SMSU construction stuck on hold

Siceluff Hall, one of the original buildings on the Southwest Missouri State University campus, was supposed to be abuzz with interior renovation work this year.

Instead, the four-story granite structure sits closed, waiting for the money to materialize.

The Siceluff situation, like many others in higher education around the state, is a result of the Missouri state government's financial woes.

But what makes this case additionally difficult for SMSU is that Siceluff is part of a $4.6 million funding package now on hold due to a shortage of state funds. There also is a red light on about $5 million worth of other university renovation projects.

When the work will get under way depends on when the state, which authorized the funding a couple of years ago, actually has the money to give.

"The withhold is not a cancellation of the projects," said Kent Thomas, SMSU vice president of administrative services, noting that the university has to be patient and wait for the state's financial situation to improve.

"We aren't blaming anybody for this," he said. "There were budget problems last year, and then 9-11 made things worse."

Meanwhile, however, the university can't afford to let Siceluff sit idle. The school is making plans to reopen part of Siceluff next fall in order to utilize needed classroom space.

"There are 10 or 12 classrooms that could be available for use," said Dale Moore, SMSU facilities analyst.

Last summer, when the university vacated the building in anticipation of the renovation, it moved more SMSU operations into downtown Springfield, where the university already has a significant and growing presence.

It leased the third floor of the Bank of America building, owned by Davis Properties, for the department of con-sumer and family studies and the Depart-ment of Communications' mostly ad-junct staff, formerly housed in Siceluff Hall.

"We really got a good deal," Thomas said of the five-year, $143,000 a year lease, which includes utilities and custodial services. "It works out to $7.50 a square foot, but a lot of other property downtown is going for $8 to $10 a foot."

About 30 staff members were involved in the move, which accommodates a combination of office, laboratory and classroom space, largely dedicated to three consumer and family studies program majors: clothing textiles and merchandising; housing and interior design; and vocational, family and consumer sciences education.

When the lease for the downtown space was obtained in May 2001, the university believed everything was on schedule. The move out of Siceluff was made in early summer, but in mid-July, the state notified SMSU the renovation money was being withheld until further notice.

After the revenue situation worsened, in the wake of the economic slowdown following the terrorist attacks, "it appeared the appropriation evaporated" for the near future, Thomas said.

Siceluff, which is being fixed up to meet "life safety standards and all (Americans with Disabilities Act) re-quirements," according to Thomas, heads a sequence of three stepping-stone-type projects with a total cost of $4.6 million.

They are dependent upon one another because after one building is finished, it will house operations of the next in line for renovation, Moore said.

"We wrote this plan in 1995," Moore added. "The idea is to try (to) get departments collegially close together. It has not been efficient at all" to have them scattered in different buildings.

When the Siceluff renovation is through, the English department will move in from Pummill Hall and that building will be remodeled, Moore said. Upon the completion of the project there, the psychology department will move in from Hill Hall, which will in turn be renovated to accommodate all education department operations, the university facilities analyst said.

The other authorized SMSU building renovation projects waiting for the availability of state money, according to information supplied by Doug Sampson, supervisor of design and construction for SMSU, are:

The Jim D. Morris Center for Con-tinuing Education in downtown Spring-field, $3,089,518;

Cheek Hall and the Kings Street Annex of Temple Hall, on the SMSU main campus, $993,336;

Hass-Hoover Hall and Looney Hall, on the West Plains campus, $625,725; and

Shepard Hall at the fruit experiment station in Mountain Grove, $253,418.