Roundabout won't affect future of county administrative office

The future of the Cape Girardeau County administrative building in uptown Jackson may not be set in stone, but it will remain standing for at least the near future.

Some worried the proposed roundabout project would make the building's demolition necessary, but MoDOT project manager Eric Krapf said the roundabout's footprint never has threatened that building, only its parking lot.

"We have no plans to touch that building," Krapf said.

He said it is MoDOT's hope the roundabout, upon completion, will remedy a traffic-flow conditions that once caused the County to consider the building's demolition.

He said the roundabout project always was going to affect the administration building's parking lot, which is expected to lose up to 15 spaces, but public parking is written into the roundabout's blueprints elsewhere to compensate.

MoDOT's cost-sharing agreement is with the city of Jackson, not Cape Girardeau County, Krapf said. The future of the administrative building falls under the county's purview.

Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Charles Herbst said while the current administrative building is somewhat outdated, the county's hope is to upgrade at a separate location and avoid tearing it down.

"We're not planning to demolish the county administrative building any time in the near future," Herbst said. He said some confusion may have stemmed from a 2013 county needs assessment that considered demolishing the building.

But the plan is to build a more appropriate justice center facility near the sheriff's office to house courtrooms and ancillary administrative spaces.

When the justice center facility is finished, which Herbst said would likely be four or five years, the current administrative building is slated to be put up for sale.

"But that will depend on the level of demand for a building like that," Herbst said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627