OSAGE COUNTY — In their meetings last week, the commissioners finalized and approved the county’s annual budget for 2026, anticipating $12,506,806.68 in revenue and expenditures of $12,730,531.24. Budget details will be covered in a separate article.

They praised Treasurer Valerie Prater and Interim County Clerk Brooke Dudenhoeffer for all their hard work, as well as thanking all the elected officials and department heads for their efforts.

“I think we have an incredible Health Department,” said Western District Commissioner Dale Logan. “I had no idea the services that our county had to offer our citizens until I become a commissioner. I can’t pat Kim on the back enough. Doing a great job. It looks like we have a ton more potential there as well. You know, the Sheriff’s Office, doing a great job. I’ve only lived in the county 16 years, but I know it was a mess when I got here and compared to where it is now. Great job, Sheriff. Good job, university down below - the extension office - good job, Elizabeth, Guys, we’re moving in the right direction. That’s what we’re doing. I think the taxpayers of Osage County ought to be very proud of the representation to have, myself. You guys are doing a great job.”

Sheriff’s Office Chief of Staff Andi Rice commented on how much money the county has been able to bank, ending 2025 with accounts totaling $15,162,769.81 and projecting ending 2026 with $14,938,045.25. “I’ve been doing this for a long time,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anybody here in this room that would remember when that - what was the total amount, $15 million? When that used to be like a carryover of $700,000 or $800,000.”

Sheriff Michael Bonham thanked the voters for approving Prop P. “Compared to where we were, what the sheriff’s office was, if we did not have prop P... we’d have maybe three deputies, and crime would be out of control,” he said. “Hats off again to the voters for passing that through.”

• Commissioners voted to have Bink Blankenship of Bink’s Trucking and Excavating, out of Sullivan, chip & seal approximately 3 miles of gravel road for a total cost of $211,631. The areas to be chip & sealed include 1.25 miles on CR 303, 8/10 mile on CR 801, 4/10 mile on CR 401, 1/2 mile on CR 501, and 6/10 mile CR 512 (Bluff Road), The commissioners anticipate an additional $25,000 per mile of preparatory work to be accomplished prior to chip & seal, to ensure the new surface is smooth and will last as long as possible.

Blankenship said the work would probably begin in mid-July, given his current schedule.

Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Peters said the intent behind paving these three miles of road is to be able to devote more time to maintaining roads in the rest of the county. “The roads that are picked on this aren’t just randomly pulled from a hat,” Peters clarified. “It’s the roads that need the most maintenance - that take the most maintenance to keep up. And ideally, what this is going to do is save all the grader activity on these roads and maintenance on these roads, to spread out amongst the rest of the county, to keep that in better shape, rather than spend all this time on these three miles of roads.”

Logan said this was one of the things he hoped to accomplish when he ran for commissioner. “I didn’t think that we would be in a position to really start doing this until what would be Jeff and I’s year three, not in ‘26 but in ‘27, and we finished the year strong,” he said. “We made a lot of good progress on our roads. We had good income with our Use Tax and Prop R, and I’m excited. I’m excited that we’re getting this started a year earlier what I hoped.”

Logan added the people he talked to who live on or travel those roads were excited.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people that aren’t on them roads, and they’re excited about it,” Peters added. “They like to see progress.”

“Jeff’s quote about being able to give more attention to other roads by chip and sealing the sections they spend the most time maintaining.”

• A preconstruction meeting was held for the Pentecostal Bridge, with attendees from Osage County, MoDOT, Bartlett & West, and Gene Haile Excavating. Tree-clearing is scheduled to being in early February. The waterway will be closed to boats and other recreational traffic from approximately late February until completion. The contractor hopes to have the bridge complete in early August of this year. The commissioners stressed that one specific historic abutment from the original bridge must remain in place.

• Logan said an email from county attorney Amanda Grellner indicated that partially funding the drug task force did not seem to be an authorized use of the county’s opioid settlement funds.

• Most elected officials and department heads were on hand for the monthly department update.

MU Extension Engagement Specialist in Community Economic Development Elizabeth Anderson noted Extension elections will be held at the end of January. “We’ll be putting that out on social media and it’s on our website, or people can come into the office if they want a paper ballot, “ Anderson said, “And we’ll have our annual meeting in February, February the 17th, and anybody is invited to come.”

Osage County Assessor Tina Kammerich said assessment forms are rolling in, and reminded everyone to remember to return those.

Recorder of Deeds Cindy Hoffman said she’s waiting on Sutterfield Technologies to pick up the remaining books scheduled for refurbishing, and for demolition of the area her office will be expanding into.

Prater said she and Dudenhoeffer have been looking at options to change the county’s accounting and time sheet software.

• Brad Stieferman hand delivered pricing for quarry rock from his quarry outside Chamois.

ROAD & BRIDGE

Osage County Road and Bridge Foreman Brad Sneller told commissioners the rain helped pack gravel down some, but the ground wicked the moisture up fast.

• Sneller also asked the commissioners how long his people have to use their existing comp time, since federal regulations now require comp time be flexed during the same pay period or paid out. At Dudenhoeffer’s suggestion, the commissioners voted to allow six months for employees to use previously accrued comp time.

