Morris Packaging wins county support

The Cole County Commission has approved a development agreement to allow Morris Packaging of Bloomington, Ill., to locate an operation in Jefferson City to produce bags for dog food producers.

The agreement, which was approved by the Jefferson City Council on Tuesday night, calls for the city and county to provide a sanitary sewer system to the property, which is located on more than 9 acres of a 25-acre tract west of Alpla. The land is owned by the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce.

The city and county also would pay for the extension of the current rail spur at the site when the company requests it.

The company hopes to be in operation by February 2014, and the 20 jobs they plan to bring pay an average salary of $46,000, commissioners were told.

In other commission news Thursday:

• For the second time in his seven years in office, Prosecutor Marc Richardson had to ask the county to pay court costs after an unsuccessful prosecution.

"The law provides that a judge can order the county to pay the court costs if a prosecution is unsuccessful, and Judge (Pat) Joyce did that in this case," he told commissioners.

The county will have to pay $12,450 in costs, which will have to come out of the general revenue fund.

The appeals court in Kansas City ruled in May that Jeffrey Luke Moad, 27, Eugene, never can be tried again for manslaughter in the Feb. 14, 2006, death of Laura "Katie" Winfrey, 18, New Bloomfield.

His only trial in the case ended with a hung jury in February 2008.

A three-judge appeals court panel ruled that Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled correctly in September 2012 that prosecutors had closed the door to a new trial when they dismissed the original indictment against Moad on Aug. 30, 2010, just 10 days before the scheduled retrial.

• Also at Thursday's meeting, it was announced that a major maintenance and repair project at the courthouse and courthouse annex had been completed.

MTS Contracting Inc., out of Springfield was awarded the job in April after submitting the lowest of three bids, $188,613, to do work such as brick and stone repointing, removing and resetting bricks and repairing stones.

Commissioners said they were pleased with the work and had compliments on the appearance of the buildings.