Cape Girardeau County Commission gives go-ahead for jail, courthouse project funding

Cape Girardeau County Commission members approved construction funding and insurance renewals during their regular meeting Thursday, Nov. 2.

Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy and Associate Commissioners Paul Koeper and Charles Herbst began the meeting by approving two purchase orders for Jackson-based Penzel Construction.

The first was a nearly $2.28 million order for the construction of the county's new jail.

"The bulk of that, once again, is the prefab jail cells that are being built in Georgia that are about $1.9 million, I think," Koeper said.

He recommended taking the funding from the jail bond fund, which the other commissioners agreed with.

The commissioners then approved a purchase order of just more than $92,300 for the ongoing 1908 courthouse project. The majority of this, Koeper said, would be for interior and exterior plumbing work.

These funds will come from the county's capital improvement fund.

Additionally, the commissioners approved two insurance policies, one for health insurance and one for dental insurance. The former would be a policy renewal with the Illinois-based Mutual Medical Plans; the latter would be a transition from New York providers Equitable to MetLife.

Equitable offered a 10.4% premium increase while MetLife offered just a 6.8% increase.

The commissioners approved the health insurance renewal and decided to pursue the MetLife dental submission.

Marybeth Niederkorn, director of the county's archive center, also approached the board about applying for a grant from the Missouri Secretary of State's Local Records program.

She had previously applied for the grant successfully three times: twice for shelving and once for a digital microfilm reader. This grant would be for additional shelving.

The commissioners gave Niederkorn the go-ahead to submit her application.

She said a decision would be expected in summer of 2024.