Craig Hosmer: A contract to help put some inmates behind bars makes Springfield safer.
With a decade of growth and record stock performance in recent years as a backdrop, O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: ORLY) secured zoning to build new offices at its Springfield headquarters.
On May 16, City Council members unanimously and without comment approved a zoning change forwarding O’Reilly Automotive’s plans to expand near the northeast corner of South Barnes Avenue and East Cherry Street.
The national auto parts retailer has remained tight-lipped about the size and scope of its plans, but according to the approved bill, the rezoning is limited to new offices and parking on 2.6 acres at the 500 block of South Barnes Avenue. Council approved a change to the conditional overlay district within the heavy manufacturing zoning, allowing O’Reilly Automotive to grow its corporate campus.
When reached for comment after the zoning approval, O’Reilly spokesman Mark Merz did not provide answers to questions about the project by press time. Also, a call to O’Reilly’s real estate office was not returned.
At the May 2 public hearing, Springfield Planning and Development Director Mary Lilly Smith told council the zoning change was necessary for the auto parts retailer to move forward with its office expansion. The previous zoning designation only allowed parking on the site west of its main headquarters building.
According to information in the bill, a March 7 neighborhood meeting about the zoning change was held at the office of Buddy Webb & Co. The Springfield-based architecture firm has a long history with O’Reilly Automotive, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.
Founder Buddy Webb said in 2014 his firm had designed some 1,100 retail stores, several distribution centers and the sprawling O’Reilly headquarters for the auto-parts company. Reached on May 17, Webb referred all requests for information on the project to O’Reilly Automotive.
The letter inviting nearby residents to the March zoning meeting was sent by Anderson Engineering Inc. Vice President and Project Engineer Paul Engel. Anderson Engineering officials could not be reached by press time.
According to SBJ archives, O’Reilly built its 117,000-square-foot headquarters in 2010 as part of its efforts to consolidate 600 employees working across several Springfield office buildings. The rezoned land is part of roughly 45 adjacent acres O’Reilly owns in the area with a total taxable appraised value of $20.65 million, according to Greene County assessor records.
According to its most recent financial statement, sales climbed to $2.1 billion in the first quarter for O’Reilly, which is up 10 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Its 73,000 team members helped open 52 new stores during the quarter, bringing its nationwide total to 4,623, up from 4,433 a year earlier.
According to company officials, diluted share earnings were up 53 cents to $2.59 during the first quarter, which was its 29th straight period with a diluted share earnings increase of at least 15 percent. O’Reilly stock closed May 18 at $254.16 per share, compared to a 52-week range of $218.82-$277.96 per share.
Private policing
Council unanimously approved Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams’ plan to contract with a local, private company for assistance with inmate transportation and supervision.
The move allows the city to contract with Southern Missouri Judicial Services LLC to transport inmates to the Taney County Jail and monitor those in custody at three holding cells at the city’s Battlefield Road police station.
The value of the contract is $250,000 over a year’s period, with services beginning May 31. The arrangement is part of the city’s $500,000 plan – which council approved in March – to transport arrested suspects to jails in Taney and Miller counties due to overcrowding at the Greene County jail.
Williams told council working with Southern Missouri Judicial Services was preferable to pulling officers off the street or paying them overtime for transportation. Miller County has agreed to provide transportation services for inmates it would manage, but Taney County’s jail in Forsyth is about an hour’s drive away.
Tim Brenner, CEO of Southern Missouri Judicial Services, said after the meeting the company seeks to add eight employees to its staff of 43 to help cover the new city work.
“We do a lot of private patrols and security services in the city, but what makes us unique is we use post-certified law enforcement officers,” Brenner said. “We’ve been providing inmate transportation services for about eight years for sheriff’s offices and other cities, too, so this isn’t anything new to us.”
Declining to name clients, he said the company has served 11 sheriff’s offices in the region.
One Springfield resident, Tim Havens, spoke at the public hearing before the emergency-bill vote. He said he was concerned that released inmates, who could be dealing with health or mental problems, would be stranded far from home and could be desperate or dangerous under such a scenario.
“These are the most vulnerable people we have,” he said.
Councilman Craig Hosmer shared some of Havens’ concerns but said the arrangement proposed by Williams was preferable to simply releasing suspects, which has been a routine practice in Springfield over the past year.
“This is not an ideal situation, but it is a situation not of our making. The jail was basically locked to municipal prisoners in April 2015,” Hosmer said.
