OSAGE COUNTY — Commissioners accepted an early renewal of the county’s employee health insurance with a 13% rate increase during an Oct. 7 emergency meeting, after the insurance carrier reduced its initial renewal quote of 19.9%.

Interim County Clerk Brooke Dudenhoeffer said she contacted the county’s Higginbotham insurance representative after the Oct. 6 regular commission meeting to ask about renewal rates. She had been waiting for information from other carriers and learned that Anthem’s renewal quote had arrived that day.

Dudenhoeffer asked whether renewing early would bring a lower increase. Anthem offered 13%, provided the county stopped shopping for coverage with other carriers.

Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Peters noted that the initial 19.9% quote was already below the 25% to 35% increases other companies had been projecting. Western District Commissioner Dale Logan said the lower offer was better than he had expected, particularly given the county’s high claims.

Dudenhoeffer said she did not know how long the reduced offer would remain available and did not want employees to lose the opportunity for a smaller increase while the county waited for additional quotes.

The county contributes $480 per month toward an employee’s coverage. Dudenhoeffer reviewed a rate sheet showing an employee-only monthly premium of $587.17. After the county contribution, the employee’s share would be $107.17 per month.

Dudenhoeffer said she personally had experienced no coverage problems when using MU and Capital Region services. She also hoped working with the insurance representative would give employees a clearer way to address questions about denied services or other coverage issues.

Logan moved to accept the early renewal with the 13% increase, and commissioners approved it. The discussion concerned health insurance; Dudenhoeffer said the representative had not mentioned changes to the county’s separate dental and vision coverage.

• At the Oct. 6 regular meeting, Dudenhoeffer also reported that the county’s Missouri Public Entity Risk Management Fund (MOPERM) insurance quote was $265,193, a 4.8% increase over the previous year. The bills will arrive in December, but she had told the underwriter the county would not be able to pay until the middle of January because of its budget schedule. She said the underwriter was willing to accommodate that timing if kept informed.

• Presiding Commissioner Darryl Griffin asked whether the Road & Bridge Department’s vehicles and equipment had been updated on the insurance schedule. Dudenhoeffer said that information had been updated.

• Commissioners also approved requiring each department to cover an increase in the cost of its government email accounts from its own budget.

Dudenhoeffer said Remote Computer Services’ vendor prices had increased in September. The commission’s four accounts would cost an additional $74.50 for the remainder of 2026, while the clerk’s office increase was $56.

Griffin initially suggested paying the increase from use tax, which had funded the original setup. After Treasurer Valerie Prater joined the discussion, commissioners considered whether departments should absorb the additional costs individually. Prater said departments had already budgeted for their email service this year and that any decision to use another fund should apply consistently.

Commissioners ultimately voted unanimously to have each department pay its own increase.

• Peters also brought forward a truck advertised for $12,000, with an estimated additional $20,000 needed for a flatbed, snowplow, and salt spreader. He said the truck would serve everyday Road & Bridge needs when the salt spreader was removed, as well as provide winter snow removal capacity.

Prater questioned whether the purchase could wait until next year and whether proceeds from equipment sales could help cover it. She said the department had sold more than $80,000 worth of equipment, with proceeds returned to the Road & Bridge fund.

Peters moved to purchase the truck for $10,000. Griffin seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Peters said it should be the last replacement needed for trucks that had rusted out.

• Dudenhoeffer and Prater discussed amendments to the county’s 2026 budgets, including the proposed $400,000 for Road & Bridge storm work and changes associated with the health department’s Quick Care operation.

Peters noted that storm-related expenses included rock bills from July and August that had already been paid, as well as work still ahead. He also mentioned culvert pipes, along with separate creek work on CR 315 that he said was below the bid threshold.

Following discussion of the election calendar and commission schedules, the budget amendment review and hearing were set for 9 a.m. on Oct. 27, with approval scheduled for Nov. 10. Dudenhoeffer said she would advertise the hearing.

