Plat books to be available soon

Updated plat books will soon be available at the County Clerk’s office. County Commissioners approved printing of the plat books and set a fee of $40 for them at the Tuesday regular session this week.

County Clerk Mark Hedrick reported the cost of the books was $30. Presiding Commissioner David Cramp said the county should charge a little more for them to cover handling and distribution. He pointed out many counties charge quite a bit more for the books, as much as $60 or $70.

“I think that’s a bit steep,” Cramp said. He suggested $40 would be a fair price.

Hedrick said the price of the books hasn’t changed in 15 years.

“I think $40 would be fine,” said Associate Commissioner Bret Burgess. “I think it’s important we market these, too.” He recommended putting notifications on the County Collector’s door that the books are available. The Collector’s office is in the midst of collecting annual property taxes, so the notices would likely be seen by quite a few.

Associate Commissioner Patrick Mullins made a motion to charge the public $40 for the books. This was seconded and unanimously approved without further discussion.

The books will likely be on sale in the County Clerk’s office by the end of the month, Hedrick said.

“We have had seven people come in to purchase one,” he added. “We recommended they wait for the new one, so they are going to come back in as soon as we have them ready.”

On other matters, Commissioners approved a new term of liability insurance with Mo-PERM, which is a an insurance pool of various counties. This includes the county’s liability insurance and its building insurance. The county was able to reduce its premium from $203,000 last year to $185,000 this year.

Hedrick said there were some vehicles listed on the policy that shouldn’t have been. “We cleaned some things up, and that’s all been done and taken care of,” he said.

Commissioners also took the Juvenile Budget for 2010 under advisement. Juvenile is required to get sign-offs from all the county entities involved as well as both circuit judges. Commissioners do not have to take any action on the budget until the regular annual budget is approved.

Commissioners again met in executive session for employee negotiations with the Road and Bridge crew’s union.

Renee Jean can be reached at 431-2010, ext. 117 or rjean@dailyjournalonline.com