The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Carthage, Jasper County

Discussion

September 18, 2008

Commissioners hear moving-plan update

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Managers of a Joplin-area mobile home park are offering help to occupants of a mobile-home park near Carthage that is closing because of problems with its sewer system.

Help for the park was sought by members of the Jasper County Commission after learning that some of the residents had not found a place to move and didn’t have the resources to relocate their trailers.

Sam and Tiffany Frye-Biggs, of Country Acres Mobile Home Community, told commissioners on Thursday that the owner of the park on the northeastern outskirts of Joplin in offering mobile-home space and other help.

“We have 37 lots, so we could take all of them if they want to come,” said Tiffany Frye-Biggs. “He’s also offering free lot rent for several months, and help with hookups and skirting for those who need it.”

About 25 mobile homes are left in the Country Club Mobile Home Park on Airport Drive, just east of Carthage. The park at one point had 44 homes, but some already have left in response to an Oct. 31 deadline. The decision to close the park was made by the owners after the wastewater system was cited by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The state said discharges from the park’s lagoon were in violation of the law, and park owners would have to build a new on-site sewer system, connect to the Carthage city sewer system, or end discharges by closing the park. Residents were informed of the planned closing in July.

Commissioners also discussed another planned relocation that will come if the county seeks funding to buy out frequently flooded property in part of Kendricktown, north of Carthage.

Fewer than half of the eligible properties have responded to letters about the buyout sent by the county, said Steve Lett of Tri-State Engineering and manager of the county’s flood-plain program. He said owners of four properties, among 10 that have been affected by flooding, have expressed an interest in the project. He has not heard from the rest, he said.

“We’ve sent letters, and I’ve tried every other way I know to reach them,” he said.

John Bartosh, presiding commissioner, noted the panel had pursued the buyout in response to residents after flooding earlier this year.

“But maybe it’s not as bad as we thought,” he said.

Commissioners asked Lett to continue to try to contact the remaining residents.

In other action, commissioners agreed to seek requests for proposals from firms interested in supplying a reverse-911 system. If approved, the system would be bought by the county and operated by the Jasper County Emergency Services Board, and used for notification of county residents in emergencies. The two entities would share purchase costs, Bartosh said.

The commission is working on a project to install storm-warning sirens in smaller communities and the reverse-911 program would supplement that effort in even more rural areas.

With a reverse-911 system, a specific geographic area can be identified, and telephones in that area called automatically with warning information.

Rich Nordell, executive director of the board, said the county operation has a reverse-911 system, but it is an older system, and cumbersome and time-consuming to use. The county board has telephone and location information for all the traditional, land-line telephones that would be served, but residents using only cell phones would have to supply their phone numbers, he said.

Commissioners voted to endorse a proposal by Sarcoxie to annex road right of way owned by the Missouri Department of Transportation to link the city to commercial property in which owners are interested in voluntary annexation.

The panel heard from city officials a week ago, then asked additional questions in a meeting with some city officials and the city attorney, said Darieus Adams, Western District commissioner.

“We had some questions, and we got them answered,” he said.

Jim Honey, Eastern District associate commissioner, said officials of MoDOT have offered the county a maintenance building that the state previously used in Avilla. Honey said he will look at the building, but it was uncertain whether the county has a use for it.







Road purchase, project

On motions from Jim Honey, the County Commission approved the purchase of a tractor and boom-arm mower from Murrell Equipment of Carthage at a cost of $77,329, and a contract for bridge repairs on County Road 175 south of Route HH with Mar-Jim Contracting, at a cost of $10,733.

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Carthage, Jasper County
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