By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Though other plans for the remainder of the old McCune-Brooks Hospital remain unclear, the state is interested in putting a regional crime lab in the former emergency-room area, Carthage Mayor Jim Woestman said Wednesday.

Eight officials involved in crime-lab operations toured the former hospital Tuesday, the mayor said.

“They were very impressed with the quality of the building,” Woestman said. “They had said earlier they were interested in 8,000 square feet. Now they’re talking about 10,000 square feet.”

The next step, he said, is to work out financial arrangements.

The city had entered into an agreement with Missouri Southern State University to buy the former hospital for $1. But MSSU officials recently said those plans probably would not go forward because the university did not have the money to make needed repairs without additional funding from the state. A decision is expected when the university Board of Governors meets Friday.

The former hospital’s emergency room and radiology area had been identified as a site for the relocated crime lab, now at MSSU. The space “is very workable, but it’s all dependent on whether we can obtain appropriations,” said Capt. Steve Hinesly, who directs crime-lab operations for the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

He said the space at the hospital doubles the amount now available at the university for a crime lab, “which is a necessity to bring it up to being accredited some day.”

Hinesly agreed that the state is interested in an additional 2,000 square feet at the building, to meet Highway Patrol space needs in several areas.

“We need additional space for evidence storage, and there’s an area there that would be ideal,” he said. “We might also consider moving offices for a couple of criminal investigators there too, and freeing up some space at the satellite station” south of Carthage.

Hinesly said officials with the state’s Office of Administration were part of the tour. He said they will be developing cost estimates for the move, for submission as part of the state budget preparation.

“I’m hopeful, but nothing is a given until we get the appropriations,” he said.

Woestman said city officials are happy with those discussions, “but we still have 75,000 square feet we need to fill.”

City officials in 2005 negotiated an agreement with the university to take over the building once the new hospital was completed. City and hospital officials said they did not want the large building in central Carthage to sit empty after hospital operations moved to a new building. The City Council approved the pact in 2005, and it was approved by the university’s Board of Governors in early 2006.