Cape Girardeau County commissioners to hold medical examiner forum

Cape Girardeau County commissioners approved an upcoming public meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 30, to discuss making a long-standing potential county position a reality.

"It's been an option since the county became first class in 1997, and so we've had some professional inquiries and some citizens' groups come in and ask us about the possibility of maybe implementing a medical examiner," Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said during their regular meeting Thursday, Oct. 19. "So we're going to open that discussion up to the public at our regular meeting on the 30th of October."

County Commission meetings are held in the Administration Building, 1 Barton Square, in Jackson.

The commissioners also approved an $8,000 budget increase to the county's Building and Ground Fund for the purpose of hiring an additional employee.

Much of the meeting revolved around the paving, or lack thereof, of County Road 603 east of Fruitland. More than a dozen residents attended Thursday's meeting to express their frustration or explain their situations.

William Stone Jr., who has lived there since the 1980s, told the commissioners that over the decade, county officials have said they would pave the road, but so far they have not completed it in its entirety.

The southern part was paved in the 1990s, Stone said, and the northern part in 2015, but a 0.4-mile stretch still hasn't been paved. The commissioners said they'd need easements from all residents to proceed, but the residents said a handful of their neighbors had said they would never agree to easements and requested the commissioners amend the requirements.