Commission, Naylor Special Road District To Set All New Guidelines

Naylor Special Road District and the Ripley County Commission came to a mutual decision Wednesday to change the contract agreement that has existed between them for 16 years.

Since 2009 the district has been giving the county a blanket payment of $40,000 a year to cover road maintenance and materials, with a stipulation that the county would grade Naylor’s roads five times a year.

Naylor road commissioners said the problem with that arrangement from their perspective is there are high-traffic roads which they feel require grading more often than that, and other roads that do not need grading that often.

They would prefer to have a set rate for each service and the option to have the county crews provide their maintenance services on request.

In that way, said the road commissioners, they can plan their spending.

County Commissioners each said they also favor a fee for service plan, such as that which they have with the other independent road districts.

Presiding Commissioner Jesse Roy commented, “The auditors didn’t really like the fact that you just wrote us a $40,000 check each year, and there was no way to track how that was spent. We have been keeping up with receipts for gravel and culverts, but they told us there should be a better way of doing things.”

Roy suggested that the county continue to grade Naylor’s roads five times a year. If the road commissioners want more to be done, they should contact the eastern district commissioner (Gary Emmons). He would then relate the request to the road crew foreman, and the county will bill for the additional service once it is completed.

Naylor also asked for a map which identifies their roads, as they are uncertain which roads the county has been maintaining. Some of the district’s roads are maintained by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“The records show 47 miles of gravel in Naylor, that the county maintains,” said Roy.

“Mo-Dot sends us money every year for licensing of the vehicles and gas tax and such. The money is calculated based on a formula.

We take that and divide it by how many miles of road. For districts that don’t have equipment, we keep that district’s share of the CART money and grade roads with it,” he explained.

Roy said the rate of grading is assessed at $100 per mile. He looked up Naylor’s CART allocation amount and said it is $26,872 per year, (which is in addition to their tax revenues).

The road commissioners also will make some calls to find out if they can acquire their gravel using the county discount.

Moving on, Sheriff Rad Talburt shared an update, stating the fuel tank has been moved from the sheriff’s department lot to the detention center.

He is getting cages put in the deputy’s vehicles that don’t have them and he will be moving the three vehicles the department is retiring to one location so that they can be photographed for sale on Purple Wave.

He still plans to have a sheriff’s auction in the spring, and said now that the marijuana legalization law was passed, all of the confiscated evidence from those cases can be released for sale.

He said the jail continues to be filled to capacity, and one pod is designated for either female inmates or sex offenders. Depending on the population, one or the other is transported and housed at an outside institution.

Dennis Cox, the jail administrator, is looking into having additional steel bunks made so that more of the male inmates (who are not charged with sexual crimes) can be accommodated here.

Treasurer Terry Slayton had a question about how the commission wanted to handle the Verizon bill, which is split between the sheriff’s department and the detention center.

Kim Keller of probation/parole had a question about use of the courthouse after hours, and inquired about the possibility of having a second office for use by her associate. Commissioners will check on some other options.

Jim Perren asked about being on the agenda for an issue he will want discussed and was advised that the March 12 meeting will be the public hearing for the Doniphan Special Road District, and the next available (regular) session will be 9 a.m., March 20.