PATROL CURTAILS OPERATION; SURVEY INDICATES LOW USAGE AT NIGHT

SIKESTON - The Missouri Highway Patrol satellite station, which operates around the clock, will close for seven hours each morning on a trial basis, patrol superintendent, Col. Mel Fisher, announced Wednesday.

While the satellite station is closed, telephone calls will be forwarded to radio operators at Troop E headquarters in Poplar Bluff, he said.

The satellite station here will close between midnight and 7 a.m each day effective June 1 for a 60-day trial period, said Fisher.

Fisher said the decision to close the station during the early morning hours was based on usage and economics.

He said a survey was conducted at the satellite office between March 15 and April 15.

Fisher said: "The survey showed that during the wee hours of the morning there is less walk-in traffic at the satellite office. There also are fewer troopers on duty at this time. We felt that during that period our radio operators at the troop headquarters in Poplar Bluff could handle the phone calls from the public and the radio traffic from our on-duty officers on the east side of the troop."

Fisher said when the late-night radio operator leaves the station he will throw a switch that will forward all Sikeston satellite phone calls to troop headquarters in Poplar Bluff. When the morning operator arrives at the satellite office, he will take over control of the phones, Fisher said.

The superintendent said a telephone will also be mounted outside the front door of the Sikeston satellite office with a direct line to troop headquarters in Poplar Bluff. "If someone walks up to the office needing help, they can pick up the phone and it will automatically ring at troop headquarters in Poplar Bluff," he said.

Fisher said there will be no reduction in force at the Sikeston office; radio operators who normally work the midnight shift on a rotating basis will double up with day and evening operators.

He said the closing will have no effect on radio communications with patrol officers on duty on the east side of the troop.

"During the day and evening hours, the Sikeston satellite station will continue to take calls and dispatch our officers to calls in their zones, said Fisher. "After midnight the officers on the east side of the troop will be dispatched by radio operators at Poplar Bluff."

Fisher emphasized there are no plans to the close the Sikeston office. "We can handle the workload of the Sikeston office during the early morning hours, but we could not do it full time and still take care of the traffic on the west side of the troop," he said.

Fisher said the trial period will run through July. "If we find there are problems providing adequate service to the public, we will go back to the way it was," he said.

State Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston, said the plan makes sense. "If it turns out the satellite office does not need to be open during this time of the night, we will certainly be able to save money at this critical time and still provide the same level of law enforcement and protection of life and property to the people in this area," he said. "Right now, with finances the way they are in the state, we have to look at things like this."

The satellite station was opened in 1977 following a lengthy court battle by Poplar Bluff to keep the patrol's Troop E headquarters in Poplar Bluff.

In the early 1970s, a state commission recommended Troop E headquarters be relocated to Sikeston, but Poplar Bluff officials charged there was political interference in the decision and went to court to keep troop headquarters in Poplar Bluff. The troop headquarters building on Highway 67 north was dedicated in May 1975.

The Sikeston satellite office is on Highway 60 just west of the Interstates 55-57-Highway 60 interchange.