NOTE TO READERS: Ivan Irvin just phoned to say he's been on the commission "17 years, time flies, and chairman for 5 years." I've changed the blog to reflect this.

In just 11 minutes, the city of Cape Girardeau board of adjustment amended and approved minutes from its last meeting, in August; held a public hearing on a resident's request for a setback variance; approved the request; accepted the resignation of the board's chairman, elected a new chairman, a new vice chairman, a new secretary.

The details:

Gary Dewrock, 2324 Lombardo Drive, is building a garage on his property. In order to align it with his home, he asked the board to let him exceed the city's requirement to keep structures at least five feet from the property line. Dewrock wants to build within two feet.

He asked board members if they had visited the area and seen his property. Everyone nodded yes.

"There's still 50 feet between the houses," he said. His garage will be next to his neighbor's side yard.

Setbacks are mainly used for fire prevention, he was told. Did he know the city only varies setbacks if the builder agrees to use special materials -- which I rightly took to mean "more fire retardant" -- and Dewrock said he wasn't aware of the rule, but was willing to abide by it.

The vote might have been unanimous but for Mark Buerck, who abstained. His son and one of Dewrock's grew up together.

Next came the matter of board officers. Irvin sent a letter of resignation to the city, "but they haven't accepted it yet," he joked.

"It's time to move on," Irvin had said before the meeting. "It's not because I don't like the work, because I do, but because of health issues."

Earlier this year, city council agreed to move Irvin from regular board member to alternate board member.

Thursday's meeting was his first since April. Irvin is a former city mayor.

Before he could officially leave the board, they had to choose a new chairman. Vice chairman Dan Little was duly elevated; Buerck was chosen as his second, leaving the secretary spot vacant. Ed Hart was elected secretary, but the board almost immediately realized this could be a problem, as Hart is an alternate member. Alternates attend but do not vote unless one or more of the five regular board members is absent. Little declared the matter could be resolved in the next meeting.

As the meeting ended, Irvin looked around the room, a wry expression on his face.

"I believe this is the first time this board has ever had a meeting chaired by an alternate," he said. Everyone grinned.

Irvin served on the board of adjustment for 17 years and chaired it for five. He moved to Cape Girardeau in 1960 from Joplin, Mo. He recalled the exact date the Town Center opened: Aug. 11, 1960, he said.

"My wife and I owned a store there," he said, recalling the excitement and fun in promoting the biggest retail outlet (at the time) between St. Louis and Memphis.

"The timing was perfect," he said. Irvin and his wife raised two sons in Cape and now live on the same street as the Irvins' only grandchild, something that clearly delights the former mayor.

I plan to talk to Ivan Irvin soon about what the midtown area was like back in the ‘60s -- and what potential it has in the near future. There are lots of rumors floating about and I expect to track some of those down, too.