City opens bidding for crime lab project
By Jane Huh
News-Leader (Springfield, MO)
October 24, 2006
The city of Springfield is ready to move forward with plans to renovate a downtown building to become a new Missouri Highway Patrol crime lab.
Officials are accepting bids for the project that stalled briefly in late August when concerns were raised regarding the redesign of the old building, which used to house farm equipment.
"What we wanted to do was try to make changes that would allow the building to fit in better with the older buildings in the center city area and retain the original design features of the building," said City Manager Bob Cumley. "I think we've done that."
Renovation work is expected to begin in January and finish during spring 2008.
An ad seeking bidders was published in Saturday's edition of the News-Leader.
The sealed bids will be opened Nov. 17, and a city committee will make its recommendations to the council about two weeks later, Cumley said.
The purpose of the new crime lab is to better serve the southwest Missouri region and lessen the burden on the Jefferson City crime lab, said Harold Bengsch, Greene County commissioner.
The new lab, located at Tampa Street and Benton Avenue, would function as a full-service crime lab similar to the patrol's crime lab in Jefferson City. It would provide services such as DNA analysis, toxicology and particle scanning for suspected terror threats.
The overall renovation and refurbishing is estimated to cost $5 million.
The crime lab costs will be shared by the city, Greene County, the state and the federal government.
In January, 15 area bankers offered a low-interest $2.4 million loan for the lab. The city and county would split interest-only payments of $60,000 a year for the first five years.
Springfield will also contribute $1.1 million in property tax funds.
About $1.5 million toward the lab's equipment and installation costs is expected to come from the federal government. Gov. Matt Blunt has also pledged to staff the facility with 21 new full-time employees.
Bill Marbaker, assistant director of the patrol's crime lab in Jefferson City, said five new employees who will eventually transfer to Springfield's new facility have been hired. Two people are going through the hiring process.
Greene County Sheriff Jack Merritt sees the advent of a downtown crime lab as "probably one of the most significant thing for law enforcement" not only in the southern region but in the rest of the state.
"This will free up the Jefferson City lab and allow them to have more time to work on other cases," Merritt said. "It keeps so many of these cases from being prolonged. Many times, we're waiting for lab results."