PRESIDENTS DECREED DOWNTOWN FEDERAL BUILDINGS

U.S. presidents dating back to Jimmy Carter have decreed that federal buildings must be constructed downtown.

It is the main reason the General Services Administration has focused on Cape Girardeau's downtown in its search for a site for a new, U.S. courthouse.

The government also wants the courthouse to be close to the existing Federal Building and city offices to allow for better coordination between agencies.

But the primary reason is an executive order issued by Carter in 1978.

"The federal policy is basically to try to strengthen downtowns," said Jim Ogden of the GSA's regional office in Kansas City. The goal is to help keep downtowns viable business areas, he said.

Over the years the policy has had strong bipartisan support, Ogden said.

The new courthouse will be one of the government's smallest. Still, at 72,000 square feet, that would be about three times as large as the Federal Building here.

Ogden said the space is needed to provide for more courtrooms as well as offices for judges and jury rooms.

"We keep cramming people in there," he said of the existing Federal Building.

The 27-year-old structure at 339 Broadway isn't large enough to house all the federal agencies; four federal offices currently are in leased space.

The U.S. attorney's office leases space in the Capital Bank building just east of the Federal Building. The public defender's office is in leased quarters on Broadway. The Social Security Administration hears appeals in an office building on Silver Springs Road. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is housed in rented quarters in the same building.

Construction of a courthouse would eliminate the need to lease space in other buildings, Ogden said.

The U.S. attorney's office and the defender's office would move into the new courthouse. The new building also would house four courtrooms: two U.S. District Court courtrooms of about 2,400 square feet each and two magistrate courtrooms of about 1,800 square feet each. All four could be used for jury trials, Ogden said.

There also would be chambers for a U.S. District judge, a magistrate judge and a bankruptcy judge as well as a court clerk's office, a court library and a federal grand jury room. The courthouse also would house the probation office, the U.S. marshal's office and an office for the building superintendent.

It would have witness and counsel rooms and a holding area for prisoners.

There also would be a lobby, which the Federal Building doesn't have, Ogden said.

"In the new court design there has to be some public gathering area and there is none where we currently are," he said.

The current building would house non-judicial federal offices. The Social Security Administration hearing office and the ATF office would relocate to the Federal Building.

Offices of the congressman, Missouri's two U.S. senators, the Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Corps of Engineers, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the FBI would remain in the Federal Building.

Congress has appropriated $3.8 million to acquire a site and do preliminary design work on the courthouse project.

Ogden said most of that money would be used to buy property.

Construction of the building would cost an estimated $10 million and be completed by the middle of 2000. Another $1.7 million would be spent to renovate the Federal Building.