| Today's Feature Wastewater Treatment
System Ordinance.
During
Thursday’s County Commissioners began
discussing possible amendments to the Jasper
County Wastewater Treatment System Ordinance.
Bill Gory, Environmental Public
Health Specialist, and Head of the Jasper County
Health Department and John Callison,
Environmental Public Health Specialist,
approached the Commissioners outlining more than
a dozen proposed changes.
"Many of them (the
changes) were driven by an audit we had by the
state," explained Callison. "And they
told us recommendations for changing our
ordinance."
Callison began describing many
of the changes, and the reasoning behind the
changes.
One change concerns the
evaluation of the soil conditions of a site.
Currently land owners can have a percolation test
conducted, with the change, a soil profile,
conducted by a Missouri Department of Health
recognized soil scientist will now be required.
Under current guidelines, land
owners can choose between a percolation test and
the soil profile.
"The reason behind this is
the soil profile is a much better test of what
the soil will handle," explained Callison.
Callison said there are
currently three soil scientists within the
Southwest Missouri area.
Presiding Commissioner Danny
Hensley questioned the expense of this test.
"Is this were they come
out with a backhoe and dig down, and have layers
of the ground that they identify those
layers?" asked Hensley.
Callison said that the recent
soil profiles have cost under $150 without the
cost of the backhoe.
Another change has to do with
minimum lot sizes in subdivisions.
"Right now DNR has issued
new rules and the minimum lot sizes for on site
sewage that the DNR subdivision rules is 0.92
acres which is 40,000 square feet," Callison
said. "What we would like to do is adopt
that as our minimum for lots that do have public
water available and double them for lots that do
not have public water available, which would be
1.84 acres or 80,000 square feet."
Callison said they wanted to
develop a minimum lot size so that any sites
platted after the approval of the revised
ordinance would have to meet these minimum sizes.
"With one acre, you can
just barely fit in a well and a septic and get
all of your set back distances," explained
Gory. "Theoretically it works, but if you
have any kind of ditches or anything different
then just a flat drained land then you have a
problem."
Another change involves the
installation of temporary or permanent electrical
meters. Before an individual or company could
install any form of electrical meter, they would
first need to receive a written clearance from
the Health Department. This clearance would be
available once a permit to install new sewage
system is obtained.—Structures which are
clearly agricultural or not for human habitation
are exempt from this change.
"This is so we know
something is going in there and we can make sure
they do meet this sewage (change)," said
Callison. "They (the electric company) are
in favor of this, and all it would take was a
resolution from County Commission. As long as it
is in our ordinances, they will abide by
it."
Callison said one current
example of this practice is Lawrence County.
A change surrounding repairs
permits limits what can be replaced in the
absorption fields, without requiring a soil
evaluation. Only one permit for repair of up to
one hundred feet of lateral will be allowed
without the completion of a site evaluation.
"This limits the repair
permit to 100 feet of lateral system without a
soil profile, and this change was requested by
the State Department of Health," explained
Callison.
"Basically what (the State
says) is anytime they work on a system it must be
brought up to state standards.
But (the State) said they would
allow us to put in something like this, so (land
owners) can do an attempt to repair without
totally bringing up to state standards.
"Because sometimes you can
just go out and put in a 100 feet of lateral and
be ok, but if this 100 feet of lateral fails,
then they will have to do a soil profile and
bring it up to state standards."
Because of the complexity of
the details involved in the ordinance changes,
Commissioners decided to postpone any decision
until they had a chance to study them further.
The Commissioners told Gory and
Callison that they would contact them next week
upon their return from a three-day work session
in Jefferson City.
In other business the
Commissioners: · read a letter from St. Clair
county asking them to reconsider a soft money
match request. St. Clair’s original request,
which was made in January was denied by the
Commissioners since it is located outside Jasper
County’s normal trade area. Hensley asked
commissioners to postpone any decisions on this
request until after the County
Commissioner’s training session in Jefferson
City next week.
· Received a report from
County Counselor James Spradling concerning
funding for the Public Defenders office at the
Jasper County Annex in Joplin. Spradling reported
that McDonald County still owes $3,984.87 from
before March 31, 1998. Spradling also outlined
the percentage breakdown for operating costs in
the office since March 1, 1998. The percentages
of this breakdown are: Jasper County, 60%, Newton
County, 29% and McDonald County 11%. He requested
the Commissioners revise the bill of January 26,
1999 to reflect this percentage formula.
· Hensley announced that the
Commission would begin to accept bids on six
bridge and road way repairs at 11 a.m., Tuesday,
March 30.
· Commissioners also had some
questions answered by Daryl Andrews executive
director of the Economic Security Corporation.
Commissioners expressed concern over the
disbursement and maintenance of an upcoming
housing grant. The county is eligible for up to
$75,000 in this upcoming grand cycle. Andrews
informed the Commissioners that the Homeless
Coalition of Jasper County had decided to split
the grant monies equally between five
organizations:
The H.O.U.S.E., the Salvation
Army, the ESC, the Transitional House (Formerly
the Dare House) and the Lafayette House.
Commissioners decided to hold
off on sending in the final grant paperwork
(which is due Wednesday, February 24) until a
meeting could be arranged for next week with
representatives from all five organizations.
Commentary
by Martin
"Bubs" Hohulin
State
Representative District 126
Anyone can make
a difference. That point was driven home this
week when my office intern played a major role in
uncovering and eliminating some wasteful
spending. Before I forget to mention it, my
intern this year is Travis Lathrop from Sheldon.
Travis is the son of J.D. and Cindy Lathrop and
has been a real asset around the office already.
He is a bright young man who will undoubtedly go
far in whatever he does.
We have been working on the
supplemental budget that I wrote about last week
when an item caught my eye. The Dept. of Mental
Health had put a list of items they wanted to
furnish the new sexual predator facility that is
going to be added. Usually on things like this it
is all lumped together into one amount. This time
each individual item was broken out and to be
honest some of them seemed a little high priced!
This in itself has always bothered me because
everything is supposed to be bought through the
Office of Administration (OA) which is supposed
to shop around and get the best deal buying in
bulk. However, it seems like we always end up
paying more than if we just went down to the
store and bought it.
That seemed to be the case
here. When I got back from the committee hearing
I tossed the keys to my truck to my intern and
told him to take a list of the items down to the
local hardware and appliance store and compare
prices. If you have ever seen my truck you know
that him getting there was an adventure in
itself! I also told him to get prices on the
nicest, most expensive items they had so we would
leave no room for doubt.
When he got back we looked at
the list and just on the items the store had in
stock we would save over $10,000.00! This was
just buying them off the floor with no volume
discounts or anything.
I took the list down to the
next committee hearing with me and brought it to
the committee’s attention. The chairman
turned to the governor’sb budget director
and asked him if he would like to address it.
Much to my surprise, he shook his head and
replied that no, in fact the numbers had seemed
excessive to him also! I offered a motion to
remove the excessive ten thousand and let the
state borrow my truck to take delivery of the
items. I even offered to wash it first! The
motion passed on a voice vote but the offer of my
truck was politely declined!
It may not amount to much in a
16 BILLION dollar budget, but you have to start
somewhere. Something like this also serves notice
that we are watching to see how much is being
spent on what.
As usual, I can be reached at
House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City,
MO 65101 or 1-800-878-7126 or
mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions,
comments, or advice.
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