New home may be resource center near KCI
A plan is in the works that would move the Platte County Sheriff’s Department headquarters out of the county seat of Platte City.
As exclusively reported last week by The Landmark, the county has issued 90-day notice to tenants of the county-owned Platte County Resource Center, which is located east of Interstate 29 off the airport exit (Exit 13).
Tenants have 90 days to find a new home.
The county’s plan is to move the sheriff’s department into the resource center, which is located at 11724 NW Plaza Circle, Kansas City in Platte County. The resource center is roughly eight miles–an approximate 10 minute drive–from the sheriff’s current location in downtown Platte City.
Agencies that currently occupy the Platte County Resource Center include the Platte Senior Services, Platte County Regional Sewer District, the Platte County Senior Citizen Services Fund, the Full Employment Council, University of Missouri Outreach and Extension, and Platte County Visitors Bureau.
In addition to tenants, organizations that have used the resource center as a meeting space will need to find an alternative site.
“We will be moving some departments around,” Scott Fricker, newly-elected presiding county commissioner, confirmed for The Landmark last week.
Fricker said some of the moves will be for greater public access while some of the moves are due to reported overcrowding.
“The sheriff is going to the resource center because he is jam-packed in his current space (in the administration building in Platte City). He has grown out of that space. The resource center will allow (the sheriff’s department) room to grow over the next 15-20 years,” Fricker said.
Fricker said the jail and jail staff will remain in place at the facility in Platte City, as well as dispatchers and sheriff’s department staff members that are needed for court security at the Platte County Courthouse.
The Landmark this week reached out to the sheriff’s department for comment and more information but had not received a response by deadline.
The county prosecutor’s office, which recently took over the space formerly used as county commission offices while also maintaining the prosecutor’s office space in the courthouse, will then take over the space that the sheriff’s office has been using in the administration building.
“This will allow him (the prosecutor’s office) room to grow for 15-20 years,” Fricker said.
Another move to be made in the near future, Fricker said, involves the county collector’s office, currently located on the second floor of the county administration building in Platte City.
The county collector’s office gets the most walk-in traffic of any county office, Fricker said, and therefore it should be more easily accessible than its current location upstairs.
Fricker said the plan is to move the collector’s office to the first floor of the administration building for public convenience.
“It’s the office most used by the public and currently the hardest to find,” Fricker said.
In addition, Fricker told The Landmark that county commissioners will once again establish an office presence in the county administration building in Platte City.
The county commissioners, then led by previous presiding commissioner Ron Schieber, exited their office space and gave it to the county prosecutor’s office while the prosecutor’s quarters in the Platte County Courthouse were being remodeled a couple of years back.
The lack of public availability of county commissioners has been criticized in some circles. The commissioners never established office space at the resource center even though that’s where their meetings were being held until last month when Fricker announced meetings would once again be held at the administration building in Platte City.
County officials are quick to say that move by the sheriff’s department is not yet official, but the fact that officials have given notice to the current agencies who are tenants of the resource center indicates it is very likely.
Fricker noted the maneuvering and building improvements are being brought to the forefront in large part by the approximate $20 million the county has at its disposal in federal ARPA money. ARPA is the American Rescue Plan Act which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in March of 2021. It was part of the federal government’s plan “to speed up the country’s recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing recession,” the federal government says.
Fricker said the county’s goal is to use the money primarily to improve conditions with county buildings. He said the county courthouse needs new windows, the resource center needs a new roof, HVAC systems need replaced, etc. The goal is to make the county more efficient and user-friendly, he said.
A final report from an architect is expected in a couple of weeks, Fricker said.
Some local organizations currently use the Platte County Resource Center as a meeting space. If the sheriff’s department occupies the building, that will have to change.
“We have notified groups that use it that they should make plans for another space. It is possible some groups will want to use the county commission meeting room on the second floor of the administration building,” said Joe Vanover, second district county commissioner. “Others may find better facilities for their meetings.”
Vanover said the county wants to use a large part of the ARPA funds “for capital investments in and physical plant changes to public facilities that respond to COVID-19 and for mitigation measures to prevent COVID-19 in congregate settings within public facilities.”
Vanover, like Fricker, said a final decision about moving the sheriff’s department “has not been made but because we are moving in that direction we are taking the preliminary steps to make that possible.”
