Jackson, county end bickering

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander read the paper and decided he'd had enough of the bickering.

Sander had left for vacation the day after meeting with Jackson public works director Rodney Bollinger and county building and grounds superintendent Don McQuay, thinking the issue of the outdoor restroom at Klaus County Park had been resolved.

When he read in the newspaper that city staff had met a day later and denied the county a utilities hookup, Sander decided it was time to take action.

So on Monday Sander made one-on-one visits with Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones and Associate Commissioner Larry Bock to try to straighten out a relationship that has grown increasingly abrasive over the past year.

At a study session Monday night, Sander discussed a new communication policy with the board of aldermen and city staff, a policy to improve relations between the city and county.

"After this last one, I went to deal with them, each of them directly, except for Joe Gambill; I haven't had a chance to meet with him yet," Sander said. "We haven't been doing that. What I asked them to do is that if anything comes up, that they'll call me directly. The elected officials need to be in it from the start instead of hearing it second-hand."

Jones agreed, though in hindsight he wished the conversation would've taken place about a year ago.

"We're just kind of tired of it and we're through fighting," Jones said. "Paul and I have never had a cross word with another, and I'm confident we can get any issue worked out. To be truthful, the perception was that we were acting like a bunch of children. Whenever you don't talk to one another, that's the way it looks. This was an absolute great step, and I'm quite confident that any problems that come up, this is a good way to get it worked out and I appreciate Mayor Sander coming forward with that idea because it sure as hell was going downhill."

The issue over inspections and codes has been an ongoing issue since the new jail was built in 2000. The county has said that it does not fall under the city's jurisdiction. The city, which has waived any permit and inspection fees when the county is involved, has said it is obligated to make sure buildings in the city limits are safe and conform to the city's laws.

The relationship went further downhill in February of this year when the city of Jackson filed a lawsuit against the Cape Girardeau County Commission and the county treasurer seeking about $500,000 in road and bridge taxes that the city claims it should have received since 1997. City officials say 25 percent of the road and bridge taxes that go out of Jackson are supposed to come back into Jackson.Sander said the lawsuit is a gentleman's legal disagreement, a matter to be decided by the courts.

The restroom dispute doesn't fall into that category.

"These other nitpicky things are going to cease," Sander said. "In the future, I'll be going to my staff and saying 'This is the issue, how should we solve this?'"

Before, the communication was done at staff level and the information reached the top in second-hand fashion.

"I think what Paul and I talked about will work great," Bock said. "If we've got a project going, we'll just talk to each other and he'll pass it along to the staff. We the commissioners will know about issues and he'll know about it and we'll pass it along. I agree. This Micky Mousing around, that's no good. The county and the city, we both want to do it right. We're not trying to skirt our duty. This should solve the problem, though we may agree to disagree."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635