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The current county seal was designed by the presiding commissioner in 2018.
Due to public demand, St. Francois County Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher announced Tuesday that the county is looking at doing some redesigning of perhaps its most noticeable item, the county seal.
Gallaher spoke about it during the regular commission meeting.
“I understand that it’s a fever pitch on social media about the county seal," he said. "It was a rush deal way back when, I had two days for the public to come up with a seal and my design is proof positive that I am not artistically inclined.
St. Francois County's current seal was designed by Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher in 2018 and incorporates all of the components found in the earlier versions.
"I agree that we need something new. I offered several times that if someone wanted to redesign that seal to let us see what you have.
In 2018, Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher stands beside two earlier versions of the St. Francois County seal as he gives his "State of the County" address on Feb. 19 in the Farmington High School Field House. The original on the left is undated. The first revision on the right was implemented in 1982.
Gallaher stated that he would prefer to have the current symbols reused in some fashion, with an addition.
“I would like to add an element to the seal,” he said. “We are the Parkland and I would like for the seal to include some symbol about parks.”
There was some amusement about why Treasurer Parks Peterson — present at the meeting — would be on the seal.
“I would like the seal to not have much red color, it fades too quickly,” Gallaher said. “I would like it to be better than the seal we have now, which would be a slam dunk.”
As Gallaher said that he does not want to spend taxpayer money on designer fees, County Clerk Kevin Engler suggested having a contest. Gallaher agreed and Engler said that the parameters of the contest will be announced at the commission meeting next Tuesday.
In other business, county resident Logan Comfort approached to the commission to vacate some unused alleys off of Long Road in Hurryville.
Gallaher asked, “Are those alleyways developed?”
Comfort answered no. “They’re wooded, you would have no idea they are there.”
Highway Administrator John Gross spoke up. “It used to be a rail town, the railroad runs just to the south of it. It was platted in 1902.”
Road and Bridge Superintendent Clay Copeland added, “We run into this in a variety of areas throughout St. Francois County where an area was plotted out to be a development and then it never transpires.”
The commission approved the posting of necessary notifications to vacate the right of ways. The commission would approve the vacation during the first regular meeting in April if there are no objections from the public.
Gross approached the commission to begin the abandonment of Doss Road.
“The city of Park Hills is interested in starting the maintenance of this section of the roadway,” he said. “It is a dead-end road and the city limits are all the way around it.”
We have a tractor that we would be selling… They are interested in the tractor. So, instead of us overlaying Doss Road and getting it back into pristine condition, they have agreed to take the road in as-is for the trade of the tractor, which is less than the maintenance costs to get it back up to specifications.”
Gallaher asked, “What would it take to get that road fixed?”
Gross answered, “About $50,000. The tractor is worth about $30,000. There’s two other pieces that MoDOT has not finalized yet that will come back to the county. One is the east side of the Fairgrounds exchange. After so many years, that had to come back to the county when MoDOT acquired that property. The other one is the Rosener Road interchange that we currently maintain that the city of Park Hills is interested in as well.”
Copeland stated that Park Hills has agreed to absorb those roads also as part of the Doss Road agreement.
The commission approved the posting of necessary notifications to vacate Doss Road.
The county clerk opened sealed bids for uniform services for county employees to be studied by county officials. Approval of a bid is planned for the next regular meeting.
St. Francois County Coroner Jason Coplin asks for a second assistant coroner during the county commission meeting.
County Coroner Jason Coplin asked the commission to approve the hiring of Deputy Matt Wampler as a second assistant coroner.
“We won’t use him a whole lot, but we need a third person in the county to help out,” he said. “We were at over 600 calls last year and this year is probably going to be the same way or more.”
The commission approved the appointment with a supplemental pay of $5,000 per year.
Maintenance Supervisor Brian Briley asked the commission to hire Roberts Alarm Systems to replace the fire alarms in the courthouse and annex.
“The fire alarm has been going off in the courthouse randomly,” he said. “As of now we have Tech Electronics. I had them come down, it was like $650 for the service call and they said the board is bad. They wanted $8,500 to do a board change. I looked at the bills. We pay lots of money to Tech Electronics. I reached out to a couple of local vendors.”
Roberts' cost to replace the panel would be $2,800, with a $240 per year monitoring fee and a $100 inspection fee. The commission approved the purchase.
Gallaher appointed Public Administrator Gary Matheny as Fair Housing Officer for the county. The position is required for various grant applications and would be at no extra cost.
The commission then approved the remittances of operational costs for the 24th Judicial Circuit for 2022. The remittance for Circuit Judges is $143,489.70; the remittance for Circuit Marshal is $3,523.84 and the remittance for Circuit Court Reporter is $3,083.36.
The commission announced a special public meeting Thursday at 2 p.m. at the annex to open bids for camera and phone wiring at the jail and open bids for jail construction projects.
The next St. Francois County Commission meeting will be Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. on the third floor of the courthouse annex.
Mark Marberry is a reporter for the Farmington Press and Daily Journal. He can be reached at 573-518-3629, or at mmarberry@farmingtonpressonline.com
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The current county seal was designed by the presiding commissioner in 2018.
St. Francois County's current seal was designed by Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher in 2018 and incorporates all of the components found in the earlier versions.
In 2018, Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher stands beside two earlier versions of the St. Francois County seal as he gives his "State of the County" address on Feb. 19 in the Farmington High School Field House. The original on the left is undated. The first revision on the right was implemented in 1982.
St. Francois County Coroner Jason Coplin asks for a second assistant coroner during the county commission meeting.
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