Citizen John Ransom discussed the ownership of the Coffee Community Church/Community Building on May 12 with the Crawford County Commissioners.

He said that the Coffee Community Church community was trying to organize and form a board so that the building could be opened to the community when they saw that the commission was looking for realtor bids.

Presiding Commissioner Steve Black said he had multiple conversations with Attorney Brooks Kenagy to make sure that the county owned the property before they went out for bids.

Associate Commissioner Jared Boast said that Kenagy handles many similar property situations like this for the county.

“We come into a piece of property for various reasons, and he’s the one that usually does all the research on it, title search and all of that work, and then brings it to us,” Boast said.

Ransom presented a deed that conflicted with what the commissioners claimed they had been told.

Dated Jan. 2, 1953, the quitclaim deed between Geraldine Gibbs (the only heir and daughter of J.T. and Rosemonde Coffee) and The Church of God, allows use of the property for Church and Sunday School purposes. If it ceased being used for those reasons, the title would pass to the “County Court of Crawford County as trustees for the use and benefit of the people residing in the community of the above-described property, and the people of said community are to use said property as a community center.”

Ransom said that the commission was a trustee of the property, not an owner, but Black claimed Kenagy said, as the trustee, they could sell the property. He also said that as representatives of the county, he is required to get the most out of the property as possible.

No action was taken on the subject, but Black put them on the agenda for next week and hopes that Kenagy can attend the meeting to help answer questions.

The courthouse might receive upgrades in the near future. Black announced that they were going to contract an architect to design and upgrade the front of the courthouse.

“A lot of the reason is the wood is rotting off a lot of the building here and kind of becoming a hazard, almost,” Black said. “And siding looks bad. It’s just, the concrete’s got a big crack in it over here during the winter months. That’s only going to get worse.”

Treasurer Karen Sikes presented the commission with the county sales tax report. She said that sales tax for April was up from last year.

“Sales tax for April was up across the board, over 33 percent for each of the funds: law enforcement, CI (capital improvement), general revenue,” Sikes said. “I couldn’t tell you who it was that paid their taxes later, whatever, but more than likely, it was from that rally race…, and a lot of vendors that, you know, have smaller vendors like that, they don’t pay their taxes in time to get into that actual month.”

Sheriff Darin Layman announced that the Crawford County Jail elevator was being repaired and that the work should be completed that morning.

Director Amy England, of the Crawford County Library District, presented a list of applicants for the library board.

They currently have two positions open for Steelville with five applicants, but one didn’t meet the requirements for the position. The four considered applicants are Ellen Bowles, Ben Stemmler, Faith DeRennaux and Julie Jenson.

They tabled the decision until the May 19 meeting.

She added that they are having some financial concerns at the state level.

“We have a good local support in our property tax levy, but we have essentially three pots of money. You know how the state divides things out,” England said.

They lost one of those financial sources, and the athletes and entertainers tax, has been cut in half.

In other business, even though he was on the agenda, Jim Ealer, representative of the rally for the rally committee, was unable to make it to the meeting, but the commissioners put him on the agenda for the May 19 meeting.