The Cape Girardeau County commission approved a contract with B&B Media to create a new website for the county on Aug. 23.
Information Technology Director Eric McGowen said B&B Media, which was one of five companies who submitted proposals for the website redesign, was the only company that met all of the specifications for the bid.
“It was a very solid proposal and it also happened to be the proposal with the lowest cost,” McGowen said. The website will have an initial cost of $29,677, with an ongoing annual cost of $1,419 for support and website hosting.
McGowen said B&B Media’s proposal included a new website that will have consistent desktop and mobile experiences, as well as be searchable. In addition, each department will be able to publish content on the site without having to involve the County’s information technology department or B&B Media.
B&B Media will also provide a third-party audit of the new website to make sure it is ADA compliant before it launches.
In other action
• The commissioners set a tax rate hearing for the County’s property tax rates at 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 30. The county general revenue tax rate is proposed to be $0.058, down from $0.075 last year.
The rate for Senior Services is proposed to increase from $0.0478 to $0.0479, the rate for Mental Health is proposed to increase from $0.0772 to $0.0773 and the rate for Senate Bill 40 is proposed to increase from $0.0553 to $0.0554.
• The commissioners approved a new agreement between the County and the City of Delta, with the county collecting local taxes for the City of Delta.
Collector Barbara Gholson said the County previously completed new agreements in 2019 with every city the County collects taxes for, but the County was not able to get a new agreement from Delta two years ago.
Gholson added that the collection of Delta taxes never ended, despite not having an updated agreement in 2019, because the former agreement with the City said the collection will continue unless one of the two government entities tells the other that they wanted to end the agreement.
The new agreement includes the current city and county officials, as the former agreement with Delta included officials no longer involved with the city and county.
• The County put out a request for proposals to upgrade the controlled door access for approximately 14 doors throughout the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson said the doors will be upgraded to a swipe card system. She said several of the doors currently have keypad entries that are dying and replacement parts are difficult to find.
The commission also approved a $2,069 emergency repair to fix one of the controlled-access doors at the county jail. The cost came out of the sheriff’s fund.
• The commissioners approved the purchase of new highway department equipment including two pickup trucks for $31,470 each, which are expected to be delivered in spring 2022.
The commissioners approved the purchase of a new boom truck to be used to trim trees and repair buildings for $129,256. Commissioner Paul Koeper said the current boom truck is 20 years old.
The commissioners also approved to replace its larger excavator, which is six years old. The county will trade in the current excavator for $121,000, making the new excavator cost $93,400 for the county.
