Scotland County Offices Begin Move to New Administrative Building

By Echo Menges

MEMPHIS, Mo. — After years of discussing overcrowding inside the Scotland County Courthouse, county officials have begun relocating six county offices into the new Scotland County Administrative Building, a move commissioners say will create more room for county government while preserving the courthouse as the county’s judicial center.

During a video interview Thursday morning, June 11, Scotland County commissioners provided an update on the transition as offices began moving into the former bank building purchased by the county.

“We’ve been short of space for quite a while here in the courthouse,” Presiding Scotland County Commissioner Duane Ebeling told the Memphis Democrat. “We’ve had three elected officials who don’t have an office in the courthouse because there’s no room.”

County officials said they had been discussing the need for additional space for several years before purchasing the former bank building after it became available.

The new administrative building will house the county commissioners, county clerk, treasurer, collector, recorder and assessor. Officials said the offices are generally about twice the size of those in the courthouse, providing additional workspace while allowing departments remaining in the courthouse to expand.

Commissioners emphasized the move does not signal the closure of the courthouse.

“Some people have had the idea that the courthouse is going to close. That’s never been any idea of anything that we ever talked about,” Ebeling said. “We’ve spent a lot of money in the past years on this courthouse and it’s in good shape. We’re just simply running out of room.”

Instead, the courthouse will continue serving as the county’s judicial and law enforcement center.

Once the offices relocate, the prosecutor’s office will move into newly available office space in the courthouse after temporarily occupying the First Circuit presiding judge’s office and, more recently, space in the administrative building. The circuit judge, circuit clerk, juvenile office, University of Missouri Extension office, sheriff’s office and jail will remain in the courthouse. Space has also opened for the public administrator and to securely house records kept by the coroner.

The additional space will also allow the sheriff’s office to expand the jail by adding a women’s holding area, something the county currently lacks.

“We don’t have any way to keep women prisoners if we have male prisoners here,” Ebeling said.

Funding for part of that project is already included in this year’s budget, and work is expected to begin after the assessor’s office completes its move, anticipated around the beginning of July.

Commissioners said the county paid $250,000 for the former bank building after engineers inspected the structure and found it to be in good condition. Renovations remain underway. While the county originally budgeted about $135,000 for remodeling, officials said expanded electrical work and technology upgrades, including wiring, phone systems, computer connections and security cameras, have increased costs beyond initial expectations.

Commissioners noted the building also included furniture left by the previous owner, including oak desks and office chairs, which they said will help reduce furnishing costs.

“We didn’t borrow any money to buy the building with,” Scotland County Eastern District Commissioner Brent Rockhold said. “We purchased it out of the money that we had set back aside for a building.”

Rockhold said the county acquired the building for just over $30 per square foot, calling it a long-term investment that cost far less than constructing a new facility, which would have required engineering and feasibility studies before construction could even begin.

The administrative building will also provide several new conveniences for residents.

Commissioners said the facility’s ground-level layout offers improved accessibility and will allow drive-up absentee voting as well as drive-up tax collection. Inside, service windows will allow many transactions to be completed without residents entering individual offices.

By the end of last week, the county collector’s and treasurer’s offices had relocated to the new administrative building. The county clerk’s office is continuing its move, with the county commission expected to follow. The assessor’s office is scheduled to begin relocating this week.

The Scotland County Administrative Building is located at 213 S. Market St., one block south of the courthouse.