Commissioners Impressed With Installation Of Culverts

By MARK EVANS

mevans@stegenherald.com

County commissioners expressed pleasure with the way the county road and bridge crew had gotten the first of three culverts installed on Cave Road last week.

“They don’t have to be told what needs to be done,” Presiding Commissioner Garry Nelson said, “They see it and jump in and do it.”

“I can’t say enough about how well-organized they are,” Second District Commissioner Randy Ruzicka said of Road and Bridge Foreman Scott Schmieder’s crew.

They were working with Budrovich Crane Rentals of Scott City.

The commissioners also discussed finishing up the project after all three concrete box culverts are installed. It may be beneficial to outsource the job of repaving the road leading up to the new culverts, rather than doing it in-house. The road and bridge crew was already being stretched thin, they noted.

Nelson said he didn’t want to leave the follow-up work on the back burner like they had with the Kocher Road project. A caller from Kocher Road earlier in the week had asked when such finishing touches would be done to the road around the box culvert installed there this spring.

Another caller had called to compliment the county on the job done on the Roth Road-Route Y intersection. They said it is much better for truckers and others to use now.

Several calls about road issues were received. One caller, this one from New Bremen Road, complained that cars are frequently left parked along the edge of the road. Associate County Clerk Michele Gatzemeyer said she called the Sheriff’s Department about the issue. The original caller said they may come in and discuses the problem in person.

Another caller complained that the right turn lane at Dogwood Road and Route Y had washed out, making it difficult to make the turn onto Y.

PLANT PLANNED IN PERRY COUNTY

First District Commissioner Karen Stuppy reported on a Solid Waste District and Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission (SEMO RPC) meeting they had attended.

During the Solid Waste meeting, it was announced that a Green Solutions waste-to-energy plant might open in Perry County. It would burn trash to produce electricity.

Even though Perry County appears to be the site, Stuppy noted that “It still will benefit our county.”

Such plants generate electricity by burning trash. However, Green Solutions requires a guarantee of 400 tons of trash per year to put in a plant – which it does at its own expense.

The commissioners want to rally local support for the project, which would give the county an avenue of disposing of old tires and other troublesome items.

“Don’t let it get on a back-burner,” Nelson said, suggesting they get the city behind it.

Stuppy said it would be “a win-win situation for everyone.”

The plant would burn all trash and items would not have to be separated.