Nearly 440 parolees per week may begin visiting the state office building at 7545 S. Lindbergh Blvd. near Lemay Ferry Road.
The Missouri Office of Administration is preparing the building to house a Proba-tion and Parole Division of the Department of Corrections by July 1, according to Lisa Cavender of the administration’s Division of Facilities Management.
Senior services and family services currently operate at the building, which is near the former No. 1 Engine House of the Mehlville Fire Protection District and roughly one mile from Mehlville Senior High School at 3200 Lemay Ferry Road.
Senior services and family services would continue to operate at the building, Cavender told the Call.
“They would just be shifting internally to provide more space for the incoming agency,” she said.
The Department of Corrections currently leases space at 4452 S. Lindbergh Blvd., but that contract expires on June 30, the end of Missouri’s 2005 fiscal year.
“We had an office in South St. Louis County for 15 years and then we moved to this current facility,” said John Fougere of the Department of Corrections. “It’s only like a mile from our original location so it’s not like we haven’t been there before.”
By moving to a facility already under con-tract, the state will save about $107,158 annually, Fougere told the Call.
“That’s a lease that we can drop,” he said. “This building is under contract anyway.”
Nearly 30 corrections employees would work from the building just east of Lemay Ferry Road, Cavender said. Some would be probation and parole officers, while others are office personnel and managerial staff.
Nearly 440 offenders per week currently report to the probation and parole offices at 4452 S. Lindbergh Blvd., Fougere said. The new office should handle the same number of offenders.
R&T Bax Development constructed the office building on South Lindbergh near Lemay Ferry in 2001 with approval from the County Council.
The land is zoned for retail and commercial properties, said Deborah Salberg, a zoning section head with the county De-partment of Planning, and does not restrict any type of office operation, including parole or probation.
The county ordinance approving the construction of the building did not contain any office restrictions either, she said.
