By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The new laboratory will be financed through a $10 million bond issue approved by city voters in 1998, and a $390,000 grant from the Department of Justice.
Police chief Joe Mokwa says crowded working conditions and inadequate ventilation drove the need for a larger facility, as well as quickly changing technology:
"We're one of the few cities that have national accreditation, so it was imperative that we build a new lab so we would have the ability to accommodate future changes, and to be able to really get into molecular biology and all those kinds of things that we're doing now but on a more limited scale," Mokwa said.
Construction will begin later this month, with completion expected in February 2005.