The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office North Zone substation is on the move. But not far.
The Jefferson County Council voted 6-0 Sept. 27 to approve a lease for a new space for the High Ridge facility.
It has been at 34 Gravois Dillon Plaza for about 20 years, but soon will move to larger digs at 5 Gravois Dillon Plaza Drive.
The move will increase the space from 1,400 square feet to 3,500 square feet and has been long overdue, Sheriff Dave Marshak said.
“It was too small when it was opened,” he said. “It’s always been too small. You have to hold roll call outside.”
The lease for the new space will be for one year with options to renew for four more years. The first year, the county will pay $1,666 a month, with yearly increases, eventually reaching $1,802 in the fifth year.
Marshak said the Sheriff’s Office has been paying about $9,000 a year to the operators of the Gravois Dillon Shopping Center, BI High Ridge.
He said officials considered simply enlarging the current office.
“When we started figuring out the cost of tearing down walls and all the other adjustments we had to make, it just made more sense to move to a larger space,” he said. “We’re in the same location, so people will still be able to find us.”
Marshak said he doesn’t know when the new office will open.
The Sheriff’s Office also operates an East Zone substation on the Windsor C-1 School District campus in Imperial.
He said while deputies typically don’t take prisoners to the zone offices to book them, officers do use the satellite offices to file paperwork and submit evidence. Blood alcohol tests are often administered in the zone offices.
“The public finds them useful as a place to file reports or apply for firearms permits,” Marshak said.
The move to the larger space in High Ridge will allow that office to offer a service that has been popular in Imperial, Marshak said.
“We have a conference room in the Windsor substation that we allow groups such as subdivision association boards and other nonprofits to use without charge,” he said. “The new Dillon substation will give us the opportunity to extend that service to that area.”
Marshak said the zone offices are needed.
“We have a big county. In land area, it’s bigger than St. Louis County,” he said. “But in St. Louis County, they have multiple police departments all over the place, and the County Police have several stations. It’s easy to find law enforcement if you need it. In large areas of Jefferson County, that’s not the case.”
The South Zone office, which was located on the Jefferson College campus in Hillsboro, closed in March, Marshak said, and a replacement is being sought.
“We have been there since 2003, but recently the college established its own police force, and strategically, it seems like a duplication of resources,” he said. “We were sharing a maintenance shed, and when they started repairing small engines, you would have to leave the office. You couldn’t stand it there. It also wasn’t visited very often.”
Marshak said the Sheriff’s Office has been in talks to establish a new South Zone substation on the Jefferson R-7 School District campus south of Festus.
“We’re looking at several places, but they (R-7 officials) reached out to us to ask our interest on putting an office there. We do have an interest in that location. We’re having ongoing conversations for strategic partnerships in other parts of the county. As the county continues to grow, we have to be open to change and progress.”
Councilman Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) was absent from the Sept. 27 meeting.