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Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Article
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/249582
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The parameters of the government's search are outlined, for the first time, in
an "expression of interest" solicitation posted online at FBO.gov, the federal
government's procurement clearinghouse.
In geographic terms, they extend beyond the downtown locations judicial and
congressional sources described late last month.
The posting, which went online Thursday, is considered the first official step
in trying to find a location for a one- or two-courtroom building.
The General Services Administration, the agency of the federal government that owns property and leases it to the
federal courts, said it is looking for a 1-acre to 2-acre site.
It also describes the search location as being much of the downtown and including property as far north as the Amtrak
line between Dillerville Road and North Lime Street.
Though the specifications don't specifically mention any site, the parameters include the 77-acre site of the former
Armstrong World Industries floor plant.
F&M has developed about 30 acres of the razed former Armstrong World Industries Liberty Street floor plant into
athletic fields.
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"There's an awful lot of property there," said Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, who will meet with federal officials this week
to discuss plans for the courthouse. "It really depends on what Lancaster General does in the way of utilization of
their part of the property. LGH has considered a lot of different alternatives. I'm not sure any of it is firm."
The GSA said it is seeking property that is for sale or could be donated to the federal government. It has set a March
25 deadline for receiving proposals.
Finding and acquiring a suitable property likely will take months, but the feds expect to have a one- or two-courtroom
building constructed within three years.
The government has appropriated $6.5 million for site acquisition and design. The remaining $20.5 million would go
toward construction.
The U.S. Senate has authorized spending the $27 million for the courthouse; the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee also must authorize the spending.
Congress must approve of the proposal in the financial services and general government appropriations bill.
Elected officials, local law enforcement and attorneys have been seeking a federal courthouse for Lancaster for more
than 20 years.
Several possible locations in the city have been repeatedly mentioned: the vacant Bulova building on Lancaster
Square at North Queen and East Orange streets; the former Sovereign Bank office building at 23 E. King St., owned
by the Girard Estate; and the site of the former Gunzenhauser Bakery at 811 N. Prince St.
tmurse@lnpnews.com
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Why does it have to be in a city at all? Why not build it off of Route 283 near Mount Joy? What about southern
Lancaster near The Buck?
SMART REMARKS:
What ...
0:02:58
Andyinpa
One thing that is necessary is accessible public transportation for jurors. The City's proximity to the train station
and bus service makes it the only location to really fit the bill.
WriteofPassage
Crews raze former
Qu...
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Pitts, Gray, Stengel all support East King Street site after tour of four possible locations.
By TOM MURSE
Lancaster New Era
Published: Apr 24, 2007 2:06 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - When it comes to finding a home for a federal courthouse in Lancaster City, elected officials here clearly
prefer the former Sovereign Bank building on East King Street.
The question is, will the feds go along with them?
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, U.S. Rep. Joseph R. Pitts and federal Judge Lawrence Stengel, who toured four potential sites Monday
afternoon, said housing a new courthouse at 23 E. King St. makes the most sense.
"It's the cheapest alternative. It's a great location. There's great parking already. It's available. You get in there right away," Pitts
said. "I think it could happen by the fall, but again you've got to give the courts and the GSA time to make a decision."
The GSA, or U.S. General Services Administration, is the branch of government that owns property and leases it to the federal courts
and other departments. It has the final say on which, if any, of the Lancaster sites will be selected for a courthouse.
The mayor's office is recommending the site to the GSA.
"My understanding of the process is we can provide information, and we've requested information in regards to that particular site,
that we will forward on to the GSA with a statement from the city that it is our preferred site," said Randy Patterson, the city's
director of economic development and neighborhood revitalization.
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who also went on the bus tour Monday, declined to say which of the four sites he liked best, but pledged
once again to bring a federal courthouse to the city.
"I think we're going to get it done," said the state's senior senator, noting that funding had already been approved for a Lancaster
court. "I'm not here wasting my time."
The three other proposed locations are the Bulova Technologies building at Queen and Orange streets; the Hager parking lot at North
Prince and West Grant streets; and a parking lot at North Prince and West Walnut streets.
Stengel said he, too, prefers the East King Street location.
"I certainly think there are great advantages to that site. It's capable of being secured. It's vacant. It's owned by the Girard Estate,
which has experience in leasing to government tenants," said Stengel, who lives in the county and commutes to Philadelphia.
"And it's about the right size for what we need to do, and it has the potential for secure parking and entry. It's in close proximity to
the Lancaster County Courthouse," Stengel added. "Those were the reasons articulated by the mayor's office, and I think they make
sense."
The former bank would cost about $15.4 million to renovate into courtrooms and offices. Two stories could be added to the existing
three-story building, said Patterson, who served as tour guide during the bus trip.
Specter said he met earlier this month in Washington, D.C., with the Judicial Council of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals about
bringing a federal courthouse to Lancaster.
"Meetings are on the docket through June and perhaps into the fall," Specter said. "It is ripe for a decision.
Officials have discussed bringing a federal courthouse to Lancaster for more than two decades, and have said many times that such a
decision was imminent. They said again today that they are optimistic it will happen soon.
"I don't think we're talking another decade. I would be surprised if it took us another five years," said Stengel. "It's the use of public
money, and so they're careful about how to do it ... It won't be within the next six months, but it's likely it could be within two
years."
Gray, who served on a local bar association panel in the 1980s that sought to bring a federal courthouse to the city, said he is
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"I think we are close," Stengel said. "The strongest evidence of that is the people who are interested and the people who are pushing
for it.
