MISSISSIPPI CO. VOTE SET

CHARLESTON -- A half-cent sales tax for construction of a Mississippi County courthouse will be submitted to voters Aug. 5.

County Commissioner Jim Blumenberg said a resolution placing the measure on the ballot was recently adopted.

County commissioners voted unanimously to build a courthouse rather than repair the 100-year-old structure that was damaged by an arson fire in February.

Blumenberg said the sales tax, if approved by county voters, will provide $390,000 per year for three years to finance construction. Total cost of the building is estimated at between $2.4 million and $2.6 million.

Although many county residents wanted the old courthouse restored, Blumenberg said cost and safety factors won out.

The county plans to construct a steel-framed, two-story courthouse on the same site as the fire-damaged one. The county jail off Main Street will be renovated and used as an extension of the new building.

Safety was a major factor in the decision to replace the courthouse.

William Green, a Malden engineer who working with the commission, said his firm is producing floor plans and elevation views for the building.

"We are finalizing preliminary plans along with an artist's rendering of the building," said Green.

He said the courthouse won't be a replica of the old courthouse but would resemble it closely. "It will look very similar to the original building. We will try to keep the same appearance of the old courthouse."

Green said the 28-foot steel framework of the courthouse would be safer than the 48-foot-high masonry work of the old building.

"Our No. 1 problem in Southeast Missouri is the liquification of the ground during an earthquake," he said. "In just a few seconds, with a certain seismic intensity, the soil can become quicksand."

He said while no building is totally safe from natural disasters, the new structure would be designed to handle a strong seismic load and strong winds.

Green said renovation of the walls of the damaged courthouse would be difficult and expensive to bring up to seismic codes.

With the short-term financing of a sales tax and $1.4 million in insurance funds, Blumenberg said the county would be debt clear in three years.

Hugh Byrd, a Mississippi county farmer and courthouse restoration proponent, said he and others who favor restoration would continue to oppose its demolition.

"In my opinion the sales tax doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing," he said.

He said he feels the county commission has no set plans for the new structure. "We haven't seen any blueprints yet; they (the commission) are in total confusion."

Byrd said he doesn't believe Mississippi countians want a new courthouse. "I feel the people won't vote for the tax without restoration," he said.

If the measure is voted down, Blumenberg said the county would need to make a 20-year taxpayer-generated lease-purchase plan to pay for a new courthouse. A lease-purchase plan needs no voter approval.

"We still have to have a courthouse," said Blumenberg. "We (the commission) have to make decisions on how to finance it."

Plans for the courthouse will continue. Green said bids for the removal of asbestos and demolition of the old courthouse will be in soon.