Ameren gives $550,000 to three projects in area

~ The Career and Technology Center said its $150,000 grant could spur building expansion.

The Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center hopes to expand its 5-year-old campus by constructing a 9,600-square-foot electrical shop and classroom building east of the current school.

Ameren's Community Development Corp. awarded a $150,000 grant to the Cape Girardeau Public Schools Foundation on Friday to kick off efforts to fund the estimated $1.5 million project.

Career and Technology Center director Rich Payne said he hopes to raise the rest of the money over the next 12 months through donations, government grants and state economic development tax credits.

The grant was one of three awarded at the Cape Girardeau Area Magnet luncheon at the career center. About 100 business, government and civic leaders attended the annual luncheon of the Magnet industrial recruitment association.

The three grants totaled $550,000. The development corporation awarded $200,000 each to the Missouri Research Corp. and the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority.

Missouri Research Corp. will use the money to help develop a business incubator in Southeast Missouri State University's Innovation Center.

The grant to the port authority will help fund construction of a public warehouse at the Mississippi River port near Scott City, Ameren officials said.

The 120,000-square-foot Career and Technology Center still looks new. But it's already running out of room, Payne said as he walked through the brick building early Friday. During a school week, 1,200 people daily take vocational and classroom courses, Payne said. That includes high school students as well as those taking post-secondary courses or employer training classes.

The career center is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. each school day. Many classes are held in the evening.

Payne said the proposed expansion would include a 2,300-square-foot shop area, a 980-square-foot computer lab/classroom and four other classrooms. A hillside behind the career center would be leveled to make room for the new building, he said.

The structure would allow for expanded electrical trades classes, including training on electrical controller equipment used by manufacturers.

The center currently only has space to offer short-term electrical training classes, Payne said.

He favors construction of a second building because he doesn't want to eliminate any of the overhead doors that serve existing shop classes. With a separate building, the center also can keep its existing parking places.

The proposed building also would be brick to match the existing center. Payne wants it to look just as nice as the existing center. He said he doesn't want to put up "some shed."

Payne said heating, cooling and air-conditioning students at the center would help install the HVAC equipment. "It is hands-on learning at its best," he said.

Ameren officials said the goal of their Community Development Corp. is to promote economic development.

The corporation -- formed in 2002 in the settlement of a rate case between AmerenUE and the Missouri Public Service Commission -- operates exclusively across the utility's 20,000-square-mile electric service territory in the state. That region includes Southeast Missouri.

Ameren senior vice president Steve Sullivan and Community Development Corp. board member Doyle Privett of Kennett, Mo., awarded the grants.

Privett said the $550,000 in grants awarded Friday are part of $5.5 million that Ameren's Community Development Corp. has handed out over the past three years. By the end of this year, the company expects to have awarded $9 million to fund various projects.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123