"It's not happening because Judge Stengel wants it to happen. It's going to happen because Sen. Specter and Rep. Pitts are strongly
behind it."
Specter and U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. both attended an anti-gang conference in Lancaster last month.
Casey did not join Specter for Monday's tour but supports the courthouse project.
"While in Lancaster last month for a roundtable on youth violence, I discussed the need for a federal courthouse with local officials,"
Casey said in a statement. "Unfortunately, I had to be in Washington today and was unable to be in Lancaster.
"I will work with Sen. Specter, Congressman Pitts and local leaders to do everything I can to expedite a new federal courthouse in
Lancaster."
E-mail: blovelace@lnpnews.com
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Higher-ed
study spurs
Sturla to
action
Calls for community,
college advisory board
BY AILEEN HUMPHREYS
Intelligencer Journal Staff
T U E S DAY, D E C E M B E R 6 , 2 0 0 5
HOME DELIVERY
$2.85 PER WEEK
50
Free to read
Students at Ephrata Middle
School can read whatever they
want, wherever they want,
every Friday morning.
Page B1
Page C1
A courthouse divided,
badly and bitterly
Site-based management
needs to go, study says
BY COLBY ITKOWITZ
Intelligencer Journal Staff
In brief
Suicide bomber kills five
near Israeli shopping mall
Lawsuit filed to
reinstate pay raises
W E AT H E R
Today: Partly sunny
and brisk. High 35.
Tonight: Mostly clear.
Low 21.
Wednesday:
Windy
and cold, chance of
flurries. High 32.
Convention center is
cause of breakdown,
commissioners say
Commissioners will
pay a hefty price for
infighting, critics say
BY DAVE PIDGEON
BY DAVE PIDGEON
For the Lancaster County commissioners, the political price of the past years divisive actions, court battles and infighting
is more than they can afford, according to
many community leaders.
Right now, they are under siege, former county Commissioner Paul Thibault
said last week. How are they going to
approach (the public) with a positive idea
when from the beginning of their term we
see them fighting with others?
Several critics predicted a frustrated
county constituency will be ready to
sweep Republicans Dick Shellenberger
and Pete Shaub and Democrat Molly Henderson out of the commissioners office in
the next countywide election.
If two years from now there is a lack
of progress, people may decide to go in
a different direction, state Rep. Mike
Sturla, a Lancaster city Democrat, said.
The commissioners say theyre working for the benefit of the taxpayers.
Yet many of their decisions have led
the county into expensive court battles
the proposal to turn a former railroad
right of way into a recreation trail; the
sale of Conestoga View nursing home;
Shellenberger and Hendersons opposition to the proposed hotel/convention
center; and the eminent domain takeover
of the Armstrong office building at 150 N.
Queen St.
I dont know how much attorneys
have made on their watch, but its
millions, state Sen. Gibson E. Armstrong, a Refton Republican, said.
Paul Thibault
Sen. Armstrong
INDEX
MUTUAL FUNDS
BIRTHS
B2
B12
BRIDGE
CL6 NEWSMAKERS
C16
OBITUARIES
BUSINESS
B8
B3
OPINION
CLASSIFIED
C7
A10
BY P.J. REILLY
three or four days to repair the pipe and
PUBLIC NOTICES
COMICS
C6
C7
Intelligencer Journal Staff
PUZZLES
DEAR ABBY
A7
CL6
Lancaster city
workers today are ex- at Longs Park last week when many Koi,
SPORTS
FARM
B9
C1
pected to begin
draining water from the goldfish and catfish began turning up
LIFESTYLE
STOCKS
B10 pond
A6
at Longs Park.
dead.
TELEVISION
B6
LOCAL NEWS
B1
Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the citys
Tests showed the water in the pond was
WEATHER
C16
LOTTERY
A2
Copyright
Lancaster Newspapers Inc.
All rights reserved
Report
chronicles
5 years of
SDL woes
Page A 1
LANCASTER, PA.
LancasterOnline.com
order
to remove raw sewage that leaked
into it last week from a nearby collapsed
sewer line.
The pond then will be filled with fresh
water pumped from the creek that runs
through the park along Harrisburg Pike.
Katzenmoyer
said
it will take about
extremely low in oxygen and high in ammonia a byproduct of human waste that
is toxic to fish.
Katzenmoyer said the nearby sewer
pipe was identified Thursday as a possible
source of the contamination.
City officials found the breach by inserting a television camera into the pipe,
she said.
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Saddams
trial sinks
into bedlam
Witnesses describe
scenes of torture
BY ROBERT F. WORTH
New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq The first witnesses took the stand on Monday in Saddam Husseins trial, offering gripping accounts of meat grinders for human flesh,
torture with fire and electric shocks and
mass executions.
The courtroom soon devolved into a
wild scene of shouting and chaos, as Saddam and his fellow defendants exchanged
insults with witnesses, lectured the judge
and veered into lengthy diatribes against
the tribunal.
Dont interrupt me! Saddam shouted
at the judge, who tried with little success
to make him stick to questioning the witnesses. Later, Saddam pounded on the
lectern and his microphone, comparing
himself to Mussolini and insisting that he
was not afraid to be executed.
The outbursts punctuated an extraordinary eight-hour session in which Saddam
faced victims of his governments massacres in court for the first time. The first
Please see SADDAM page A4
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