Architectural firm selected to conduct assessment of Cape County facilities

Cape Girardeau County commissioners Monday selected a St. Louis firm, Treanor Architects, to conduct an assessment of county facilities and draw up plans for a consolidated courthouse and other county government offices.

The commission sent out a request for qualifications in the spring and has been reviewing materials from five firms since June, as officials look toward a long-term facilities plan.

Treanor Architects has offices in five Midwestern cities and has designed numerous government office buildings and complexes that contain courthouses and jails.

Commissioners said a reason for choosing Treanor was a perceived willingness to work with local contractors for construction. Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy also said the issues he read in assessment documents from the firm that were identified for other governments, such as historic designs not accommodating judges, staff and prisoners and spaces being overcrowded or not being used for the purposes for which they were originally intended, summed up the county's situation.

"That fits what our situation is," Tracy said.

Associate Commissioner Charlie Herbst, who has said he wants to see several options for facilities, noted the firm has in the past created designs based on existing buildings.

"They've already done some projects that are exactly what we are looking for," he said. "In some of the cases they've added on to a 100-year-old courthouse for space, and there are a couple examples where they've built a separate building and renovated a courthouse. So I think that experience says a lot."

Discussion of new consolidated facilities for court and other county government offices has been ongoing for several years as the county has struggled with upkeep of its two more-than-100-year-old courthouses and faced limited space and accessibility in other offices. The county attempted to purchase the old federal courthouse on Broadway in recent years as a stop-gap measure for its facilities issues, but the deal fell through.

The commission's unanimous vote Monday to select the firm means the county will begin negotiations with Treanor for services. Associate Commissioner Paul Koeper said until the contract is negotiated, no dollar figure can be attached to the study and proposed plans.

Tracy said that when the negotiation process is ongoing, if the county finds it is not receiving the information it is seeking for the assessment and designs, and fees do not match what the county will be willing to pay, commissioners can decided to select another firm.

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