HUD's Oklahoma City Staff Under One Roof

Monday, April 16th 2007, 9:43 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Nearly 12 years after the Oklahoma City bombing, the staff of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is working under the same roof. Thirty-five HUD employees died in the blast outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. In all, 168 persons died.

More than a dozen employees balked at moving into the new downtown federal building in 2004 because it is only a block from the site of the Murrah bombing. They stayed behind at the temporary site the agency had occupied since the bombing.

A courier service made daily runs between the two offices with files. Meetings took a little extra scheduling because participants weren't always in the same office.

The number of people who did not want to move was thinned by retirement over the past few years. The alternate site remained open until the lease ran out last summer.

HUD Field Office Director Kevin L. McNeely said there were nine agency employees there at the time.

One retired and the others joined their co-workers at the main office.

``From an administrative perspective, it went well,'' he said. ``They're here, they're working and they're doing a good job.''