FEDERAL COURTHOUSE ON HOLD FOR THE YEAR; GSA SAYS SPENDING CUTS TO BLAME

Plans for a new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau have been delayed for at least a year, a federal official said Wednesday.

"It is a dead issue for this year simply because of what the budget provides," said the official, Bond Faulwell, deputy regional administrator for the General Services Administration's Kansas City office.

The GSA would select a site for the $30 million courthouse. But Faulwell said his agency won't buy land this year because President Clinton's proposed budget for fiscal 1998 doesn't include any money for construction of federal courthouses.

Faulwell said his agency won't buy the land until it is assured federal funds are available to proceed with designing the building.

With today's budget-cutting climate in Washington, federal construction projects will receive more scrutiny, and securing funding from Congress could take longer, he said.

Faulwell said the GSA likely won't hold a public hearing on courthouse sites until next year.

The GSA last year settled on the Happy Hollow site west of City Hall as its preferred choice. But it hasn't ruled out two other possible sites: the north side of the 400 block of Broadway and the old St. Francis hospital block on Good Hope at South Pacific.

Public opposition earlier forced the government to abandon the idea of building a courthouse in a residential neighborhood immediately south of the existing Federal Building.

City officials expressed disappointment at the delay.

Councilman J.J. Williamson said: "We were looking forward to getting a new courthouse. It sure would have been an improvement for our community. It is a disappointment, but it is something we have to deal with."

Meanwhile, the city is working to get debris removed from the Happy Hollow site where fire destroyed a manufacturing plant last year.

"It is a sore sight over there to look at," Williamson said.

The delay in choosing a courthouse site hasn't deterred the Haarig Area Development Association, which has lobbied for the courthouse to be built at the old St. Francis hospital site.

The association of businessmen wants the federal government to tear down the vacant hospital building and replace it with a courthouse. The move, they say, would revitalize the neighborhood.

"We haven't given up on it at all," businessman Ted Coalter said.