Krysta Swartz, of Great River Engineering (GRE), updated the commissioners on Aug. 25 on the Smith Road and John Coleman Road bridge projects.

“So I’ve got the contracts for Smith Road. We’ve got the insurance back for the contractor on this, so they’re ready to go. We’ll get these over to MoDOT today, and then the contractor’s planning to start Monday,” Swartz said.

On the John Coleman Road bridge, GRE has received the updated insurance from the contractor. With all that still needs to be completed before the official start date, Swartz estimated work will begin in about two to three weeks at the earliest.

District 1 Associate Commissioner Mark Pfeiffer opened sealed bids for low water crossing projects on Whilhite, Arlie Barr and Sig Bass Roads. There were four bids for each project.

Steve’s Concrete and Excavation bid $99,809, Concrete Specialties of Crawford County, LLC., bid $78,300, Tony E Abney Construction bid $75,000 and $118,400 was bid by Midwest Mechanical for the Whilhite Road low water crossing.

For the Arlie Barr Road water crossing, Steve’s Concrete and Excavation bid $50,550, Tony E Abney Construction bid $61,000 and $41,000 was bid by Midwest Mechanical. Concrete Specialties of Crawford County LLC presented two bids. One was for a low water crossing without approaches for $66,900 and $74,400 with approaches.

For a low water crossing and culverts on Sig Bass Road, Steve’s Concrete and Excavation bid $68,005. For a low water slab with pipes, Tony E Abney Construction bid $68,000 and $150,000 if the commissioners decided on a box culvert instead. Concrete Specialties of Crawford County, LLC., bid $76,500 and Midwest Mechanical bid $105,400 or $185,400 if the commissioners decided on a box style upgrade.

After conferring with District 1 Road Foreman Mike Kempf over the bids, the Whilhite Road project was awarded to Concrete Specialties of Crawford County, LLC., for $78,300, the Arlie Barr Road project was awarded to Steve’s Concrete and Excavation for $59,600 and the Sig Bass Road project was awarded to Tony E Abney Construction for $68,000.

Crawford County Library District Director Amy England said that Aug. 24 was the library district’s tax rate hearing and regular monthly meeting.

The board voted to keep the levy at 20 cents per $100 of assessed valuation with a 4-1 vote, with Vice President Julie Jenson voting against it.

England clarified a misunderstanding she heard about the tax levy.

“So our tax levy, the 20 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, was approved by Crawford County voters in 2017, with 1,069 yes votes to 447 no votes, so that was a 70.5 percent approval rate,” England said. “The rate that we have is in the middle of the range that is noted in Missouri Public Library standards.”

She explained that the state auditor’s office sends them a pro forma with a formula to limit the amount of income the library district can receive. If the district’s assessed valuations go up, the state auditor’s office will roll back their rates.

She also clarified some misconceptions that were put out in an Aug. 19 letter to the editor by citizen Cathy Boero.

“Another topic that comes up fairly often in this, it said that our employee salaries have doubled over the last five years; that is not accurate,” England said. “In 2021, our lowest-paid clerk’s hourly rate was $10.35. This year, that rate is $16.43. For comparison, minimum wage in 2021 was $10.30. In 2026, it’s $15.”

Other topics mentioned were the library district considering retirement for its employees and putting over $500,000 a year into CDs.

England said they, like a lot of other government entities, are considering retirement benefits for their employees, and that they haven’t put over $500,000 into CDs a year.

“We’ve had eight years since we started in 2018, and we have a reserve balance currently of $1.3 million. That’s through investments in CDs, and then the accompanying interest that is gained on those. If you average that out, that’s about $168,000 per year,” England said.

She also reiterated from previous statements made at commission meetings that the tax paid towards that library district and road district were the same, but that it is the only tax income the library district receives.

“Road districts have sales tax as well, so it’s not the same amount of money, and rightly so. We do not need the amount of money that the road districts do,” England said.

During her report on the district, she mentioned that their goal of owning all three libraries in each community of Steelville, Cuba and Bourbon is getting closer to reality, as renovations on the new Bourbon branch already started.

England also called Crawford County an “interesting library system” because, unlike many libraries, it is not getting rid of some of its physical materials, like DVDs, because they are not as needed with today’s streaming services.

“Other libraries provide streaming services for their patrons,” England said. “That’s an expensive cost to provide those services for patrons. It’s something that we are looking into because that is a need for the future as well.”

They currently offer a streaming service called Kanopy, where patrons get 25 tickets a month to use on movies and documentaries, but she mentioned that multiple people still check out DVDs, so the physical materials are very important to the community.