Use of Broadway federal courthouse for nonjudicial purposes may cost county

Federal officials need more information about Cape Girardeau County's plans for the soon-to-be-surplus federal courthouse in downtown Cape Girardeau.

In a memo sent to the county, the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to know the law enforcement purpose of housing juvenile authorities in the courthouse and which county offices would be moved into the building.

In response, the county commission enlisted Chauncy Buchheit, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, to help answer the questions.

"We have done a lot of grant work in the past and we have some staff we can throw at this thing to see if we can get some answers," Buchheit said after meeting with commissioners Monday.

With construction of a new federal courthouse almost complete on Independence Street, court offices and congressional offices will soon be moving out of the Broadway facility. Using a law that makes surplus federal buildings available at no charge for local use, commissioners are seeking to move judicial offices and county functions from the Common Pleas Courthouse and annex.

But diverting some of the Broadway facility for nonjudicial purposes could mean the county will have to pay for some or all of the building. And Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones doesn't want to take on the expense.

"If we can't put county offices in there, then the deal is off," Jones said. "I am frustrated with the whole thing."

Maintenance costs in the federal courthouse would be considerably higher than in current quarters. The county wants to continue renting office space to the FBI and the DEA after other federal agencies move.

The two combine to pay the General Services Administration about $100,000 a year in rent for their space, Jones noted. "That is the rent we need to break even."

In other business, the county E-911 Advisory Board rejected a request from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's office to fund a series of radio repeaters to improve communications between deputies and the department's headquarters. The board did agree that it could lend money to the county for such a project if the funding could be found to repay the E-911 account.

The 911 system's responsibility ends when the appropriate agency has been dispatched and arrives at the location of the emergency call, the board noted. "Follow-up communications between the responders is not part of the 911 call."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 126