COUNTY GETS BUILDING FOR STORAGE OF OLD RECORDS

JACKSON -- The Cape Girardeau County Commission will establish a county archives center that will open within a year.

The county purchased a building at 112 E. Washington that formerly housed a Texaco station. The station closed at the end of the year.

"We couldn't beat the location," said Max Stovall, associate commissioner. The building is directly across the street from the County Administration Building in Jackson.

The building will provide storage space for county records. It will also provide access to historical documents for researchers. The county plans to hire a director and to use volunteers to operate the center.

The county plans to hire an architect to transform the station to an office and storage building. Stovall said he expects an addition will be built that would approximately double the size of the building to about 4,800 square feet.

Total cost is estimated at $200,000.

The outside of the building will be finished to match the Administration Building, Stovall said.

The county began addressing the records problem a number of years ago when the it essentially ran out of storage space. The county is renting storage space, and files are stored in hallways and offices throughout county buildings.

Up to 5,000 pages a day find their way to various rooms in the County Courthouse and Administration Building. County officeholders have been converting routine paperwork and records to computer discs by scanning old and new records.

However, some historic and legal documents won't be scanned. For example, state law requires the circuit clerk's office and circuit judges to retain paper copies of court documents.

Court records date back to the 1700s. Documents are stored in old vaults, in closets and in office corners. People use the records while doing genealogy research. Tax records and property deeds are also commonly used by researchers.

The county had considered adding storage space in a jail expansion, and Riverside Regional Library also proposed a joint venture. But the county wanted to act more quickly.