• Compensatory time payout requests are due to Dudenhoeffer by Oct. 26 for commission review Oct. 27. Payments will be included in employees’ Nov. 6 checks.

• Dudenhoeffer reported a total cost of $34,759.22 for the August primary election. Linn R-2 will reimburse the county $9,084.93. The state had advanced $15,716.90 based on its estimated share, but its actual share was $13,069.79, requiring the county to return $2,647.11.

Public testing for the Nov. 3 election is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Oct. 23. Dudenhoeffer also identified Nov. 6 for certification and 9 a.m. on Nov. 10 for verification. She asked about using the commission room for election work so employees could focus without interruptions.

Griffin suggested using her large storage room instead. Commissioners and county officials looked at the space and discussed removing empty boxes and rearranging stored items to create a conference area. Dudenhoeffer requested help completing the work after the November election.

• Peters said he would step aside from decision-making on an easement matter involving his relatives. Griffin and Logan would handle the issue.

• Griffin also noted an upcoming Meramec Regional Planning Commission Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, where members would vote on projects. He said the county had more than $50,000 invested in the CR 631 project and hoped it would receive the votes needed to advance.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Health Department Administrator Kim Sallin reported that Quick Care saw nine patients the previous day, 28 during the previous week, and 121 during September.

• Sallin also reported the resignation of a full-time employee whose duties included the front desk, assistance with Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and food inspections. She said she did not plan to immediately refill the position because repeated turnover had made it difficult to maintain consistent inspections.

The departing employee agreed to continue doing some food inspections on weekends. Sallin had contacted Gasconade County about handling inspections that could not be completed on weekends, including schools and daycares. If that arrangement did not work, she would consider contracting the inspections out.

Sallin said the food inspector position had turned over every six to nine months and was among the hardest to train because of the amount of information involved. Frequent changes could leave restaurants and daycares receiving different instructions from different inspectors.

“These people are paying for permits. We’ve got to give them good service,” Sallin said.

Pay was driving employees to leave, she said. In some cases, the difference was only a few dollars per hour, but increasing a new employee’s wages by $2 or $3 could bring that person to the same pay as someone who had worked there five or six years.

Sallin said implementing the salary scale commissioners had requested would take time. Moving all existing staff immediately to their designated places on the scale would have made her budget “astronomical,” so she was gradually working toward those levels while also managing starting pay.

Peters said the Road & Bridge Department faced similar difficulties balancing recruitment and pay for experienced employees.

Sallin said the health department’s schedule would slow after October, when school screenings and flu shot clinics were finished, although a nurse would begin maternity leave in November.

“I don’t know,” Sallin said. “I just... I need to take a beat. I need a minute to figure out what exactly is going to be best for the clinic instead of just rotating through people constantly. So I don’t want to make any quick decisions on it. I want to do some evaluating and figure out what’s going to be best.”

911/Emergency Management

Osage County 911/EMA Director Ron Hoffman reported receiving a grant of $39,675 to correct errors in the county’s geographic information system (GIS).

Hoffman said the work would address mapping problems such as roads that do not appear connected in the system, potentially causing routing to take a longer path. Another task involves establishing the center of the river for mapping purposes.

He said all roads and maps were current, and both employees handling addressing and mapping were working on the project. SDR would use a computer program to identify errors, with Hoffman saying approximately 80% of the work could be handled through that process.

• Hoffman also reported continuing work on signs. He said every sign had been lost between CR 621, north of the Gasconade River near the old Knights of Columbus Hall, and Belle, except those at river crossings.

• The Next Generation 911 project had encountered a roadblock during testing. Hoffman said testing had run for 48 hours, with a couple of failures that officials believed they had corrected. Further testing had not yet resumed. The system had been expected to go live on Sept. 22, but officials were not satisfied with the results.

• A siren management system budgeted the previous year had been installed and programmed, with radio work by A&W still needed. Hoffman said it would monitor both Springfield and St. Louis notifications so Meta, Freeburg, and Belle received the appropriate alerts.

The system will conduct automatic tests, troubleshoot problems, and email Hoffman when a battery is low. Officials will retain the ability to activate sirens manually.

