Lake Ozark Mayor candidate Dennis Newberry

I was born and raised in Central Missouri, and lived on a farm. As a youth I had many responsibilities at a very young age. My sister and I got out of bed well before daylight and did our chores, to this day I still get up well before daybreak and start my day before the interruptions start. Farming is hard work that requires flexibility and quick decision making. Having refined the skills I learned at a very young age, I tend to take on the more difficult challenges than the easy ones as they are much more rewarding. I attended public school in Rolla from start to finish graduating from Rolla High in the 1980’s. I also attended UMR for a few semesters before getting into business (I didn’t want to be an engineer). I joined the Bagnell Dam Association of REALTORS nearly 30 years ago as the youngest Broker member at that time. We have owned many businesses at the core of them all has been the ownership of Real Estate. My wife Tanya and I have two daughters. They both attended SOTO and our oldest recently joined our Real Estate Brokerage. In 2021 Tanya and I created a Non Profit to promote the “Prevention” of Child Sexual Assaults in Central Missouri.

2. Why do you think you would make a better mayor than your opponent?

As Mayor for the past 23 months, I have implanted a serious process of engaging people in decisions, in fact finding and in planning. Our City has never had this before. I’ve engaged State & County government either in person or via some other form of correspondence monthly since I became Mayor. Involvement has already become a benefit, people are taking an interest in our city and this will only grow with me as Mayor. Since becoming Mayor, my time committed to this job has become a new and significant change that has been needed for a long time. I’m getting the city up and running like it should. My activity in conjunction with the community involvement will bring about improvement after improvement and we are already on the road of rebuilding our city, it’s working well now and will only get better.

3. What specific issues within Lake Ozark need to be addressed within the next two years?

The City is currently undergoing an evaluation of each departments performance and we will continue to do this until we have determined appropriate staffing levels and job performance is optimized. This is key because the end result will be cost savings measures that will prevent the need for additional taxation. We did this last year with the authorization that the citizens voted on to give us discretionary use of a 1/5% sales tax so that it could be partially redirected to our roads. This year I had a spirit of cooperation with the current board of Alderman. We are now fully engaged working side by side on all of our processes.

4. In 2019, the city contracted a company to conduct a study of street improvement needs. The most visible was Bagnell Dam Blvd. Four years later, some street improvement needs are being addressed, The Strip has not. As mayor, what would you do to fix Bagnell Dam Blvd.?

Bagnell Dam Blvd didn’t get into such poor condition since I became mayor. The facts are the city played rob Peter to pay Paul for the past two decades rather than focus on growth which drives the revenue needed to rebuild and sustain roads and other infrastructure. In just the past 1 year I have increased our “road capital improvement” budget from $25k to a WHOPPING $450k that is a 1700% increase and we didn’t raise taxes to do it.  At our next Board meeting there will be an agenda Item seeking board approval to send out RFP’s (Request for Proposals) for repaving Bagnell Dam Blvd from School Road to the Hwy. MM Bridge. As Mayor I intend to not only repair Bagnell Dam Blvd but also our secondary roads. In Late April of this year, just weeks after the election, we will be doing a slurry seal project on over 25 of our roads to extend the life of those roads. Talking about roads many of you may not know this. Hwy 242 was built over a decade ago opening up a large part of our undeveloped property. The property owners along with tremendous support from the Bagnell Dam Strip Association made 242 possible. As a founding member of the BDSA, I played a large role in that, the City of Lake Ozark played no role in getting Hwy 242 built. For a decade not a single development occurred on Hwy 242. With recent support, the Board of Alderman and I gave developers approval on a limited quarry operation to take place making the property topography conducive for development. Development that will raise city revenue.  And Finally…Development that has now already started to take place after laying dormant for 10 years. I am also investigating EB5 municipal financing which looks very promising for road projects.

5. Dozens of residents have stated during meetings and through other sources that they are opposed to opening the city to vacation/nightly rentals, reversing a long-standing ordinance limiting such rentals to R-3 districts. Despite public opinion, the board of aldermen voted to eliminate restrictions. What is your opinion?  

FACTS… NO lake area municipality has a restriction on nightly rentals…but Lake Ozark did. Lake Ozark has had many problems in the 30 years I have lived and owned businesses here, nightly rentals was not one of them. There were  “dozens” against it and “dozens” for it.  Many residents that were for it told me they didn’t want their property rights managed by a municipality as they believe that is not the role of government. There was a poll taken by a local media outlet, it was nearly 50/50 for and against, so public opinion was not overlooked. In fact I feel we considered more public input from both sides on this topic than any item that we have taken action on during my first term. The facts are the majority of the Board voted to strike the restriction. Some who wanted the restriction noted they didn’t care if we ended up in court over this matter. Our board felt that taxpayer money should not be spent defending a case we would likely loose. You can never make everyone happy on every topic, what you can do is assure the results are not going to negatively affect the majority of your constituents. I’m confident our Board of Alderman will act swiftly if Short Term Rentals create problems, we remain interested in this topic as we move forward.

6. What can the city do to encourage the development of more affordable housing?

If you have been following my leadership you will have learned that on the BIG tasks I engage citizen and business owner participation. The buy in from our own folks is critical to getting things done. Our business owners and residents know our needs more than anyone else and many of them have the skillset to influence the desired change or address the need. I have created more committees than likely any other Lake Ozark Mayor. Each one of those committees has been instrumental with the high level of successes we have had in the short time I have been in office. Over the next several months I will be creating a board that is dynamic enough to address many of our cities challenges, one of the priorities for this board will be housing. We all know our employers need more employees and that will require more housing. Many ECO DEVO opportunities are in front of us now waiting for engagement. Economic Development is like water, it takes the path of least resistance, it seeks communities that embrace it. The City of Lake Ozark Administration and Board have been working hard on removing hurdles that would be in the way of projects that would provide for more needed housing.

7. Provide any additional information you feel would help voters make an informed decision.

Although I am your Mayor I don’t consider myself a politician, I am a husband, father, taxpayer and business man applying the life and business skills I have learned to the City of Lake Ozark business. I engage our legislators frequently, I hold meetings with stakeholders on a weekly basis and through all of those meetings I apply that information in real time at City Hall. I will continue to work hard on City business to ensure you we won’t go backward. My style of leadership is not “reactionary”, rather I tend to lay the ground work for great things to be accomplished. That groundwork has been going on since the day I became your Mayor and will continue if you Re-Elect me on April 4th.

Thank you for your support Lake Ozark Residents!