Cole Co. addresses overcrowding issues

Cole County leaders are dealing with serious overcrowding issues, including at the health department and at the courthouse.

The heath department needs more space, and leaders also want a larger, fifth courtroom to handle some capital murder cases coming up this year.

They’re trying to keep everything centralized near downtown Jefferson City.

We sat down with Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman during our 9:00 a.m. newscast.

He said right now, the assessor and public defender are in different spots, which doesn’t make sense.

“They have a question on their taxes or something like that, they gravitate toward the courthouse, and you say, ‘no, you have to go up the alley and then over,’ so they really need to be with the collector and recorder, and we need to have them together,” said Bushman.

Next week, the commission will try getting a cost on using a building at the old St. Mary’s Hospital.

The only down side is the location.

They’re also getting rid of the old jail or finding room on the site of the former Missouri State Penitentiary.