The Cape Girardeau County Commission voted Monday to accept an adjustment of nearly $50,000 in the county's 2021 workers' compensation cost -- in the county's favor.

"We received our annual work comp invoice for 2021 and the premium came in at $124,368, which is a 38.3% reduction in our premium from last year," county payroll director Gina Snyder told the commissioners during their Monday morning meeting.

"It's definitely going in the right direction," said Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy, who attributed much of the premium reduction to the county's ongoing training programs and implementation of policies designed to improve on-the-job safety.

This year, workers' compensation coverage cost the county approximately $172,000.

"And three years ago, I think we were at $325,000 because of some injuries we had," First District Commissioner Paul Koeper said. "We had to do something, so we implemented safety programs in the sheriff's department and the county highway department."

Those programs, Koeper said, have made a big difference.

"I think our whole county organization has done a great job decreasing injury accidents. I'm very proud of that," he said. "Our goal has always been safety. We want all of our workers to go home with the same amount of fingers and toes they came to work with. That's our primary goal."

Playgrounds, bridges and aerial photography

Last week, commission members gave their consent to proceed with replacement of a pair of bridges on county roads 420 and 436. At Monday's meeting, Koeper said he received word the bridge replacements have been endorsed by the Missouri Department of Transportation and the work qualifies for funding through a state bridge replacement program.

The next step, Koeper said, will be to hire an engineering firm to design the new spans. He said construction itself "may happen in 2021, but it will be in the latter part of the year."

In other business Monday, the commissioners approved a proposal from Hutchinson Recreation and Design to replace playground equipment and rubber mulch surfacing at shelters 20 and 21 in Cape County Park South at a cost of $80,000. Half the cost will be paid through a state grant, according to county park superintendent Bryan Sander, who said the work will take place in 2021.

The commissioners Monday also approved a single-source purchase agreement with EagleView Technologies of Rochester, New York, in the amount of $274,432.35 for aerial photography of all property in the county on behalf of the county assessor's office.

According to County Assessor Bob Adams, aerial mapping of county property has been done every three years since 2009 and is used by his office in property mapping and assessment projects. Part of the cost, Adams said, will be paid by the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

"We haven't signed anything with them yet, but we have a pretty good idea of what they're going to do," Adams said. "There is some discussion about others participating (in the cost) as well."

COVID-19 expenses

The county commissioners Monday approved two expenditures from the county's Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act fund:

• $28,188.33 to Southeast Hospital for an emergency generator to power a temporary field hospital wing outside the hospital's emergency department. The hospital is using the temporary facility as a triage space for up to 16 patients during the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Up to $48,000 to the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center to pay for the cost of outsourced contact tracing in December.

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