Happy Birthdays For September

As the Summer sands pass through the hourglass so do the days of our lives. O.K., so it doesn't go exactly like that on the soap opera but it does provide a nice segue into this months birthday wishes.

We hope the trio of collector's celebrating this month all attend the meeting on the 12th so we can give them their personal greetings!!!

Bev Vasser (Cheriton) September 10

Anita Dunkle (Monroe) September 17

Janice Varner (Barry) September 19

See you in Jeff City!

Tax Sale Follow-up

I've felt blessed to not have more than 45 or so properties each year since 2003. But while thinking about Monday's sale and how things went and mulling over whether we need to change anything about our approach and presentation I got to thinking how nice it would be to not have a sale at all.

That led me then to wondering who had the fewest properties to offer? I think Wayne Scharnhorst (Howell, had 3 in 2006), Jeanette Ronchetto(Macon) left a message late last week that they were down to 8 with hopes of trimming the total to five.

If you wouldn't mind responding give me your name, county and total number of parcels you offered at this year's sale. Also, feel free to leave a note about what single thing you do that you believe plays a role in getting you down to your final number.

Click the comment button at the bottom of this story and I will publish your response ASAP.

TGIO Means Thank God It's Over!

Here's the final numbers from this years delinquent land tax auction.

We took 45 properties and sold 42 with 3 no bids.

We also took 5 properties to auction on behalf of two of our municipalities. 4 of those sold with 1 no bid.

In all $31, 228.69 county tax dollars were collected while $406.38 was collected for the cities. We also deposited over $26,000 into the school fund.

15 different people purchased property at Monday's sale.

Numbers looked bleak going into last Friday as we had 82 eligible parcels. We had 31 pay Friday and 6 more pay the morning of the sale to get us to our starting point. The 45 we took to auction was the highest number (by one) that we've offered since my first sale in 2003.

How did you do at your sale? Everyone wants to know. Click the word "comments" and I will get your response published ASAP.

Presidential Appointments

Also part of the letter which announced the upcoming September meeting was news from President Cockrum (Clinton) of her committee appointments.

Forming a Department of Revenue Committee is Margie Bowman (Chairperson, Ray), Lee Viorel (Marion), Jim Platt (Bates), Brent Karhoff (Knox), Ted Nichols (Christian), Wayne Scharnhorst (Howell), Donna Nash (Platte), Pat Lensmeyer (Boone).

As you know there have been discussions concerning the counties going online with tax information and the DOR urging us to continue to sell duplicate receipts. DOR has been and is still in a transition period and there is a lot of room for our Assn. and the DOR to work together to make things simpler and easier on the taxpayers and the body assembled by Sharon should be able to help pave the way to improvements.

President Cockrum also appointed a technology committee. Skip Rich (Cole), Mary Noel (Nodaway), Mary Hampton (Wayne), Steve Pickering (LaClede), Ted Nichols (Christian), and Jim Otey (Newton).

Pam Shipley (Cass) proposed at our last meeting to have Official Payments hold a meeting for counties currently using the company for online, credit card, or phone payments and for any county who may have an interest in using O.P. for any of the available services.

The meeting would be designed as an open ended meeting to open up avenues of communication between the county collector and the company.

Pam reports she believes O.P. is close to arranging a time and date for such a meeting and assures everyone they will be notified once tentative plans are firmed up.

Make Your Plans Now

I don;t know why you wouldn't have but just in case you didn't receive a letter from President Sharon Cockrum (Clinton) the association is having an organizational meeting in Jefferson City next month.

September 12 is the date with the meeting being called to order at 9:30.

For those wanting to go up the night before Steve Holt (Jasper) has secured a block of rooms at two different hotels. The Capital Plaza has rooms for $71.07 which I am told includes the lodging tax. Call 573-635-1234 ASAP.

The Hampton Inn also has rooms set aside with the rate of $69.30 that does not include any state or lodging taxes. Call 573-634-7440 ASAP and make sure to tell either reservation desk you are with the Collector's Assn.

Assn. Treasurer Brent Karhoff (Knox) needs an RSVP by September 7.

The meeting coincides with the run up to the start of a new tax season as well as the scheduled veto session for the legislature so there should be plenty of discussion on the agenda.

Tax Sale Update

After laboring for weeks the pace has finally picked up on our tax sale property collections. At times this summer we have been as many as 30 properties behind the same date a year ago.

The last few days have been beneficial as we have lowered our number of eligible properties to 117 which is 13 ahead of the close of business one year ago.

How's everyones tax sale coming along? Let me know if you like by clicking the comments button at the bottom of this story!

Joke Of The Week

44 parrots are missing after having been stolen from a pet shop...The birds are valued at more than $55,000....

Case should be solved soon....the suspect should be quick to return them once he learns the birds talk even more than his wife......


Speaking of wives.....You hear about the cop that pulled over his wife under suspicion of driving under the influence? First time he did it the wife left the scene....the second time the officer called for back-up......

Asked about the prospects of his wife going to jail...the officer said he was most looking forward to the conjugal visits.


The N.B.A. referee charged in a gambling ring bust has pleaded guilty and faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and a half million dollar fine....Tim Donaghy will obviously never referee another n.b.a. game......In return for his guilty plea the ref is reportedly asking for the black and white stripes on the prison issue jump suits to run vertically instead of horizontally........

Can anyone familiar with the lore of prison life guess which kind of games Donaghy will now be refereeing?

Joke Of The Week

The Space Shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for an evening lift off from Florida.

The lift off had been delayed by a leaky valve in the cabin.....and to give astronauts time to recover after learning that past references to Jack Daniels weren't about an astronaut.

Of course the revelation being made last week that some space pilots have taken flight drunk...there won't be any of that this time around as a teacher will be on board. Barbara Morgan is a teacher turned astronaut...her crew mates are glad to have her on board....but have asked her not to delay their experiments with a pop quiz.

Have you ever heard the one about the guy..the monkey and the airplane??

No really...this week a guy flying from Peru to the U.S. smuggled a monkey onto the flight by hiding the fist sized primate under his hat.

Nobody noticed!! Until a passenger saw the monkey hanging on the guy's ponytail. As you can imagine customs agents weren't pleased....the guy might face charges...sounds like the monkey is headed for a zoo...but only if they find he's not a member of Al Qaeda.

The smuggling is also expected to spark debate on Capital Hill..re-visiting the same argument of whether amnesty should be granted to illegals who find work in this country.

Happy Birthdays!

August is a big month for birthdays and we even have two sets of collectors who have the same birthdate. I always wondered why they kept completing each others sentences.

Best birthday wishes to:

Charla Royer (Madison) Aug 11

Pam Shipley (Cass) Aug 12

Jeanette Ronchetto (Macon) Aug 19
Jayne Helton (Maries) Aug 19


Tammy Cantrell(Texas) Aug 30
Connie Berry (Ralls) Aug 30

Hope you all have great birthdays!!!!


If you know the birthday of a collector friend drop me a line by clicking the comment bar at the bottom of this story!