City wants private development at site of former juvenile-detention center

A 2-acre plot near a Cape Girardeau city park that once housed the Juvenile Detention Center is going up for sale.

A rubble heap sits where Cape Girardeau County’s former Juvenile Detention Center was demolished in March, and at Thursday’s regular meeting, the county commission voted to remove the rubble and put the property up for sale.

The property is adjacent to Indian Park in Cape Girardeau, but city leaders said Thursday they would prefer the property be bought and developed by the private sector.

Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer said private development would return the land to the tax rolls.

“We had an agreement with the county to use part of that land for basketball courts, and we do understand if they do sell it, the courts would go with that,” Meyer said, referring to an area that formerly had been tennis courts.

Meyer said at this time, however, “we’re going to try to see if there’s some interest in someone else developing it first.”

Cape Girardeau parks director Julia Thompson agreed with Meyer. Not all of the basketball courts would go with the property if it sells, she said.

“One court that is on the County side of the property was an old tennis court that our Department put basketball standards on years ago, and then we have an official basketball court that is right adjacent to William Street,” Thompson wrote in an email Thursday.

The county commission originally voted to sell the property in January, prior to its demolition.

The former Juvenile Detention Center was demolished in March after operations moved to 2137 Rust Ave. in Cape Girardeau in July 2016.

The Merriwether facility had ceased to house juvenile offenders in 2011, the Southeast Missourian reported in January.

The facility at 325 Merriwether St. opened in July 1974 and was built at a cost of $167,000.

It replaced a facility at 37 S. Frederick St. that had operated since 1966.

Since 2011, juvenile offenders who need to be detained have been housed at detention facilities in Mississippi and Stoddard counties in Missouri.

Meyer told the Southeast Missourian in January the city does not anticipate needing any of the property at 325 Merriwether St. for a planned extension of Fountain Street.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent addresses:

325 Merriwether St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

2137 Rust Ave., Cape Girardeau, Mo.