NEW JUVENILE CENTER SITE APPEARS TO FIT THE BILL

The Cape Girardeau County Commission has picked eight acres of land in Cape Girardeau for a new juvenile justice center. The location in an industrial area at the corner of Progress and Enterprise streets seems ideal.

The county has been looking for nearly two years for a suitable site to build the center, which is estimated to cost between $2.5 million and $3 million. It would serve offenders age 12 to 17 from Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties.

The site is removed from residential property but is close to Interstate 55. Its location in Cape Girardeau is also a benefit, since most of the offenders come from the city. That will make transporting juveniles easier for authorities.

The facility will include a detention area, juvenile court and offices for department employees. Plans call for 24 cells with room to expand to 40.

That's a big improvement over the existing site, which has only eight beds. In this day of juvenile crime, the county needs more space to house young offenders.

The county will purchase the land from the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation. The land was donated to the foundation by Ken Hastings, a former Cape Girardeau businessman who lives out of state. The foundation will use the money from the sale to create an endowment for the College of Business to be used for faculty development at Hastings' request. It's win-win for both entities.

The county has struggled with finding a site these past two years. No doubt the commission will be relieved to get the land deal behind them so construction of the new center can begin.

The new center will look more like an office building than a jail, say county officials. The existing center operates quietly on a two-acre tract in the middle of a downtown residential neighborhood.

This new location will allow the juvenile operations to expand and come together in a single location. Several of the offices and services are scattered throughout the county.