No. 27 Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab

The Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab opened in December 2008 at 425 E. Phelps St. after four years of funding issues and multiple design changes that pushed construction back several times.

That was not the end of the road for problems plaguing the $6.8 million project.

The crime lab was built to eradicate the need to process evidence for local criminal cases at the Jefferson City crime lab, where it sometimes would take several months to complete.

The crime lab offers forensic science services, including DNA, toxicology and drug chemistry, and it was funded through $1.9 million from the state, $1.8 million from the city’s level property tax, $468,775 from a federal grant and $2.7 million from low-interest loans from area banks.

The city’s portion of funding for the project caused problems.

The city intended to use money from a contract with the state to pay off a $1.8 million state bond at the beginning of July, according to media reports.

Under the contract, the state was to pay a $22,000 monthly lease and eventually purchase the building for $1.6 million by the end of fiscal 2010. However, the state has yet to pay that amount and the city was unable to meet its goal of paying off the bond by the end of the fiscal year.

Though the state later offered to pay an amount less than the original calculation the city came up with, the city is pursuing the originally agreed-upon amount.

See the full list of pivotal points chosen by the Springfield Business Journal here.
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