Officials to attend seminar

BENTON -- Scott County commissioners will attend a training session on resolving assessment challenges.

Commissioners said during their regular meeting Tuesday that they will attend the Missouri State Tax Commission's Board of Equalization Workshop scheduled from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. May 29 at the Cape Girardeau Administration Building in Jackson.

The workshop, which is for county clerks, assessors and county commissioners, will cover the following topics: responsibilities and duties; issues on appeal; conducting BOE hearings; evidence; and preservation of BOE records.

"I have never been to one," Presiding County Commissioner Jamie Burger said. "I'm going just for general knowledge."

Burger said he generally encourages county officers to take advantage of training opportunities and learn more about conducting county business -- especially when they are held so close to the county.

In other business Tuesday:

* Gerald Settles of Sikeston was appointed to the county's Senate Bill 40 Board.

Settles will fill the unexpired term of Judy Marshall of Sikeston which runs until Jan. 6, 2008, according to County Clerk Rita Milam.

Marshall resigned from the position after about 10 years on the board because "she wanted to move on to other things," Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn said. "She did an outstanding job serving on the board."

The county SB-40 board administers sheltered workshop funds for the county's handicapped.

* County road repairs will begin Monday, weather permitting, according to Burger.

Burger said the county highway department got an early start on mowing right-of-ways and is trying to work ahead on all the other non-road work it does.

As blacktopping takes nearly all the department's crew members, he explained, "we're trying to get more of these things attended to before we get into the blacktopping season."

* Ziegenhorn said county residents have told him the abandoned cemeteries being maintained by the county and the city of Sikeston look nice.

The county and city are maintaining the cemeteries on a temporary basis while the Attorney General's Office seeks a new owner for the three properties.

Ziegenhorn said he discussed the cemetery situation with state Rep. Rod Jetton, speaker of the state House, during a meeting at the courthouse Friday.

He said Jetton also complimented the county on using its prisoners to pick up trash alongside county roads and called it a "great program."

Ziegenhorn said the program enables the county to get some work done that otherwise it would have to spend county funds for.