• Creek rock was hauled on CR 525 (352 tons) and 610 (256 tons); quarry rock on CR 251 (35.59 tons), 525 (166.01 tons), 634 (33.89 tons), and 608 (35.13 tons); a culvert was replaced on CR 608; road work was done on CR 251, 525, and 610; brush mowers were working on CR 412 & 412; and grader operators were active as follows: G01 (CR 523), G02 (709, 711, 712, 713, 714, & 715), G04 (525 & 610), G05 (432, 433, 434, 437, 602), & G06 (275, 310, 319, & 321).

• Grader G05 (2023 672G John Deere) and whipper W41 (2006 John Deere 6615 w/Alamo Machete Mower) were serviced in house.

• Contact was received from citizens regarding concrete/asphalt work on CR 602, road conditions and potholes on Loose Creek Highway, culvert issues on CR 251, and grader concerns with citizen on CR 611.

• Grader 3 operator screened 208 tons of gravel for use and loaded 432 tons of unscreened gravel for use.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

To comply with new federal regulations regarding comp time, the commissioners changed Health Department Administrator Kim Sallin from hourly to salary, as she typically works more than 80 hours each pay period and the Health Department budget does not allow for her overtime. Her wages were otherwise unchanged.

• Sallin told the commissioners her department has begun Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) testing and treatment. That program is funded through the state. Sallin noted they cannot do STI testing late on Thursday afternoons or on Fridays, because the state no longer sends a courier on Fridays to take samples to the lab.

The Health Department also provides free condoms (also funded through the state) via walk-in or drive-through. They also recently received a dispenser to be placed in the restroom, for people who don’t feel comfortable asking for condoms. 

“That is unbelievable,” said Presiding Commissioner Darryl Griffin. “I like the idea of people coming and asking for some. Hanging it in the bathroom, I guarantee somebody’s going to be messing with it.”

Dudenhoeffer said, as a mother of a teenage girl, she hopes her daughter isn’t having sex but she’s thankful the Health Department offers condoms in a way that doesn’t require teens to ask for them.

“I think it’s bullshit,” Griffin said quietly.

“I disagree,” Dudenhoeffer said. “It’s not promoting the act, it’s promoting safety.”

“If that is something they desire to do, whether they have protection or not, they’re going to do it,” Sallin said. “This is just an easy access way for them to at least do it safely with also hopefully not having a teenage pregnancy. And this has nothing to do with my personal views or opinions or anything. This is strictly - this is public health. This is part of what we’re responsible to do to help our community. You know, there’s a reason why all this stuff is free, because it’s obviously very, very needed, especially in little rural communities like ours.”

• The commissioners are also heavily endorsing a plan Sallin has hoped to bring to fruition for some time - a nurse practitioner-staffed urgent care. Sallin stressed that there are a lot of logistics involved, so adding an urgent care would not be a quick process.

• She provided the commissioners a quote to mail drug disposal bags to all residents in Osage County. The cost to mail 2,500 Deterra medium drug pouches would be $20,400.

911/Emergency Management

Osage County 911/EMA Director Ron Hoffman notified the commissioners his department will be upgrading their Office365 subscriptions to allow more emails, largely due to the amount of emails generated by the new CentralSquare CAD system.

• Hoffman also asked the commissioners to approve his budgeted change of the night shift pay differential from $0.75 per hour to $2 per hour.

FINANCIAL

• Sales tax distribution received from the state of Missouri showed $504,951.55 collected in January, including $64,422.61 to General Revenue, $71,767.94 to Jail Renovation (JR60), $35,877.61 to Capitol Improvements (CI88, $32,289.85) and Building & Grounds (BG89 $3,587.76), $71,755.38 to Prop P, $71,110.16 to Prop R, $71,767.95 to 911/Law Enforcement, and $118,249.90 to Use Tax.

• The December Statement of Monthly Collections from the collector showed county tax distributions of $635,746.29 to General Revenue, $26,329.59 to the County Retirement Fund (CERF), $219,477.60 to the County Assessment Fund, and $1,937.97 to the County Collector’s Office.

Taxes collected for the school districts were: $832,557.76 to R-1 (Chamois), $3,524,577.56 to R-2 (Linn), $4,811,651.18 to R-3 (Fatima), $559,513.01 to Maries County R-2, and $12,507.50 to Gasconade County R-2.

A total of $558,141.87 went to special road districts, including Osage County ($459,758.55), Belle Special Road District ($5,067.93), Chamois Special Road District ($20,114.12), West Special Road District ($12,465.25), and Linn Special Road District ($60,736.02).

Ambulance districts received the following: Osage ($321,176.80), Ozark ($47,304.23), and Maries ($83,752.05), for a total of $452,233.08.

Fire Districts received a total of $427,959.27, including Belle ($26,046.12), Bland ($6,814.02), Chamois ($48,603.48), Cole ($3,770.83), Linn ($293,565.62), Meta ($33,069.96), and Osage ($594.26).

Cities received a total of $230,761.27, including Argyle ($4,044.36), Belle ($17,840.34), Chamois ($13,153.32), Linn ($153,507.61), and Meta ($42,215.64).

• Time sheets were approved by commissioners.