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The Dent County Commissioners met for their regular meeting at the Dent County Courthouse Thursday morning. In the road report, District 1 Commissioner Dennis Purcell reported that the Doss and Turtle area has received four and a half inches of rain over the past couple of days causing many washouts and road crews have been busy patching those roads. Purcell also said that a crew would be putting up road signs and doing routine maintenance on the durapatcher. District 2 Commissioner Gary Larson reported that most of the District 2 road crew would be in the Boss area patching various roads and cutting brush on Dent County Road 5260. Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles reported that he attended an Ozarks River Solid Waste Management Board meeting on Tuesday in St. James where the main topic of discussion was grant applications and yesterday afternoon he attended an Economic Development Peer Review for MRPC in St. James. At the previous meeting, the Commission appointed Kevin Prugh from Green Forest R-2 School to the Enhanced Enterprise Zone Board. Prugh was appointed to fill the vacant position that represents the rural schools. Also at that meeting, the Commission heard from Manuel Gearhart, who brought in a petition requesting that a counter be placed on Dent County Road 6190. The next meeting of the Commission will be Monday morning at 9:00 and that meeting is open to the public.

The Salem Memorial District Hospital Board of Directors received the annual audit report Thursday night before the regular meeting from BK&D CPA’s and Advisors for the fiscal year 2009 and it was extremely positive. Eddie Marmouget from BK&D stated that the hospital cash investments over the past year increased over one million dollars mainly because of the reduction of the days monies were in account receivable down to 40 days while the Missouri Rural average is 54 days. He said that the inpatient revenue in 2009 was down about 20% from 2008, but the emergency room revenue was up almost 30% and outpatient revenues were also way up. He reported that the cash and short-term investments increased by $160,644 or 7.6 % in 2009, and the hospital operating income was $213,893 in 2009. Marmouget stated that the hospital had total assets of $12,097,804 as of June 30^th, 2009, and that showed a net increase in assets of $745,324. He said that the hospital had increased their debt with an interest free loan from Intercounty Electric for Physician’s Office Building 3 as well as two capital leases. That raised the long-term debt to capitalization ratio to 15.6% which is still well below the Missouri Rural Hospital average of 27%. Marmouget did report that 80% of the hospital income is derived from Medicare while the average is 62.70% for rural hospitals. He went on to say that the Salem Hospital is very frugal as they have gross revenues of only $6,291 per discharged patient with operating expenses of $3,084 per discharged patient. The Rural Missouri norm is $14,007 gross revenues per discharged patient and $6,468 operating expenses per discharged patient. Marmouget went on to say that the hospital showed no material weaknesses and was very resilient to a weak economic market giving credit to their outstanding control of expenses that resulted in an increase in cash at the end of the year of $1,396,129.

An accident occurred at 8:35am Thursday morning in Dent County on route H six miles west of Salem. According to the Highway Patrol report a 2004 International truck driven by 21-year-old John Hill of Salem was traveling west on route H. The accident occurred as the vehicle ran off the right side of the road, as it did the driver overcorrected causing the vehicle to return to the road and overturn. Hill suffered minor injuries and sought own treatment. Hill was not wearing a safety restraint at the time of the accident. The Truck sustained extensive damage and was removed from the scene by Whitakers towing.

An accident occurred on Saturday, September 19^th at 8:36 pm on Virginia Avenue in Salem. According to the Salem Police report, a 1990 Cadillac Fleetwood driven by Zachary Parsons and owned by Crystal Parsons of Salem was traveling northbound on Virginia Avenue. Parsons was talking on a cell phone and did not see a parked and unoccupied 1990 Chevrolet 1500 and struck the Chevrolet. No injuries were reported. Both vehicles sustained extensive damage.

The Seasonal Flu Clinic will be held Thursday, October 1^st, at the Salem Freedom Activity Center sponsored by the Dent County Health Center. The clinic will be held from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM and the cost will be $20. Medicare or Medicaid will be accepted at the clinic.

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