The citizens of Cape Girardeau will go to the polls on April 3 to consider the renewal of our Parks, Recreation and Storm Water Initiative. This is a renewal, not a new tax. It is the renewal of the very successful PRS1 that was enthusiastically approved by our citizens in 2008 which significantly improved our quality of life with the addition of Cape Splash, Shawnee Community Center, improvements to Osage, the golf course, other park and trail additions, and several storm water projects that improved pre-existing flooding issues.. ...

Baseball is a tradition in Cape Girardeau. On Friday I was honored and privileged to stand with some of the "greats" in Cape Girardeau baseball history as we announced officially our entry into the Collegiate Wood Bat Prospect League. John "Doc" Yallaly, Bill Bohnert and Jess Bolen have devoted their lives to the game of baseball and nurturing youth and young adults to maturity via the game of baseball. ...

I bring greetings to all my fellow citizens by wishing all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous New Year of 2018. 2017 is rapidly coming to a close as is my mayoral term of eight years. We have experienced a very good 2017 in Cape Girardeau, and we have many things for which to be proud and thankful. Rather than give a lengthy recap of all accomplishments and activities during this past year, I want to spend this available time and space looking forward into the coming year...

It has been a full year since our city of Cape Girardeau embraced the successful Purpose Built Community model that began in Atlanta, Georgia. This model is a proven successful project that revitalizes neighborhoods such as our own city's southern neighborhoods...

There are many activities and events ahead as we move into the fall season. I want to highlight several of these items and encourage citizens and visitors to participate and enjoy in the weeks ahead. Aaron Horrell and Barb Bailey representing the Painted Wren Art Gallery are hosting an event "Paint for a Cause" at the SEMO District Fair. This is a project to say "Thank You" to our veterans...

I attended a terrific concert recently at our River Campus that turned into a celebration of success in that we as a community have achieved our goal to fund four dogs for our K-9 unit of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. I will write more about the concert later in this column, but first I want to develop the thinking and process behind this fundraising effort within our great city of Cape Girardeau...

We have been meeting this past month with our residents at ward meetings across the city. The council and I have appreciated meeting some old friends and also new faces. Our residents and partners have not come out in big numbers, but those who attended and taken part have given us a great insight into their world and how city services impact them. We've heard praise and we've heard criticism, but it has all been cordial and productive...

Happy New Year to all our citizens. We have turned the page from a productive and successful 2016 and now it is time to look forward to a new year and new beginnings. 2017 shapes up to be a very exciting year with many projects coming on line and others in the planning and vision phase. 2017 will be my last full year as mayor and I intend to spend a good deal of time working on the transition phase as new leadership will be elected in April 2018...

I will begin and end this column with a Merry Christmas and Happy Prosperous New Year of 2017 to all of our citizens in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area. We truly are an area and region where we thrive together in this place referred to as America's Heartland...

September has been a very busy event-filled month for Cape Girardeau.

I recently attended and participated in the 50 year anniversary celebration of the founding of my service club, Cape West Rotary. I have been a member of this club for 40 years. It was a great event as we reminisced the past, celebrated the present and spoke of the challenges and opportunities of the future...

I have visited and used several of our parks recently and thus elected to use this venue to highlight one of our most valuable assets. Our community quality of life is greatly enhanced by our expansive parks and recreation system. Many do not realize Cape Girardeau has 23 parks that cover over 662 acres. They are very well maintained and offer numerous amenities. I would encourage our citizens to use our city website to learn more about our park system...

This month I want to address some of my personal observations concerning public safety within our community. Do we live in a safe community? Are we as a staff and council devoted to making public safety a priority? Do we give public safety adequate resources?...

My fellow citizens, we are presenting two ballot issues on April 5 for your attention and consideration. I want to explain the reasons why I feel that yes votes on both measures are a good investment for the future of our city. First, the use tax. The use tax would apply to items purchased from a different state and "used" in Missouri. ...

I was planning a very relaxing week between Christmas and the New Year of 2016 with little city business on the schedule and the family time I enjoyed at Christmas only a happy memory. I was driving back from St. Louis listening to forecasts of unusual heavy flooding rains for mid- and eastern Missouri...

