Cape Commission approves funding for sheriff, jail repairs, equipment

The Cape Girardeau County Commission unanimously approved an ordinance Thursday authorizing the county to enter into a lease-purchase transaction valued at just more than $4 million to fund facility repairs and equipment acquisitions at the sheriff’s department and Cape Girardeau County Jail.

The “certificates of participation” in the amount of $4,065,000 will pay for about $3.5 million worth of renovations to the 20-year-old jail’s plumbing and HVAC systems, which Commissioner Charlie Herbst said “could not be put off any longer.”

The balance of the funds will be used to acquire dispatch equipment for the county’s half of the radio console replacement project the county is doing in with the City of Jackson as part of a consolidated dispatch center project, Herbst said.