COURTHOUSE SITE PURCHASE, DESIGN OK'D

A U.S. Senate committee Thursday gave the final go-ahead for funding of site acquisition and design work for a new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau.

The Environment and Public Works Committee authorized $3.8 million in funding.

"With today's final approval by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the new courthouse building for Cape Girardeau can go forward," Sen. John Danforth said.

"It's a significant gain for the administration of justice, and I expect the federal courts to be more accessible, secure and effective as a result of this action," the senator said.

"It's a done deal now," said David LaValle, a legislative aide in the Washington office of U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.

"What happened in a nutshell is that the Senate signed off on it, and it is going to go forward," he said. "This just kind of puts the icing on the cake."

Said LaValle, "This gives them (the General Services Administration) the permission to move forward."

Thursday's Senate committee action is another step in an effort to build a new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau, a process that began with Emerson requesting a feasibility study in 1991, LaValle said.

But he cautioned that the building is not yet in the construction stage. "We don't want to give the misconception that this thing is going to be built tomorrow," said LaValle.

Congress last year included funding for the courthouse project in the 1994 federal budget.

But on the Senate side, it remained for the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee to approve the courthouse project before funding was certain.

LaValle said there had been some rumors that the committee might ax some projects, including the Cape Girardeau project. Fortunately, he said, that didn't occur.

Preliminary plans call for construction of a 72,000-square-foot federal courthouse, which would be nearly three times the size of the current Federal Building.

A new courthouse is needed because of the expansion of the federal courts in Cape Girardeau, officials have said.

The new courthouse would house the federal courts, U.S. attorney's office and other federal law enforcement offices. The existing Federal Building would house other federal agencies.