Village of Zalma must disincorporate, law says

ZALMA, Mo. — The end is near in Zalma.

While Zalma will continue to exist just north of Arab, Missouri, in Bollinger County, it won’t be a village anymore.

After years of dwindling interest and engagement in civic and commercial affairs, Zalma has announced it will disincorporate as a village.

According to Missouri law, any village — the legal term for an incorporated community of fewer than 500 residents — that fails to maintain a supervising board must disincorporate.

For the past two years, nobody has filed to run for office to serve on the Zalma Village Board of Trustees.

Before that, trustees typically were chosen by write-in votes, but even those have stopped.

Earlier this year, Zalma’s electoral activity was a two-sentence blurb in the Southeast Missourian: “As usual, the village of Zalma had five vacancies on its board, depending on write-in votes to fill them. There were no write-in votes.”

“Since nobody has filed in two years, the statutes say that after two years, that’s when it has to be disincorporated,” Bollinger County Clerk Brittany Hovis said.

The Bollinger County Commission has published two notices announcing the disincorporation of the village. Hovis said Zalma’s fate is sealed.

“It has to be done,” she said. “I hate that for them, but it all boils down to being just a little too late.”

The next step is to appoint a trustee to close the village books and bank account and settle outstanding bills. Once the books are closed and Zalma is no longer an incorporated village, its assets and expenses will become the county’s responsibility.

As for when the process is finalized, Hovis said it depends. The county is receiving legal counsel on how best to proceed; Hovis said this is the first time such a situation has occurred in Bollinger County.

“We’re just not sure at this point when the commission will be able to appoint a trustee,” she said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

“Just a matter of time” also is how Zalma resident Jerry Davault characterized the inevitable disincorporation.

“Well, it’s all right with me,” he said of the village’s imminent dissolution. “There’s not much here, and just about all the little towns around here have done this.”

Davault served on the board for six years, but his resignation in May was one of the first steps toward disincorporation.

“Nobody wants the job,” he said, including him. “They put me on the board. I never did run. Didn’t want the job in the first place, but they wrote me in anyways.”

Davault had been handling minor functions on his own, mostly paying bills and collecting village property taxes. It’s not much money, he said — only about $340 for pole lights’ electricity and $200 a month in the summer for mowing grass. But he’s 78 now, and his wife has Alzheimer’s disease.

“I just can’t take care of it anymore, and nobody else is interested,” he said.“The stores are all gone and everything. People are just not interested. Some don’t mow their grass. Over half of them won’t pay their taxes, and the village don’t have enough money to take them to court to collect it.”

Not everyone is eager to see the legal dissolution of the village.

“I guess I’m old-fashioned,” said Zalma resident Kenny Stroup, sitting with his son, Jake. “I like to see small towns like this make it.”

“This used to be a restaurant,” Jake said, gesturing behind them to what used to be Lemon’s Grocery Store. Now it’s Jake’s Tire and Auto shop.

“And that used to be a service station,” Kenny said, gesturing across the gravel road to a building that’s boarded up. “But that was back in the ’50s. It’s practically nothing now, but I still hate to see little towns go away.”

But residents who may be behind on taxes may not share the Stroups’ protestations.

“If they dissolve, that will just be the end of it,” Hovis said. “The county is not going to pursue back taxes.”

“We hate that this is happening,” she said. “But at this point, we don’t see any other options.”

Davault said though it’s the end of the village, it’s not the end of the world, so to speak.

“The sign says over a hundred, but there’s not over 50 people here in town, if there’s even that,” he said. “That’s all I can say. It’s just another little town that’s fell by the wayside.”

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627