COMPANY CHOSEN TO DESIGN FEDERAL BUILDING

A company has been hired to design Cape Girardeau's new federal courthouse, a task that is expected to be completed by early fall 2001.

Construction of the courthouse at Independence and Frederick likely would start in 2002 and take two years to complete, said Dennis Miller, project manager with the federal General Services Administration office in Fort Worth, Texas.

The GSA is in charge of construction of government buildings.

Land for the courthouse still must be bought. Two buildings that housed an auto body business and a gun shop will have to be demolished and the site will need an environmental cleanup, Miller said Wednesday. Gasoline has leaked into the ground from an underground tank that served a former service station on the site. Miller said the environmental cleanup can't begin until the property has been bought.

Architects with the Chicago firm of Ross Barney + Jankowski are scheduled to meet in St. Louis next week with federal judges and representatives of court-related agencies that will have space in the courthouse. Miller said architects have three days of meetings scheduled.

The architects plan to go over space requirements needed for the courts and federal prosecutors, and for the offices of federal marshal, probation and public defender.

The courthouse is expected to be less than 150,000 square feet. "I would guess it would have at least three floors minimum." Miller said.

"It is a pretty good-sized courthouse," he said. "We have built several of this size around the country."

Congress has budgeted $2.19 million for design work. The figure includes the cost of hiring a construction management firm to assist the GSA in reviewing the design.

Miller said the GSA will give city officials the opportunity to review the drawings as the design work proceeds.

The government is in the process of buying nearly four acres that includes an AmerenUE substation. Miller said the GSA hopes to buy all the property by this fall.