MISSISSIPPI COUNTY VOTE; SALES TAX INCREASE WOULD PAY FOR NEW COURTHOUSE

CHARLESTON -- Regardless of how the vote goes Tuesday on a half-cent sales tax to fund a new Mississippi County Courthouse, it appears that the old courthouse is history.

The only difference will be whether county residents want to pay for the new courthouse in three years or 20.

The second floor and roof of the 96-year-old courthouse were destroyed by fire in February. Almost immediately after the blaze came controversy over whether to restore the old courthouse or build a new one.

The Mississippi County Commission decided to ask voters for a three-year tax increase to pay the debt of constructing a new 20,000-square-foot building where the shell of the old building now stands.

The commission estimates the cost of building a new courthouse at $2.5 million. A proposed half-cent sales tax increase would raise almost $1.2 million over the life of the tax. Coupled with a $1.5 million insurance settlement, the tax money would retire the construction debt relatively quickly.

County Clerk Junior Delay said voters will have the option Tuesday of choosing either a speedy or lengthy payoff of the debt. Delay said the commission has decided that the debt will be repaid from general revenue funds over a 20-year period if the sales tax increase does not pass.

The debt can be repaid by taking between $100,000 and $150,000 out of road department funds each year. If the county chooses this form of repayment, it will cost about $900,000 more in interest and have an undetermined effect on the roads over the 20-year period.

"The taxpayers are going to have to pay for it one way or the other," Delay said.

Delay is not optimistic about the tax passing. But he said the tax's failure would not be due to public sentiment in favor of restoring the old courthouse. "It's simply another tax," he said.

Hugh Hunter Byrd, who has been working with Betty Hearnes in an attempt to persuade the commission to restore the old building, isn't optimistic either.

Byrd said the courthouse can be restored "to how it used to be" for less than $3 million. Their group had presented a $3.5 million estimate to the commission, an amount Byrd now says is too high.

He said he doesn't believe anything will sway the commissioners now. "They are just three men who have made up their minds and they are going to do what they damn well please," he said.

Byrd said the commission is ignoring petitions signed by 500 to 1,000 residents in favor of restoration.

Byrd said the group does not have any options left besides trying to win public support. He said seeking a restraining order on the demolition of the courthouse was a way to bring the issue to the public's attention.

But, he added, even if the judge rules in favor of his group Friday, the date of the hearing, he doesn't see that making enough of a difference. It would put the commissioners "in a quandary as to what to do," Byrd said.

"They'd have to come around to our side, I guess, or let it sit," he said.

Delay said if the judge grants the injunction it would put all plans on hold. "It would mean they couldn't demolish the courthouse," he said.

County commissioners have already decided to appeal if the judge does uphold the injunction. "One commissioner said he would take it all the way to the Supreme Court if he had to," Delay said.