commissioner Ron McCormick said.

• Burger said he was impressed with the Memorial Day service held Monday at the First Christian Church in Sikeston, Mo. He credited Blair Moran, Steve Taylor, Tom Austin "and people behind the scenes that aren't named" with doing a great job putting together the service.

"Every year I think it can't get any better, but it does," he said.

• Glenda Enderle, county treasurer, asked commissioners to consider leaving the flag buntings put up on the courthouse for Memorial Day in place through the summer months. Employees have commented on how nice they make the courthouse look.