HEARING ON NEW FEDERAL COURTHOUSE WEDNESDAY

The proposed location for a federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau will be the focus of a public meeting Wednesday.

The General Services Administration will hold the public hearing at 7 p.m. at Cape Girardeau City Hall to hear views on the location of a new courthouse. People can sign up to speak at the hearing beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The hearing will focus on the proposed Happy Hollow site, a nearly six-acre tract west of City Hall. In all, six sites were considered as possible locations for the courthouse.

"It seems that the site is largely a consensus of many people down there," said Jim Ogden of the General Services Administration's regional office in Kansas City. "We've had no indication of any objection to it."

GSA is the management arm of the federal government. The agency owns and operates many federal buildings, excluding post offices, and supplies various equipment, supplies and services to federal agencies. Ogden said the building will be built to meet new requirements for security of courthouses.

"We started planning this courthouse long before there was Oklahoma City, but that certainly changed the way security was viewed," Ogden said. "We did an environmental assessment of a number of sites there, and this had the least environmental impact on the city itself, either for traffic or disturbing residential areas. It's also very economical."

The hearing is the next step in the process of buying property for construction of the courthouse. Ogden said GSA is currently getting market value appraisals as required by law to determine what will be paid for the land.

A final decision on the site could come within a few weeks after the hearing. Once a decision is made the agency can begin the process of buying the property.

Ogden said Congress has already approved funding for the design and site acquisition for the courthouse. "That's usually a very good indication that funding for construction will be made available," he said.

He said funding for construction of the courthouse is expected in October 2000. The entire courthouse project could cost $40 million, some $30 million of that related solely to construction of the building. Construction could take two years, with the building ready for occupancy in fiscal 2003.