MISSISSIPPI COUNTY OFFICIALS HAVE NEW HOME

CHARLESTON -- Nearly three years after it was destroyed by arson, the Mississippi County Courthouse is open and again home to county government.

County Clerk Hubert "Junior" DeLay said employees have been moving back into the $2.5 million building for the past four weeks. Offices officially opened Monday and have been running smoothly, he said.

"We have more room for record storage in a more secure area now," said DeLay. "It's just hectic right now and will be for a couple more weeks."

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. Jan. 29. Residents also will be able to meet their county officials and tour the courthouse between 1 and 3 p.m. Jan. 29 and 30.

The reopening of the courthouse means a return home for the county's courtroom, prosecutor's office, judge's chambers, juvenile services and jail visitation, and the offices of probation and public administration, which were displaced after the fire of Feb. 10, 1997.

James "Butch" Amann of the state fire marshal's office said Tuesday the incident and a suspicious fire that destroyed a storage building about four blocks away at the Rowling-Moxley Co. the same day remain under investigation.

"Right now we have nothing solid at this point and time," he said. "It has been a difficult investigation up to this point. We're always hopeful one of the leads we get will be the lucky break we need to bring this investigation to an end."

Soon after the fire county commissioners voted to temporarily relocate government offices from Charleston, the county seat, to the old Division of Family Services building at East Prairie, the county's second-largest town some 10 miles away.

The relocation cost the county about $135,000 in rent and related costs over three years. Presiding Commissioner Jim Blumenberg said he hopes to see overhead significantly reduced with the return to the courthouse.

"A lot of our fixed overhead will go down now that we're back," he said. "Hopefully our upkeep and maintenance will be very minute for the next 10 or so years."

Despite the decision to modernize the building's design, some elements from the past will remain on the property, said Blumenberg. For example, the old jail formerly attached to the rear of the courthouse has been converted into storage space and a holding cell for prisoners with scheduled court appearances. And columns salvaged from the fire will be used in a monument being designed for in front of the courthouse.

"We've got it laid out, and it'll be happening real soon," Blumenberg said.

At the time of the fire the former courthouse was undergoing $800,000 in renovations. Workers were refurbishing some of the woodwork and flooring, and building an elevator.

Because of extensive water and fire damage, the structure was razed. Voters approved a three-year, half-cent sales tax to be combined with approximately $1.4 million in insurance money to build the new courthouse. The sales tax runs out in September.

Total construction costs, including furnishing and equipping the building, came to about $2.75 million. Blumenberg said about $500,000 will be used from general revenue to cover the overage.