I would like to spend this time with our citizens reviewing the progress and achievements in 2015. Next month I will look forward to prospects and opportunities for 2016. The City of Cape Girardeau and Mid-America Hotels reached an agreement to extend the Hotel/Restaurant tax into the future at the present rate. ...

Oct. 30, 2015, marked the third anniversary of the opening of Isle Casino in Cape Girardeau. Our city has received nearly $9 million in additional dollars from the Isle operation to accomplish many projects that were outside the scope of being able to complete with our ordinary general revenue budget. I want to report to our citizens the extent of the projects that have been completed or are in process...

I know that I have written several times about community involvement in beautification and littering, but something happened last weekend that once again brought to my attention my longtime goal of establishing a culture change within our entire city as it relates to this issue...

I have a number of items that I would like to comment on this month, so this column will be split into several segments. First I would like to thank the citizens and voters of Cape Girardeau for the positive vote on our Transportation Trust Fund 5 plan for the years 2016-2020. This positive vote will continue our street improvements through the year 2020. Citizens will see major street repairs, particularly in subdivisions and neighborhoods over the next year...

Our citizens will be asked Aug. 4 to cast votes on extending the existing half-cent sales tax for street improvements for an additional five years (2016-2020). This issue deserves a YES vote. The Transportation Trust Fund was originally established and approved by voters in 1995. ...

Our annual Friends of the Park Day was held on April 25. It was again a great success despite the cloudy, damp weather. This is a great community event each spring that renews our park system for the coming summer season. This event brought out more than 340 volunteers including the SEMO Horticulture Club, Master Gardeners, several service clubs, Southeast University students, The Missouri Department of Conservation, several city advisory boards, the SEMO Fair Board, local garden clubs, plus other groups and a host of individuals.. ...

Old Town Cape recognized with Great American Main Street Award Old Town Cape was presented with the Great American Main Street Award in Atlanta, Georgia on March 30. I was privileged and honored to attend the award ceremony presented by the National Main Street Center...

The date was Thursday, Jan. 8. The time was 5 a.m. And the outside temperature was 4 degrees with a negative wind chill factor. These were not ideal conditions for even a mayor to want to rise and shine to attend an early morning prayer breakfast. However, I did make the effort to attend the event and arrived a few minutes after 6 a.m. ...

This year has been a very productive one for the City of Cape Girardeau. I want to focus on the future during these comments but will highlight a few accomplishments of 2014. An initiative that will have a major effect on the future of Cape Girardeau is the agreement to extend the Hotel/Restaurant tax into the 2030s. ...

We, the citizens of Cape Girardeau, will be making a decision at the polls on Nov. 4 on the issue of continuing a 1/8-cent sales tax for public safety. I would prefer to say that the continuation of this 1/8-cent would be used for your safety and my safety...

Our city manager Scott Meyer made a great hiring decision, in my opinion, when he selected Wes Blair from Lancaster, Texas, to be the Cape Girardeau police chief. Chief Blair has solidified his entire team into a cohesive unit with the goal of improving public safety within our city and also our region. He also has become an active member of our community...

Our staff has been working on the Neighborhood Development Initiative for more than two years and made the first presentation to the council during July. I am very excited about this new initiative and trust that it will gain traction and support from you, our citizens, in the months and years ahead...

Summer is here and it appears as I write this column that we are staying in a period of a continued monsoon season. However I remain convinced that we will be wishing for some of these showers when we approach the later part of the summer. We are rapidly approaching the July Fourth holiday where we as a community and nation celebrate Independence Day. ...

These last weeks have been particularly busy for both staff and council. Our executive team is fully staffed now with the addition of police chief Wes Blair in 2013, development services director Molly Hood and the expanded role into customer service for our city clerk Gayle Conrad. I am very pleased and excited about the level of expertise we now have on our leadership team...

It has been a very busy and exciting month. I want to highlight several different functions and issues in this column. Each in its own way becomes very important to our community and our citizens. Gayle Conrad, our longtime and very efficient city clerk, was installed last week as the president of the Missouri City Clerks and Finance Officers Association in Columbia, Mo. ...

