#permaculture
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Kurt Croix
npub17w98...drc6
Running for County Clerk in Ray County Missouri
24 members of Richmond FFA came to the farm this morning to learn about Regenerative Agriculture. 
We need this generation to learn that farming isn't about growing plants or raising livestock, it's about caring for the soil. If you do that, then regardless of what your farm produces, you will be more resilient and independent.
“Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man.”
- George Washington
"The small landholders are the most precious part of a state"
- Thomas Jefferson
We need this generation to learn that farming isn't about growing plants or raising livestock, it's about caring for the soil. If you do that, then regardless of what your farm produces, you will be more resilient and independent.
“Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man.”
- George Washington
"The small landholders are the most precious part of a state"
- Thomas Jefferson
I created a dashboard and budget explorer for the Ray County's budget for '25: https://shorturl.at/kk6xK
The budget explorer let's you drill down into each fund, to the accounts that make it up, to the transactions that occured for each account. Also, the raw data is freely available now: https://shorturl.at/kD3Q0
If elected to Clerk, I will make this data available in real time, so we don't have to wait until the year is over to find out who's over spending.
I used to work on a team of data scientists and built data mining algorithms for 2 years as a researcher for the University of Missouri when I was an undergrad, so this was a fun little evening project refreshing those skills. I had to reverse engineer the 300+ page pdf that the county provides to get the raw data before even doing anything with it unfortunately.
Today's Commissioner's meeting is available on most podcast apps or here: https://shorturl.at/OgSv7
Summary: The county commission opened with an invocation and the approval of previous meeting minutes. Key discussions focused on rising medical costs for county inmates, prompting officials to explore discount programs and alternative options to manage high prescription expenses. The commission reviewed ARPA fund management, noting a total receipt of $4.4 million in federal funds. A major update came from Great River Engineering regarding the Homestead Village wastewater treatment facility. Following a $202,000 bid approval, officials emphasized expediting invoices to ensure project completion by the September 30th deadline. The meeting also covered county jail maintenance and security camera upgrades before concluding with a motion to adjourn.
The budget explorer let's you drill down into each fund, to the accounts that make it up, to the transactions that occured for each account. Also, the raw data is freely available now: https://shorturl.at/kD3Q0
If elected to Clerk, I will make this data available in real time, so we don't have to wait until the year is over to find out who's over spending.
I used to work on a team of data scientists and built data mining algorithms for 2 years as a researcher for the University of Missouri when I was an undergrad, so this was a fun little evening project refreshing those skills. I had to reverse engineer the 300+ page pdf that the county provides to get the raw data before even doing anything with it unfortunately.
Today's Commissioner's meeting is available on most podcast apps or here: https://shorturl.at/OgSv7
Summary: The county commission opened with an invocation and the approval of previous meeting minutes. Key discussions focused on rising medical costs for county inmates, prompting officials to explore discount programs and alternative options to manage high prescription expenses. The commission reviewed ARPA fund management, noting a total receipt of $4.4 million in federal funds. A major update came from Great River Engineering regarding the Homestead Village wastewater treatment facility. Following a $202,000 bid approval, officials emphasized expediting invoices to ensure project completion by the September 30th deadline. The meeting also covered county jail maintenance and security camera upgrades before concluding with a motion to adjourn.
May 6th Commissioner's meeting: https://shorturl.at/2sbx3
The commission decided not to implement the free tool I built for planning and zoning over 3 months ago because "we're not ready to move forward with something new" even though P&Zs reaction to the tool was "I'm excited about anything that makes my job easier".
Summary:
The county commission addressed several administrative and zoning matters during this session.
The board approved a resolution recognizing the National Day of Prayer and tabled the approval of previous meeting minutes and invoices until the following day.
A significant portion of the meeting involved a public hearing for a B2 commercial rezoning request on a 0.85-acre parcel currently operating as a used car lot. Following discussion regarding the size of the lot and enforcement concerns, the commission voted to remand the request back to the Planning and Zoning Board for further review and to allow the property owners to present their case.
Other discussions included potential asphalt projects in partnership with the City of Richmond and updates on road and bridge issues. The commission also decided to hold off on implementing a new planning and zoning software tool.
PS: if you were looking for the podcast in the past couple weeks, sorry it was down, the host had a bug and I didn't realize until this week.
In the paper again...
Small lies in public likely mean bigger ones are going on in closed meetings and records. For example, was public PII implicated when the county was hacked last year? Their answer was "no, just trust us" and refusal of multiple sunshine requests regarding what was breached.
#grownostr #accountability
#grownostr #accountability
Community-powered road condition reporting: Part 3 of projects I'm doing to give the public a sample of things I can provide if elected Ray County Clerk.
FtheRoads.com - F is for Fix
A lot of our roads are getting neglected, and even when we report them to the Commissioner's, nothing happens. Using this tool to report your road issue means your report is public, is automatically routed to the right road district and can't simply be deleted or modified by anyone but you.
CAVEAT: The email routing being correct assumes the emails I was given for special districts and the GIS boundaries are accurate.
Commissioner's meeting 4/15: 
I started recording as soon as I entered the building because of an altercation last week, so skip ahead a bit.
