County applies for federal building

By RUDI KELLER

Southeast Missourian

Stymied by federal rules in their quest to study whether the county can afford to take over the U.S. Courthouse on Broadway in Cape Girardeau, the Cape Girardeau County Commission on Monday decided to ask for the building.

The application isn't the final decision, Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said as commissioners discussed the building. Instead, it is a method for opening up access to documents that could show whether the building is a good deal for the county.

"We need to get an application in and see how it proceeds," Jones said.

The county must determine the potential costs of taking over the building, he said. Other issues include whether federal agencies such as the FBI and the DEA can remain as tenants and whether county satellite offices in Cape Girardeau can move into the building without forcing the county to fork over a large amount of cash to Uncle Sam.

"It has to include the county offices or it is not going to work," Jones said.

The county is considering moving judicial offices in the Common Pleas Courthouse, juvenile offices in the old library building on Lorimier Street and satellite offices of the county clerk, assessor and collector to the federal building. In the application, the county estimates spending $300,000 to $500,000 on renovations to the federal courthouse to make it usable for the county. The funds would come from interest received on the county's $5 million emergency reserve.

The courthouse will become vacant when judicial and congressional offices currently housed there move to the new federal courthouse on Independence Street. Under federal rules, interested parties may apply to use the old building for a variety of purposes.

A group supporting the homeless could, for example, apply to convert the building into a homeless shelter. The county wants to take possession through a federal rule that allows a courthouse to be used for local justice purposes.

Circuit Judges Benjamin Lewis and William Syler added a letter promoting the switch to the county's application. In the letter, the judges said both the Common Pleas Courthouse and the juvenile offices "have outgrown their effectiveness as facilities to provide adequate law enforcement for this county and circuit."

The Common Pleas Courthouse is too old to add up-to-date security measures and fails the test of being accessible to people with disabilities, the judges wrote.

But maintenance costs in the federal courthouse have been estimated at $150,000 a year, compared to $50,000 annually at current locations, Jones said. The FBI and DEA pay about $100,000 annually in rent for their space he noted.

Associate Commissioner Larry Bock said keeping federal tenants is the only way to make the deal work financially. "We've got to have these kind of renters," he said.

All of the figures on costs are speculative, Jones said. An ad-hoc task force asked to evaluate the costs and benefits of a move --former county commissioner Joe Gambill, Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning commissioner Harry Rediger and banker Moe Sandfort -- haven't made much progress because there's no formal application, he said.

Commissioner Jay Purcell, who has been assigned the job of keeping in contact with the federal agencies and help guide the evaluation process, said the application doesn't obligate the county.

"This is the first step, not the last," he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126