Cape Girardeau County awards $98K contract for elevator repairs

A 30-year-old elevator in the Cape Girardeau County Administration Building in Jackson will be shut down for four to six weeks for repairs.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission recently awarded a $98,000 contract to Otis Elevators to make major repairs to the elevator in the three-story building.

The work is scheduled to begin April 25. Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said the project should be completed before the end of June.

Tracy said there is a “limited window to get it done.” He said repairs need to be done so as not to inconvenience residents during the August and November election period or the fall/winter tax-collection season.

Tracy said the controls need to be replaced on the failing elevator.

“It is a total overhaul,” he said.

The elevator has been inoperable at times over the past few years because of control problems. It has become difficult to obtain parts, Tracy said.

Commissioners also said ongoing maintenance costs and lack of reliability entered into the decision.

County officials plan to replace the Administration Building with a new facility in the courthouse-square neighborhood within the next several years. But Tracy said county officials can’t afford to wait for a new building that remains in the planning stages and might not be built and ready for occupancy for another four years.

County officials had looked at possibly razing the Administration Building, but Tracy said Wednesday, “We are not tearing it down.” He suggested the commissioners may look to sell the building, which once was a Coca-Cola bottling plant.

The county government bought the building in 1985. It subsequently was renovated inside and out to house county offices. Associate Commissioner Charles Herbst said the elevator was installed at that time.

Since 1987, the year Cape Girardeau County government officially moved in, nearly all county offices have been housed there.

The building has outside entrances on the first and second floors because of the sloping terrain. Third-floor offices can be reached only by stairs or the elevator.

But Tracy said people who have business with the county clerk, collector, auditor, treasurer or commission will be able to call those offices so staff can meet them downstairs if they are unable to use the stairs.

Instructions will be posted by the elevator on how to contact those offices, Tracy said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

1 Barton Square, Jackson, Mo.