Commission, sheriff, judge all reach agreement on files

BENTON - Scott County commissioners, Sheriff Bill Ferrell and Associate Circuit Court Judge David Mann have reached an agreement on how to deal with the court's files.

During the commission's regular meeting Tuesday, Ferrell agreed to allow the file boxes to be moved to the new jail's upstairs room temporarily and commissioners agreed to come up with some filing cabinets within the next 60 days.

Estimating each file box holds about a drawer and a half worth of files, commissioners suggested starting with 20 five-drawer cabinets - 100 drawers worth of file space - at an expected cost of around $1,000.

Mann said his clerks reportedly access the files once or twice a week, typically, "just taking a few files out." He added that because they are required to hold the records and new cases come in every day, the number of files is "going to keep on growing."

Presiding Commissioners Martin Priggel said the county needs to think about building a storage facility for county and court records.

In other Scott County business:

* The county is seeking insurance bids for the period from Aug. 11 through Aug. 11, 2004, with the option to renew for an additional year, according to Rita Milam, county clerk.

The county is seeking insurance coverage on county public property, road maintenance equipment, public officials' liability, general property liability, employment practices liability, employee benefits liability, law enforcement liability and employee crime coverage.

The request for bids asks that the law enforcement liability coverage be quoted separately.

Bids will be received until 11 a.m. July 31 when they will be opened by the commission at their regular meeting. Commissioners have the right to reject any and all bids.

Worker's Compensation insurance is presently provided to the county through the Missouri Association of Counties, and employee health insurance through Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield.

* Scott County Economic Developer Jim Schwaninger presented commissioners with economic comparisons of area counties including fourth quarter projections based on tracking data from the previous year.

"There's no real surprises," said Schwaninger. He noted forecasts of both the number of employed going up and the unemployment rate going up from 5.2 percent to 5.3 percent, explaining that is due to a larger workforce.

Unemployment in southeast Missouri counties is at 6.3 percent and the national unemployment rate is 6 percent.

"Retail sales are flat," said Schwaninger. "As the commission is facing rising costs, they face challenges."

* Commissioners appointed Terry Herndon to represent the county along with Priggel and Tim Porch, Scott City's mayor, on the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission's Transportation Committee.

* The budget will be amended to account for $22,000 received by the county from a cash seizure of drug money.

Sikeston and the SEMO Drug Task Force also received portions, Ferrell said.

Seizure money must be used by law enforcement "in the fight against crime," Ferrell said.