A Gasconade County administrator has pledged to investigate the cause of the cellular telephone problems that have plagued some county AT&T customers since shortly before the Independent Day weekend.

Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, quickly polled those attending Thursday morning’s County Commission session held in Owensville City Hall about whether they have been experiencing cell phone problems recently. Many of those in attendance indicated that, indeed, they have been experiencing problems — from dropped calls to complete outages of the local cell phone network.

Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Maj. Roger Armstrong, attending the Commission in place of Sheriff Scott Eiler, said there have been problems noted in the Swiss area, where the sheriff’s agency substation is located. “It’s horrible,” he said of the cell phone service in that area.

Many residents in the northwest portion of the county, in particular, continue to contend with spotty phone service, issues that began when a storm passed through the area the night of July 3 dumping heavy rain on the northern portion of the county. One report of the possible cause was that stormwater damaged equipment at the site of the AT&T tower in Gasconade.

Another explanation that was given to Holland upon his initial check with AT&T personnel was that cell equipment was being converted from 4G to 5G and that the change might adversely affect older cell phones. But residents of the area said they were not notified by AT&T that a change was being made and their phones might be affected.

Service in the northwest part of the county — the area served by the tower in Gasconade — was completely out during the Independence Day weekend. An AT&T representative told one resident who inquired after traveling into Hermann to use his phone the problem was expected to be remedied by late Sunday of that weekend. It wasn’t and when service did return later the next day, it was spotty at best. More than a month later customers in that part of the county continue to experience problems with the network.

In fact, Holland mentioned that while traveling from Hermann toward Washington he experienced a call being dropped three times before he could conclude his conversation.

“I’m going to go ahead and make some phone calls” again to AT&T, he said during the session. “Maybe we can do something, maybe we can’t.”

License agreement inked

In other matters taken up during last week’s session, the Commission signed a license agreement with the Missouri Division of Parks regarding the development of the Rock Island Line Trail as it runs through the unincorporated portions of the county. Under the agreement, the state parks agency will maintain the 28-mile section of the trail.

Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, expressed his gratitude to the state parks agency personnel on hand.

“I appreciate all your hard work,” he said. “I think it’s a good asset to the community. I think it’s a benefit to the county and the area in general,” he added.

Also on hand for the signing was State Rep. Bruce Sassmann, R-Bland. His support of making the Rock Island Line Trail part of the state parks system was noted by Lairmore.

“Bruce has been on it since Day 1,” the associate commissioner said, adding that many other area residents were instrumental in moving the trail project along.

One of those was Mark Schaeperkoetter, who said the efforts of a local group to cultivate support for development of the trail as it enters Franklin County east of Rosebud was met coolly by Franklin County officials. He said the group was finding it difficult to talk with the Franklin County Commission about the effort, so they are leaving efforts to further develop the trail in Franklin to a similar group in that county.

Meanwhile, Owensville city officials told the Commission that efforts are continuing in exploring the possibility of creating a fire protection district to service the area. Now, the area receives fire protection service from a combination of funding from a city taxpayer allocation for fire protection services and dues paid in to the Owensville Rural Fire Protective Association.

The long-term goal, according to city officials, is to have a fire protection district with at least a day crew of paid three or four firefighters. That’s because the all-volunteer fire agency now in place is finding it more difficult to have enough firefighters on hand during a call, especially during daytime hours, as a result of more employers being reluctant to have their workers leave their jobs to respond to a call.

“It’s becoming a challenge,” said Owensville Mayor Kevin McFadden who was sitting in on the Commission’s meeting.

Area fire departments also face daytime manpower issues during times of steady and high-level employment which takes potential firemen out of the area for work, according to Jeff Arnold, chief of the Owensville department (see related story on page 1)