A forensic crime lab in Jefferson County should be up and running sometime in 2025.
The Jefferson County Council voted unanimously on Feb. 25 to approve spending up to $6.13 million to build the lab in Pevely.
The council awarded the construction contract to the lowest of five bidders, K&S Construction of St. Louis.
“They (K&S crews) have to start no later than September, but they can do so anytime after later in March,” Public Works Director Jason Jonas said. “They have to be done by Nov. 1 of next year, but as soon as they start, they have 360 days to get it done.”
At least $4 million of the construction cost will be paid out of the county’s allotment from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) stimulus plan, but county officials have said they hoped to allot more ARPA money to pay for the rest.
The 11,000-square-foot lab will be built next to the Sheriff’s Office evidence storage building on Mason Circle North in Pevely.
Jonas said it’s likely that, including the cost to design the lab, plus about $1.8 million to equip it, the entire project may end up costing about $9.3 million.
Sheriff Dave Marshak has said the crime lab is sorely needed because his office now sends evidence to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s lab in Jefferson City. That lab, which processes evidence from county and city law enforcement agencies around the state, can take up to a year to turn results around – if it accepts them at all because of the overload.
“We have evidence from lower-level crimes, like burglaries, which we feel will yield a DNA suspect profile, yet the current lab won’t test them,” he said. “We have them ready to be tested when our new lab is completed.”
The lab will include areas for processing DNA evidence, vehicles, fingerprints, firearms and drug tests. A separate area would be devoted to computer crime investigations.
Marshak said about midway through the construction of the lab, a director will be hired who will develop policies and procedures and hire two or three scientists.
He said some crime scene detectives now based in Hillsboro will be shifted to the new site once it’s open.
Marshak said it hasn’t been determined how many people might eventually work at the new lab.
“We’ll be phasing it in over several years,” he said.