HERMANN — Residents along Stony Hill Road have succeeded in getting their road on the list of Gasconade County gravels to be upgraded with a chip-and-seal coating.

County Administrators historically have designed a couple roads each year to receive chip-and-seal coating, in preparation for eventual hard-surfacing with asphalt. It is a lengthy process: The county usually applies chip-and-seal to one-mile sections of a gravel road, sometimes a longer stretch if the prices come in below the amount initially set aside to pay for the work. County officials also try to upgrade a road in the Northern District and Southern District the same year.

Neil Traub, a resident of Stony Hill Road and one of the people responsible for having the highway placed on the list, was at Thursday’s County Commission session. He said all landowners along the road had agreed to give a right-of-way on their properties to the county — a key part of the process of converting a road from gravel to chip-and-seal. The right-of-way ensures county road crews adequate space for working on a road.

Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, told Traub that the length of road that will receive a coating depends on the finances available for the project.

“We’ll have to look at our budget,” he said. But, he added, the good new is “you guys should be next” for receiving an upgrade.

County government’s budget process for 2025 will begin this autumn when the County Clerk’s Office gathers funding requests from the various departments. The draft budget is crafted usually in December with the County Commission taking formal action on a spending plan in January. Although the new fiscal year begins Jan. 1, the Commission has until the end of the month to approve a budget for the new year. If for some reason a new budget is not in place by the end of January, county government would begin operating with the numbers contained in the previous year’s budget.

In other matters taken up during the Commission session, several bids for Road Department materials were awarded. Barry Kraus Foundations will be contracted to construct a hoop storage shed at the Road Department’s Drake site. The shed will be used to house winter materials such as road salt and cinders. The company offered to build the structure for $55,885 and was one of several companies submitting bids.

The contract for providing tires to the Road Department will go to Jost Tires of Owensville and all bids received for providing creek gravel were accepted. That means the Road Department can obtain creek gravel from any one of several providers, depending on the availability of the size of the gravel needed at that time. Accepting multiple bids for gravel is a common practice to ensure availability of the material.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, noted that all renovation on the exterior of the courthouse should be finished in two weeks. He said he hopes by then the main doors to the courthouse again can be opened for public use. While the work has been taking place on the courthouse — and while work was being done to install the elevator — the main southside entrance has been closed.

A public hearing will be held tomorrow as part of this week’s Commission session regarding the county’s application for a Community Development Bloc Grant (CDBG). A staffer with Meramec Regional Planning Commission, the agency that applies for grants on behalf of the region’s counties, is scheduled to attend the session to discuss the road projects that are proposed for the grant funding.