![]() ![]() I wonder what he'll do next now he's got time on his hands.Īssociate Editor Anthony Westbury may be reached at (772) 409-1320 or ceremonies take place 10 a.m. With hindsight, I possibly would have said no (to taking the project on), but I like a good challenge." "We don't get a lot of opportunities for big challenges (like this one). "I'll be very proud for the community," he said recently. On Friday, Dannahower and a list of local officials will be honored for their efforts. The rest is history but, unfortunately, so is Mahoney. It was rookie Congressman Tim Mahoney in 2007 who managed to unlock funding. It seemed the project would never happen.Įventually a new design ? now costing around $50 million and weighing in at 111,000 square feet ? was unveiled in 2004, but construction still was under a moratorium. Later, severe budget cuts during the Clinton administration and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq took their toll on federal funding. ![]() The project was six weeks away from going out for construction bids when, in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, all existing designs were scrapped for major security upgrades. Eventually, that pressure brought funding for the design of a 65,000-70,000 square foot courthouse costing between $10 million and $12 million.ĭisaster struck in 1997. ![]() Bob Graham and Connie Mack, government administrators kept dragging their feet. Federal cases were frequently heard in West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale rather than coming here.ĭespite intense lobbying by high-placed judges, Sens. Yet Government Services Administration studies through the mid-1990s still maintained there wasn't sufficient need for a new courthouse in Fort Pierce. The room was old, cramped and unpleasant. In 1987, the old post office at Fifth and Orange housed a federal courtroom that was extremely unpopular with judges who traveled to hear cases here. Lucie.ĭannahower played a role in keeping the county courthouse in Fort Pierce, in persuading the state department of Children & Families to build its new Treasure Coast headquarters on U.S. ![]() Getting the federal government to commit to building here has been derailed and delayed by the war in Iraq, by federal budget cuts, political wheeling and dealing, even an act of terrorism in Oklahoma City.Īnd eventual success took a combination of sheer hard work, luck, a few well-placed connections and a rookie congressman who found the construction money sitting unused and forgotten.ĭannahower, Fort Pierce's mayor from 1965-96, was determined to keep government offices in downtown during a period in the 1980s when many agencies wanted to water down the county seat by relocating to Port St. She called it "the longest process I've ever been involved with, without a doubt." 1 in Fort Pierce.ĭecker, now executive director of the Indian River State College Foundation and formerly an aide to Congressmen Tom Lewis and Mark Foley, spent 17 years on the courthouse effort herself. The odyssey finally bears fruit this Friday when ground will be broken for the new courthouse at the intersection of Orange Avenue and U.S. That's how Ann Decker describes former Fort Pierce Mayor Bill Dannahower and his 22-year quest to bring a new federal courthouse to St. ![]()
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