Everyone can surely say, as we look back at the winter of 2013-2014, that we have had enough and that we are eagerly awaiting the coming spring season. We have had excessive snow, sleet, wind, freezing rain, cold and even a heavy rainstorm with tornado warnings. ...

The year 2013 is rapidly coming to a close and this would be a good time to look into 2014 and comment on some of the plans and strategies for the year ahead. We have had, in my opinion, a very successful 2013 and have set the stage for 2014 to be an exciting year...

I have written several columns in past months about city beautification. By now most readers and people I know have come to realize this is one of my "hot buttons" and also my major pet peeve. I fail to understand why some residents and business owners allow their property to fall into disrepair, let trash accumulate, weeds grow and, in general, show their disrespect for their neighbors and their community...

Our city council, with the assistance of staff, is researching possible additions to our nuisance ordinance that would strengthen our staff's capability to assist in our city's beautification efforts. I am hopeful that a new ordinance can be adopted by our council before the end of this year...

The Mississippi River, which defines the eastern boundary of Cape Girardeau, is one of our great assets. Yet most residents take the great river for granted and hardly notice its presence when they are in the downtown area. I continue to marvel at the number of tourists and visitors who go out of their way to come to the downtown area, seek out the Broadway or the Themis Street gate, and stand in awe as they watch the mighty Mississippi River flow downstream...

I am writing this column after enjoying and celebrating Independence Day and our freedom with family. I was out of town, but I understand our event at Arena Park drew a large crowd and the fireworks show was outstanding. My congratulations to Kenneth Bender for receiving the Spirit of America Award from the Southeast Missourian. ...

I have written previously about the multitude of what I call destination events that occur through much planning in our city each year. One such event is underway as you read this column. The 22nd annual Rolex Girls Junior Golf Championship at the Dalhousie Golf Club continues through Friday. Top female junior golfers are here from 19 states and 10 other countries...

I had the distinct honor and privilege during this last month in participating in three very important historical events in our city of Cape Girardeau. These events reinforced my belief that our great city is rich in history. It also highlighted to me the fact that we, as citizens, can do much more in the future to further develop our knowledge of local history...

Editor's note: The following column has been edited to reflect the correct phone number to register for the Friends of the Parks Day & the Great Cape Cleanup. It certainly has been a very long winter with snow, wind and cold temperatures for many months. However, spring has now arrived and citizens are finally getting outside to begin preparing for the next six months of our always beautiful spring and summer...

Cape Girardeau and our immediate surrounding area is the regional hub between St. Louis and Memphis. A large part of my election platform stated the need to nurture and expand that regional status. I feel we continue to accomplish that goal. The most obvious large economic drivers that fuel this status are retail, medical, educational and industrial. ...

The city of Cape Girardeau reached final agreement in December to purchase 247 acres of land along both sides of LaSalle Avenue. This land was purchased for $6 million from the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation. An initial down payment will be made to the foundation and the balance will be paid through 12 equal annual payments. ...

We have had a very exciting and productive year in the Cape Girardeau area. I will devote this space to a review of 2012 on economic development, infrastructure progress and internal governmental issues. There has been a lot of action in business and economic development this year, highlighted by the completion and opening of the Isle Casino on Oct. ...

Isle Casino Cape Girardeau is now open. The opening ceremony and ribbon cutting was Oct. 30. That important day followed more than two years of negotiations, planning, construction and the hiring of more than 700 employees. We have a new Broadway corridor and streetscape, an improved and relocated main street, and a completed Transportation Trust Fund project on Big Bend Road...

I have long been an advocate of regional economic development. I believe that when it comes to economic development, the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. We, in Southeast Missouri, have several inherent roadblocks when we compete with other states for opportunities in economic development. Free land, large extra incentives, right to work and other factors create fierce competition for that job-producing company looking to expand its organization...

I have attended and participated in many events during this term as mayor of Cape Girardeau. These have included groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, dedications, unveilings and other official events. The event of Saturday afternoon, Sept. 1, was one of the most inspiring and emotional events that I have attended in more than two years...

This headline represents the theme of the 2012 United Way Campaign. I have long been an advocate and financial supporter of United Way. I served on the United Way board for 19 years in the '80s and '90s and was campaign chairman for three separate years...

