Look sharp, the feds are coming.
Federal officials will be in Manhattan today to evaluate the city as a site for a new Department of Homeland Security research facility. Manhattan is one of 17 potential sites for the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, a $450-million project city, state and university leaders have been working to bring here.
The officials will have visited all potential sites for the NBAF by mid-May. They were in Leavenworth, Kan., Wednesday to evaluate a site there.
Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson was in Leavenworth to meet the officials but will not be here today, said Seth Bundy, assistant press secretary for the governor. He said Parkinson and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Kan., have meetings today that prevent them from coming to speak with the officials.
Parkinson is co-chairman of the task force the governor created to persuade the DHS to choose a site in Kansas.
Bundy said Tom Thornton, president and CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, would be a part of the group meeting with the federal officials.
Between six and 13 officials will meet with local leaders, said Chris Kelly, DHS science and technology media liaison. He said James Johnson, head of the Office of National Laboratories, would be among them.
Kelly said there would be meetings and presentations regarding the site as well as a trip to the proposed location. He said the meetings are closed to the public and the press.
"It's simply because it's a procurement process, and we need to treat each of the sites and consortia with equal objectivity," Kelly said.
There had been 18 sites in consideration, but a site in Mississippi has since dropped out of the runnings, he said.
"That was their call," Kelly said. "They decided to no longer pursue it."
The NBAF, if built here, would be constructed just north of Roberts Hall and southeast of the intersection of Denison and Kimball avenues.
The facility would house research on human and animal diseases and employ 250 to 500 scientists. It is expected to eventually replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which performs research on maladies like foot-and-mouth disease.
The Manhattan City Commission pledged on Feb. 6 to contribute up to $5 million toward the construction of the facility if the DHS chooses the city. The Kansas House and Senate also unanimously passed a concurrent resolution promising help if a Kansas site is picked.
K-State, city and state officials met on campus Feb. 9 to discuss plans to bring the NBAF here. Lt. Gov. Parkinson was at the meeting and told the group the Biosecurity Research Institute in Roberts Hall increases Kansas' chances of getting the new facility.
"We think that a major advantage for our proposal is to be able to say, 'Hey, you might not have your new building until 2015, but we've got a building right here that's available,'" he said at the meeting.
