State Funding May Help Launch Local Weather Data Station

Almost two years to the date that Katie Kammler proposed that Ste. Genevieve County look into starting a weather station, the University of Missouri Extension horticulture specialist returned to the Ste. Genevieve County Commission to discuss the idea.

Kammler told the commissioners during last Thursday’s meeting that she had received word from Sandra Cabot, in her new role with the Missouri Department of Economic Development, that $8,500 of the $16,000 grant Kammler had requested to launch the weather station had been approved.

When Presiding Commissioner Garry Nelson asked whether the county would get stuck paying for maintenance down the road, Kammler said it would not. She said it would probably cost about $4,000 a year to maintain the unmanned center and that she was working to recruit a group of local sponsors who would commit to paying for the maintenance.

Nelson said the county already allocates $60,000 a year into the extension operation. He again asked if the county would be in any danger of being stuck with bills relating to the station. Kammler assured him it would not.

Kammler said the weather station would help companies like Mississippi Lime measure emissions, would help farmers, and would give all residents a more accurate weather forecast.

See complete in the March 18 edition of the Herald.