Summary:
The county commission meeting opened with the approval of minutes and a brief update on facility concrete improvements. A key discussion focused on Child Abuse Awareness Month. The commission agreed to draft a proclamation, designate Wednesday, April 22nd, as "Wear Blue Day," and engage local schools. Additionally, the commission issued a public notice reminding attendees that conversations in the courtroom may be recorded. Later, officials opened bids for the Homestead water project but found that none were submitted. Staff were directed to contact potential contractors and extend the bid deadline. The session concluded with a review of the upcoming schedule.
For a detailed description check out the app in any podcasting app.
Full transcription visit the episode page:
Spotify
Ray County Commissioner's Meeting 4/15
Croix4Clerk · Episode
PODSTR - Nostr Podcast Platform
A decentralized podcast platform powered by Nostr protocol
"Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice"
Isaiah 10:1-2
Automated transcription and summaries of Commissioner's meetings: Part 2 of projects I'm doing to give the public a sample of things I can provide if elected Ray County Clerk.
Each time I livestream the commissioners meeting, it is reposted an hour later as a podcast. Now you have transcripts, and 2 summaries (one high level and one in detail). No longer do we have to wait around for a document that isn't searchable or accurate.
April 8th short summary:
The county commission addressed several infrastructure and administrative issues. A significant discussion occurred regarding a planned office bathroom renovation, with employees raising concerns about potential asbestos, lead paint, and a lack of temporary facilities during construction. The commission agreed to investigate these newly raised issues. Road maintenance was also discussed, highlighting a need for more grader operators and ongoing training. The commission considered raising the Eagleton Civic Center rental fee from $175 to $225, with $50 allocated to the Senior Board, but tabled the decision pending a formal written agreement defining maintenance responsibilities. Other topics included bridge inspections, a road agreement with Missouri Conservation, and resolving a vendor billing dispute.
Spotify
Ray County Commissioner's Meeting 4/8
Croix4Clerk · Episode
Thoughts on the colors? I can't tell if it's just my colorblindness or if the blue on red makes it hard to read. #asknostr
If someone figured out a way to require zaps be kyc'd I would gladly fund my entire campaign on them.
These Spotify pods start as @Shosho – Live Stream on Nostr live streams , get converted to @podstr pods and I'm working on transcription rn.
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@Derek Ross
Ray County Commissioner's Meeting 4/2:
(Actual meeting starts 13:50)
The Commissioner's acknowledge they're violating state statute 49.265 for the 3rd time by closing the building on Friday without publishing in the paper (
I notify the Commissioner's that per state statute, MO is a 1 party state and I will not be removing any broadcast or stream of these meetings going forward (I offered to set this up for them for free months ago and they declined).
I notify the Commissioner's that I will be building a site for folks to easily submit and track requests to the county for road maintenance.
Bri Rock discussed some other road issues specifically about training the new workers after all of the turnover that dept has had lately.
Bryan Couch discusses the report from the break in at the Eagleton Center.
Motion is modified on the demolition of the Henrietta overpass.
Another citizen asks some questions about the Henrietta bridge.
Bri Rock asks about county treasury for roads.
Papers get signed.
Break is taken to look at construction, meeting is closed later.
Spotify
Ray County Commissioner's Meeting 4/2
Croix4Clerk · Episode
Missouri Revisor of Statutes - Revised Statutes of Missouri(RSMo)
Revised Statutes of Missouri, Missouri laws
Howdy y'all, my name is Kurt Croix and today I'm publicly announcing my candidacy for Ray County Clerk. I've lived here for four years and the lack of transparency in the courthouse has concerned me.
My slogan is "Proof, not Promises", so I'll be dropping projects on the lead up to the election that show what I'm going to do to fix these transparency issues. The first is a podcast feed of the Commissioner's meetings. I've been live streaming them and automated the conversion to a podcast feed so you can listen to them at any time. They're not the greatest quality, because I'm just using a phone, but if you elect me, I will use the AV setup in that room to produce a higher quality stream.
You can listen in your browser here: https://kurt-croix.github.io/podstr/episodes and I'll include some instructions below on how to add it to a couple popular podcast players.
As a Software Engineer, I can solve a significant amount of our county's problems that stem from being stuck in the 20th century. Be on the look out for more projects I release that will focus on bringing sunlight to our courthouse and county processes.
Figured out how to automatically upload streams from @Shosho – Live Stream on Nostr to @Derek Ross's podstr. Now I just need to figure out how to trigger GitHub actions from a Nostr note.
Croix4Clerk: CommissionersMeeting_2026_3_4
Episode webpage: 
So I manually downloaded the stream from @Shosho – Live Stream on Nostr , turned mp4 into mp3, and then uploaded to podbean. I could probably automate this in an hour if I decide I want to pay the $30/month in hosting fees.
CommissionersMeeting_2026_3_4 | Croix4Clerk
commissioners meeting for Ray county, Missouri on 3/4/26
Using full foss tools, I got the commissioners meeting live streamed, from an old android phone, and converted to mp3. Looks like amethyst won't let me upload an mp3 directly so I'll have to find a different server to use to upload that. #asknostr wasn't there a tool where you could convert an npubs feed to rss so it could be listened to in a podcast app? I thought @Gigi maybe made it.
Today the county commissioners will be approving their budget during the meeting today. I'm going to attempt to live stream the meeting on @Shosho – Live Stream on Nostr in about an hour. We'll see if it it works over 5g since they denied me access to the wifi.