Stalactites are essentially calcium deposits that look like ice, often hanging from the roof of the cave. Except this wasn’t a cave. The nearly century-old stone is compromised, and water is entering the building’s basement through the cracks, causing the dirt at the foundation of one part of the Capitol to soak.
After his visit with mud still on his shoes, Nixon was joined by lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Ron Richard, R-Joplin, and the incoming House Budget Committee chairman, Rep. Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage — to announce a $40 million project to repair the aging stonework.
“Each day we wait to address these issues, we add to the ultimate cost of fixing them,” Nixon said.
Richard, a former speaker of the House, said he has been working to get funding for Capitol repairs for the past 12 years. Nixon, he said, was the first governor he has actually taken and shown the deteriorating foundation. In 2012, Richard helped shepherd a project through the Legislature to renovate another Capitol staircase that had begun to sink into the ground.
“There’s a safety issue,” Richard told reporters. “Something better happen, or we’ll be walking on mud.”
The more than $40 million Nixon is using to pay for the stone project will come from legislation passed earlier this year that allows him to sell bonds to fund repairs to state buildings. He has been authorized $200 million for government buildings, and another $200 million for the state’s colleges and universities.
Nixon has made stops throughout the state over the past few weeks to announce the college funding. Nearly $36 million of it is going to fund renovations at the crumbling Lafferre Hall on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia. But earlier this month, Nixon stopped in Joplin to announce $7 million to renovate buildings at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin and Crowder College at Neosho.
Though Mike Kehoe, the Republican state senator who represents Jefferson City in the General Assembly was on stage with the group, Nixon, Richard and Flanigan were all quick to frame the issue as one that concerned the entire state, not just Cole County residents. Flanigan said that in 2013, 40,000 schoolchildren registered for tours of the Capitol museum. He said that figure included students from schools like Carthage and Webb City who make annual trips to Jefferson City.
“The Missouri State Capitol is the state’s most important and treasured public building,” Flanigan said. “Allowing our Capitol building to connote (that it is in) disrepair is unacceptable.”
Benton paintings
In addition to repairs to the other staircase and the foundation under the carriage entrance, the state has also begun to seal off the windows and install a new heating, ventilating and air conditioning system in an effort to dehumidify the air in the state Capitol. That, Gov. Jay Nixon said, is important because it is home to several priceless paintings — not the least of which are the ones painted by Neosho-native Thomas Hart Benton that line the walls of the House Lounge.