Cape Girardeau County property tax payments being 'returned to sender'

During their regular meeting Monday, Dec. 4, Cape Girardeau County commissioners were informed of a postage mix-up impacting mailed-in tax payments.

Cape Girardeau County Collector Barbara Gholson said her office is not receiving tax bill payment envelopes "... and they're coming back to the taxpayers saying 'returned to sender, vacant, unable to forward'. The post office is aware of it; they said there's a bunch of them out there like that."

The notifications come in the form of large yellow stickers attached to the envelopes.

She said she spoke with post office representatives who said they are unsure of exactly how the issue is taking place, but that postal workers try to locate and return every such envelope they find to the collector's office.

If people receive such notifications on envelopes they send to the County Collector's Office, Gholson said they may drop them off in person at either the County Administration Building drop box in Jackson or the county's Cape Girardeau office at 2311 Bloomfield St., Suite 102.

They can also submit their tax bill payments online. This method does carry a $2 electronic check fee, however.

Gholson said additional payment formats may be found at www.capecounty.us/collectors-office.

Additional actions

Associate Commissioner Paul Koeper informed his fellow commissioners about updates to the county's Emergency Operations Center, which broke ground Nov. 3. He said construction progress is moving ahead of schedule and the center may be ready before the estimated completion date of July.

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Additionally, Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers provided an update on the four requests for proposals she had received for electronic voting machines for the county's elections.

The proposals were from Election Systems & Software LLC; Elkins-Swyers Co. in partnership with Dominion Voting; Hart InterCivic Inc.; and Henry M. Adkins & Son Inc., Adkins Election Services with partner Unisyn Voting Solutions Inc.

"We'd like to have them all come down and do a demonstration," she said. "With the holidays and everything, hopefully (prior to) the end of January at the least."