Amount collected from the internet use sales tax surprisingly up in February
The Ozark County Courthouse was decked out over the weekend with a new seal, affixed to the east side entrance. The commissioners said that Alan Kyle of Ozark Metalworks in Theodosia redesigned the new county seal and completed the metal piece. The seal features a farm scene, water sports on the lake, fishing, county mills, wildlife and more. It says “Ozark County, Missouri. Linking the Pride of the Past to the Promise of the Future.” “We loved our old logo,” said Ozark County Clerk Brian Wise. “But it was dated and…now we have a professional logo.” Kyle has been redesigning and updating metal signs in Theodosia, and his talent caught the eye of county officials. The community feedback so far has been “awesome,” said Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton. Times photos/Jessi Dreckman
Ozark County Commissioners were happy to say that the highly contested “use tax” took in a larger than average amount of money during the month of February.
According to Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton, Ozark County collected just under $34,000 from the use tax in February, up from the average of $27,000 a month that is normally collected.
“Last month (February) was the best month we had,” said Newton. “You wouldn’t think February would be that high, and I thought it would be down. I talked to the Oregon County commissioner, and they were way off (lower) last month and they didn’t know why. But we’re still clicking right on where we were hoping we would be.”
The commissioners say they understand there is still a lot of misunderstanding about the tax but want to again assure residents that this only allows the county to collect sales tax on items bought online.
“It’s money we were paying anyway,” said County Clerk Brian Wise. “I personally think if I’m paying the tax on it, it better end up in the hands of the people who are in the county I live in.”
SB190
Newton said that several people have come in to file for the SB190, the state approved policy allowing residents age 62 and oldera to freeze property taxes on a portion of the real estate property they own.
“Honestly you can come in here and as long as you have your driver’s license or your voter registration card, you can get everything to fill that out here in the courthouse and be done in 20 minutes,” said Newton.
Newton went on to say that Ozark County Assessor Jama Berry created a “cheat sheet” that informs people which office they need to go to and what they need from each office.
Emergency radios and helping VFDs
Ozark County Emergency Management Director Curtis Ledbetter informed the commissioners that he has a meeting this week with RCS, the company updating the radios for the fire departments in the county.
“They’re coming down…and hopefully get the radios for the fire departments where they’re working a little bit better,” he said. “They’re going to send teams out to each department and reprogram [the radios]because we’re getting off the all sheriff’s [radio channel] and onto the new countywide [channel]. So this should help [with dispatching].”
Because of the number of fires in the county in the past month and the massive wildfire in Douglas County along the Ozark County line, Western District Commissioner Layne Nance took the opportunity to point out that bottled drinking water and snacks would greatly help the volunteer fire departments while they are fighting fires. “I’m wishing we could get something going and get a whole bunch donated, and then I [will] haul around the water and snacks [to the departments.]”
“They’re out there for hours,” said Newton. “They don’t have time to put a lunch together and take it with them.”
The county also set a date of April 14 to take bids for cutting edges. (For more information, a public notice will run in the paper April 2 and 9)
The Ozark County Commissioners hold a regular weekly meeting at 9 a.m. on Mondays in the upstairs meeting room in the Ozark County Courthouse in Gainesville. Meetings are open to the public.