BENTON -- Scott County commissioners are carefully considering options for the restoration and update of the Scott County War Memorial before making any final decisions.
The memorial, which is located on the southeast corner of the courthouse lot, presently only lists Scott County servicemen killed in action during World War I.
Commissioners discussed several options during their regular meeting Tuesday such as removing the two smaller fountains or moving them to another location on the monument, putting bronze trim around the monument, and whether or not to put up a fence around the base to keep skateboarders off.
"There's nothing wrong with keeping it simple," Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said.
He said commissioners received input on the project from Chris Liley of Liley Monuments in Marble Hill during the Scott County War Memorial Restoration Committee meeting Monday at the courthouse.
"He's done several of these monuments," Ziegenhorn said.
He said Liley also discussed restoring the bronze plaques which list those killed in action during World War I.
"He said he thinks he can make those like new," Ziegenhorn said.
Ziegenhorn said Monday's meeting had a good turnout with representatives from several veterans organizations attending. He said several ideas for fundraisers by those organizations for the restoration were discussed.
"They're excited about it," Ziegenhorn said.
In addition to restoring the memorial, committee members and commissioners intend to add the names of those killed in action from Scott County during the wars that followed World War I.
"We're looking at 250 names, roughly," said County Developer Joel Evans. Among them are about 200 names to add from World War II, 17 from the Vietnam War, and four of five from the Korean War.
Commissioners said the estimated cost for two granite panels with three columns of names on each is $8,000.
One estimate for bronze plaques to match the existing plaques was $2,500 each.
Evans said he thinks all the additional names would fit on six plaques and agreed to seek estimates from other monument companies for the matching bronze plaques.
Ziegenhorn said the names should not be put in alphabetical order so that if more names must be added later they won't look out of place at the end of the list.
In other business during Tuesday's meeting:
* Commissioners and Don Jones, county maintenance supervisor, walked around the courthouse with Terry S. Weissmueller of Chaffee and Kevin Williams of Commerce, two potential bidders for a courthouse drainage project, to come up with some drainage design ideas.
Presiding Commissioner Martin Priggel said water coming out of drain spouts is eroding at the base of the courthouse and even entering the courthouse basement in some places.
The first time the county bid the drainage work in combination with some landscaping repairs, according to Priggel, but no bids were received.
"The lawn work is separate from the drainage work this time," he said.
The landscaping job will include filling low spots and putting in new sod, Priggel said.
* Commissioners raised the county's mileage reimbursement rate from 37.5 cents per mile to 41.5 cents to match the state's reimbursement rate which was raised July 1.
The county's policy has been to match the state's rate, according to Commissioner Jamie Burger.
* The county's Board of Equalization opened Tuesday and will run until July 18, according to County Clerk Rita Milam.
The Board rules on disputed assessments. For additional information regarding the Board of Equalization, contact County Assessor Teresa M. Houchin at 573-545-3535.