When Griffin asked about replacement battery costs, Hoffman estimated the sirens’ marine batteries would cost about $350 each. He said a recent tractor battery purchase had cost him $280. “I bought a battery for my tractor the other day and thought about selling the tractor,” Hoffman joked.

• On storm reimbursement paperwork, Hoffman said he had submitted the debris form the previous week and was working to calculate fringe benefits, including the county’s health insurance contribution for each employee.

The road and culvert form was current, he said, although additional review and help at the final portal submission stage were still needed. Hoffman described forms that carried information between multiple sheets and asked the same questions repeatedly.

He had also received a 15-page document from the State Emergency Management Agency that was not a fillable form and would have to be completed by hand.

FINANCIAL

• An income report for the County Clerk for the month of September showed a monthly total of $416.50, including Liquor License ($112), Auction ($0), Notary ($75), Plat Books ($210), Election ($0), and Misc/CC ($19.50).

• The September Statement of Monthly Collections from the collector showed county tax distributions of $2,162.57 to General Revenue, $4,180.93 to the County Retirement Fund (CERF), $461.46 to the County Assessment Fund, and $2.04 to the County Collector’s Office.

Taxes collected for the school districts were: $612.34 to R-1 (Chamois), $13,201.20 to R-2 (Linn), $9,584.48 to R-3 (Fatima), $1,511.83 to Maries County R-2, and $93.67 to Gasconade County R-2.

A total of $1,416.48 went to special road districts, including Osage County ($1,321.71), Belle ($0), Chamois ($5.24), Westphalia ($4.25), and Linn ($85.28).

Ambulance districts received a total of $1,194.26, including Osage ($979.84), Ozark ($130.72), and Maries ($83.70).

Fire districts received a total of $1,126.45, including Belle ($24.84), Bland ($40.30), Chamois ($30.02), Cole ($0), Linn ($941.02), Meta ($7.84), Osage ($0), and Owensville ($82.43).

Cities received a total of $237.58, including Argyle ($4.72), Belle ($0), Chamois ($8.88), Linn ($212.75), and Meta ($11.23). • The end-of-month bank balances for September totaled $15,836,393.37, including AS23 Assessment ($297,358.54), AX08 Annex Building ($308,821.21), BG89 Building & Grounds ($279,566.18), CC55 Conceal and Carry ($11,440.55), CI88 Capital Infrastructure ($1,581,045.92), DS61 DSSSF Fund ($120), ES48 Election Service ($22,986.52), FC46 Family Court ($35,725.88), GR01 General Revenue ($1,845,719.63), HD23 Health Department ($208,265.53), IS63 Inmate Security Fund ($28,475.22), JR60 Jail Renovation ($3,026,965.09), LATCF Local Assistance ($117,840.68), LE25 Law Enforcement ($2,175.71), LERF Law Enforcement Restitution ($8,334.56), LF38 Civil Fees ($6,105.55), OE22 Emergency Management ($93,233.23), OPIO Opiod Settlement ($129,998.55), PA18 Bad Check ($16,780.96), PA26 Prosecutor Training ($5,536.99), PB21 Pentecostal Bridge ($136,366.48), RB02 Road & Bridge ($1,211,852.83), RF36 Retirement ($80.08), RF42 Recorder’s Fund ($48,895.31), RR30 Rollback Reserve ($971,023.33), SE19 Special Elections ($5), SF49 Law Enforcement 911 ($458,838.31), SO26 Special Operations ($17,570.74), SR25 Sheriff Retirement ($60.00), UT33 Use Tax ($4,955,181.85), VD24 Domestic Violence ($1,962.89), and HA56 HAVA Elections ($8,060.05). Please note that not all of these funds are controlled by the county commissioners. Some are controlled by elected officials or committees.

The county also has $626,631.09 in CDs, including Road & Bridge ($122,551.85), Rollback Reserve ($475,343.13), and Law Enforcement 911 ($28,736.11).

• Time sheets were approved by commissioners.