AIRPORT BOARD OPPOSES CENTER

If community opposition weighs heavily in the Missouri Division of Youth Services' decision on where to build two new juvenile centers, Cape Girardeau might be out of the running.

The agency plans to build a pair of 20-bed juvenile treatment centers in its 28-county, Southeast Missouri region. At least 18 communities, including Cape Girardeau, have come up with proposals to entice DYS to pick their cities.

But one proposed site in Cape Girardeau County already has been dropped because of opposition. Now another might suffer the same fate.

At a hearing Friday on the sites, members of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport Advisory Board objected to a proposed five-acre juvenile center site at the airport.

On Tuesday, the airport board voted unanimously to oppose putting the center at the airport. DYS rejected an earlier proposal for Klaus Park, between Cape Girardeau and Jackson, because of opposition from property owners around the park.

If the airport site is rejected on similar grounds, only a five-acre tract on the west side of South Sprigg Street, about a half mile south of its intersection with Southern Expressway, will remain as a potential site for the center in Cape Girardeau.

Airport board members said Friday they were unaware until this week that the airport site was on the table.

"Everybody has been left out of the loop," said board member William Walker. "We discussed it Tuesday in our board meeting, but the only reason it came up was that one of the board members had heard about it."

J. Fred Waltz, airport board chairman, said the site in question was deeded to the city after World War II for an airfield.

"Our hopes and aspirations are that it would continue to be used in connection with aviation," Waltz said.

He said the tract is a prime development site and putting a juvenile center there would hamper city efforts to attract aviation-related businesses at the airport.

Randy Holdman, the city's former airport manager and now a member of the airport board, said deed restrictions might prohibit the Federal Aviation Administration from approving the center at the proposed site.

"Almost 95 percent of the airport property owned by the city is restricted by the FAA," Holdman said.

He also explained that the site might be cost-prohibitive. Without utility upgrades, the wells at the airport won't support any large development and the sewer lagoon already is near capacity.

The opposition may kill any chance Cape Girardeau has to get one of the two centers.

Pat Doyen, assistant director of DYS, said other communities that have applied for the new centers are "very excited and eager" about the possibility of getting a center.

A single, 20-bed facility would cost about $1.9 million and would have an annual payroll of about $750,000 for 33 employees.

Randy Rhodes, the chief juvenile officer for the 32nd Judicial Circuit in Cape Girardeau, hopes there is still a chance the state will pick Cape Girardeau.

Rhodes said his judicial circuit has committed 76 juvenile offenders in less than three years, the most in Southeast Missouri. He said it's important to place the center in a community with a high commitment rate, where the offenders' families can be involved with treatment.

As to security concerns, Rhodes said they're overblown. Cape Girardeau already has two juvenile centers, which are neither fenced nor have special security measures in place.

"We had four runaways in one year, and I compared that with Cape Central High School, and they had about 50 in a year," Rhodes said.

Doyen said most of the youth held in the centers are committed for property crimes and only a small percentage are considered moderate to high-risk offenders.

Rep. Mary Kasten of Cape Girardeau also plugged the local site. Her brainchild, the Community Caring Council, combines the resources of 98 state and local agencies to work on behalf of families and children in the region.

"It would be ideal to put all those resources together to help these youth get back in the community as a functioning member of society," Kasten said.