STODDARD COUNTY OKs DESIGN OF NEW CENTER

BLOOMFIELD -- Stoddard County administrators have given the go-ahead for a detailed design of a combination judicial center and juvenile services center.

While Poplar Bluff architect Harold Porterfield begins the detailed drawings, the members of the Stoddard County Commission will continue their quest for finding the best source of funding for the project.

Meanwhile, Chief Juvenile Officer Mike Davis said that juvenile justice officials throughout the state are watching Stoddard County set the standard for counties in the wake of a state law affecting the funding of the juvenile justice system.

Davis and other local government officials and administrators got a look at the latest preliminary drawings of the proposed center. They all agreed it appeared to fit their needs. The Stoddard County Commission then authorized Porterfield to begin work on the more detailed drawings.

The architect said he would continue to keep county officials appraised of his work at various stages. "When we get a lot of the details done, we'll come back to you," he said.

Proposed for a site within a stone's throw south of the Stoddard County Courthouse, the two-level center would contain three courtrooms, judicial chambers, conference rooms and other offices on the top floor (the ground-level floor with entry from South Prairie Street).

The county's Juvenile Services Center would be contained within the lower level, which would have entry from Viola Street.

It's unclear exactly what the price tag will be for the project as it's currently proposed. However, county administrators have indicated they would be comfortable with funding a project of about $2 million. The final cost -- and the funding source -- will figure into the County Commission's decision whether to proceed with construction.

Davis said Stoddard County's effort was a chief topic of conversation at a recent gathering of juvenile justice officials at Lake of the Ozarks. Davis said he took a set of the preliminary drawings with him to the conference.

"Everybody was impressed with this design for a detention center," he said. "They were impressed with the progress our county has made" since the new state law became effective.

"No one (county) has made as much progress as ours has," Davis said. "I complimented our county commissioners."

On July 1, a new law kicked in that shifts the bulk of financing the juvenile justice system -- the salaries and benefits of most employees -- from county government to state government. This has been a goal of county government for many years.

However, in order to have most juvenile justice system employees placed on the state payroll, counties had to agree to continue funding a portion of the system. Counties agreed to provide an amount equal to that allocated in 1997 -- minus the cost of salaries and benefits -- as a "local maintenance effort."