Plans to Close Rolla USGS Center On Hold

Officials with the Department of the Interior have put on hold plans to move the US Geological Survey mapping center from Rolla to a new, centralized mapping center in Denver. Southeast Missouri Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson says the Missouri Congressional delegation has been able to convince Interior Department officials that there were flaws in reaching the decision to close to the Rolla office. The Mid-Continent Mapping Center employs 185 people who will lose their jobs if the consolidation is eventually approved. Emerson has actually pushed to consolidate the nation’s mapping centers in Rolla, rather than Denver.