Three months after the voter approved jail expansion, Stoddard County Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis said he is ready to put the project "on the fast track and start moving forward" during a recent meeting.
After hearing from two companies last week, Gilmore & Bell and Stifel of St. Louis, Mo. regarding legal and financing services, Mathis asked fellow commissioners Steve Jordan and Carol Jarrell what direction they would like to see the project head.
As far as financing, Jordan favored the lease option.
"I still think the lease deal is the only way to do it without having to do a bond," he said.
When seeking legal advice, Jordan preferred to hear what county lawyer Ivan Schrader's fees would be for assisting on the project. Schrader also provided legal services for St. Francios County during their jail expansion project.
"We have Gilmore & Bell's figures so I think we need to ask (Schrader) and see what he's going to charge us and make a decision on who we are going to use," he said.
Through a phone call during the meeting, Schrader told commissioners he would be able to draft lease and construction paperwork for an hourly fee of $264-$274 per hour.
Jordan asked Schrader if he had an estimate of hours for a project like the jail expansion, such as the time spent assisting St. Francois County.
While Schrader said he did not, he added the bank involved with the project did a majority of the drafting work, while he reviewed the paperwork.
Once hearing the county was in discussion with Gilmore & Bell, Schrader spoke very highly of the company and recommended their services to the county.
"I would be interested in pursuing the project, but I will tell you Gilmore & Bell's skills are well beyond ours," he said. "I hate to loose the work, but Gilmore & Bell is better prepared because that's all they do."
To gage interest from local and larger banks in the state, Mathis asked Jordan and Jarrell how they would like to go about the process.
"Obviously we would like to keep it local, but as a rule of thumb we need to send it out to make sure we are getting the best deal," Mathis said.
In addition to running the bid request in the newspaper, Jarrell suggested sending a letter to all banks to ensure more are reached.
Mathis put her in charge of drafting the letter and getting a list of banks together to receive the proposal.
Presiding Commissioner elect Danny Talkington, who has been a part of the jail financing discussion, also expressed his approval of reaching all banks to ensure the best price for the county.
"If we can get competitive financing through local banks, that would be much better and let the local economy be involved, but not to the point of being detrimental to the county financing," Talkington said.
The next step after selecting a financing option will be to hire an architect and approve plans to move forward with a bid.
JAIL INMATE FLU SHOTS
County jail inmates will be receiving flu shots from the health department this week.
"Certainly anything you can do to prevent some kind of epidemic from coming through the jail," Sheriff Carl Hefner said when asked if it was something he would be interested in receiving.
Mathis added if one inmate were to get the flu, it would run through the entire population.
"We have been very blessed and not ran upon that in the years past, but it could very easily happen," Hefner said.
At this time, Hefner said the state is sending nurses to the jail weekly administrating Hepatitis A vaccines to inmates as well.
HAZARD MITIGATION MEETING
Bootheel Regional Planning Regional Planner Marcus Norden hosted the second of three hazard mitigation meetings Monday morning.
Several town and school district representatives were in attendance to assist in updating plans, which expired in 2017.
Norden explained the reason the plans have expired was Bootheel Regional Planning did not receive the funding they were suppose to in Dec. 2016 to get started with updating the plans. The funding came in Dec. 2017, putting the group a year behind in their work.
"We need to get this done by the end of the year," Norden said. "A school district is eligible to file a grant for a safe room, but to do that the plans have to be in place and updated to apply."
If representatives are able to get their goals updated and sent to Norden in a timely manner, he said it would be "very helpful" in completing the plans by December.
"If you opt out, you are not eligible for grants if there is FEMA or SEMA declarations," he said. "They will still help, but you will not be a very high priority."
If representatives need assistance with the updating process, Norden said he can be reached at 573-614-5178.
COUNTY HOLIDAY SCHEDULE
Commissioners approved the county being closed Monday, Dec. 24 and Tuesday, Dec. 25 and reopening Wednesday, Dec. 26 with the commission meeting being held at 9 a.m.