July is National Parks and Recreation Month. I presented a proclamation at our July 2 city council meeting declaring all of July as Parks and Recreation month in Cape Girardeau. I was joined that evening by director Julia Thompson, several members of her terrific staff, and a large number of children and youths who participate and enjoy many of the programs and events offered through the department...

Old Town Cape is alive and well. Our downtown area seems to be busy with many events every week. The good news is that citizens and visitors are responding by increasingly attending these events. I give credit to Old Town Cape, Marla Mills, the board of directors, the merchants and the residents in our Old Town Cape area...

We live in a beautiful city, punctuated by the Mississippi River, trees, rolling hills, and a temperate climate with beautiful spring and fall seasons. We have a unique asset with the many thousands of trees throughout our community. I have, as mayor, been remiss in not keeping our city beautification programs identified and promoted on a continuing basis. ...

I recently had the privilege of attending the 13th birthday party at Blanchard Elementary School for Barbara Blanchard. It was, as always, a joyous occasion. There were many of Barbara's friends and former co-workers in attendance including her second-grade teacher. ...

Our council was provided a semiannual summary of the Transportation Trust Funds (TTF-1 through TTF-4) at our regular meeting Feb. 21. The official ribbon cutting will be during March on two recently completed projects, which are Big Bend Road and the next phase of Bloomfield Road. ...

We have long been fans of the Southeast Missouri State University athletics program. We have personally supported a number of Redhawk teams over the years and witnessed many peaks and valleys. Seldom have I been as proud of a Redhawk team as I was recently while watching the basketball team battle the then-undefeated Murray State Racers at Murray, Ky., on a national ESPN telecast...

How important is customer service? How do you measure customer service? Who should measure customer service of an entity? What other entities do you compare the gathered data of customer service? How do you use survey data to improve your customer service?...

Broadway is the "gateway" to our Cape Girardeau downtown area and the mighty Mississippi River. There are many successful businesses along the Broadway stretch from Pacific Street to Water Street. However, over a period of time, there are also several businesses and storefronts that have suffered, failed and fallen into disrepair for one reason or another. This fact has made this important corridor less than inviting to our residents and our visitors...

We are very fortunate to live in a thriving and growing community and area. It has been a great privilege and honor to participate in the many events this year that signify growth and expansion in our city. Ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings are the real "fun" part of my position as mayor of the city of Cape Girardeau. These events are very capably planned and handled by our city staff and the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce...

I have learned much since becoming mayor and have been exposed to many great events and promotions. I have become particularly interested in the many regional and state sporting events and competitions held here in Cape Girardeau. As I reflect back over the last 18 months and look to the near future, I am pleased and excited about how these events impact our Cape Girardeau economy...

I would like to welcome back, on behalf of our entire city of Cape Girardeau, our Southeast Missouri State University students. This is also the time to welcome the incoming freshman class of more than 1,900 students to our fine university. I would also like to give a special welcome to our international students. We will have about 600 returning and 800 total international students on campus this year...

We are anxiously awaiting, as I write this article, the arrival of our 3-year-old grandson Cameron from Dallas. Our daughter Michelle and Cameron will be spending a week with us in Cape Girardeau as his dad goes on to a class reunion in Illinois. Our first thoughts were of what we could do to keep an active and very knowledgeable 3-year-old from cosmopolitan Dallas busy and satisfied for a complete week in Cape Girardeau. ...

We live in a beautiful city, punctuated by the Mississippi River, trees, rolling hills, temperate climate with beautiful spring and fall seasons. We have a unique asset with the many thousands of trees throughout our community. Our council and staff have had a very busy year with gaming, waste water, several citizen voting issues, revising zoning and development codes, commercial and industrial development issues, etc., etc...

I am so proud of our Cape Girardeau voting citizens. I find, as I reflect back over voting history, that our citizens have voted positive on numerous issues that have meant so much to the future of our growing city. This history review was prompted by the overwhelming 80 percent positive vote to approve the funding methods to build our much-needed wastewater treatment plant...

This past year has been filled with many opportunities and challenges. It has also been a very important year for our city and its future. First I would like to state that many of the accomplishments of this past year were the result of the hard work and efforts of our city staff, past mayor Jay Knudtson and our previous city council. ...