By Mike Shields and Jim McLean
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, July 11
Officials in five states were celebrating Wednesday that they had sites on the Department of Homeland Security”s short list of finalists as it shops for a new home for the federal government”s main animal disease research laboratory.
“There is no mistaking the big win for Kansas,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, an honorary co-chairman of the task force created earlier this year by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to help lure the $451 million facility to either Leavenworth or Manhattan.
“From the very beginning, the Leavenworth and Manhattan communities have pulled together to demonstrate the best of what Kansas has to offer, and this decision shows that we can and will continue to compete for national projects,” Sebelius said.
Kansas had two of the 18 sites in 11 states competing to replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is off the coast of New York.
In January 2006, the Department of Homeland Security asked to hear from states or other entities interested in having the new facility. There were 29 expressions of interest. The agency winnowed those to a list of 18 possible locations. That list has now been trimmed to five. Manhattan got the nod as did sites in Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina.
A final site selection is expected by October 2008 with construction starting in 2010 and completion of the laboratory by 2014.
“I will continue to do everything I can in Congress to bring this cutting-edge facility to our state,” said U.S. Rep Nancy Boyda, D-Kan. Manhattan is in her district.
If Manhattan is the ultimate choice, the laboratory would be built on the Kansas State University campus adjacent to the Biosecurity Research Institute and near the College of Veterinary Medicine.
President Bush included $23 million in his Fiscal 2006 budget for design work on the 500,000 square-feet research center, which is expected to cost $451 million to build.
Experts calculate it would mean 1,500 construction jobs and then 300 permanent jobs when manned for full-scale operation. According to a study by the University of Georgia”s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the facility over 20 years would bring in between $3.5 billion and $6 billion.
The next step in the selection process will be environmental impact studies, which are expected to be completed by the end of next year, Roberts said.
The other states
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The Georgia Consortium for Health and Agro-Security is offering a site owned by the University of Georgia near Athens adjacent to several existing federal facilities including a U.S. Department of Agriculture research center and the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory.
http://www.georgia.org/nbaf
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Texas had four proposals in the earlier running, including three locations in or near San Antonio. The finalist from that state was the Texas Research and Technology Foundation NBAF Consortium in San Antonio. That group has offered 100 acres within the 1,236-acre Texas Research Park
http://www.trpf.com
which was built almost 20 years ago to promote development of laboratory and office space for new and emerging technology companies.
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North Carolina”s
http://www.ncc-nbaf.org/
proposed site is more than 100 acres in Granville County on the Umstead Research Farm, which covers 4,035 state-owned acres managed by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Research Stations Division. The site is surrounded by state and federal land, including National Guard property. According to the site promoters, there are three full-service hospitals within 15 miles of the site, which is 23 miles from The Raleigh-Durham International airport. Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University are 17, 30 and 33 miles respectively from the site. Regional offices of USDA”s Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service and other pertinent federal agencies are less than 35 miles away in Raleigh.
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Mississippi”s site is in Madison County at the Flora Industrial Park. That is in the congressional district of U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.
-Mike Shields and Jim McLean are staff writers for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. They can be reached at 785-233-5443.