Blunt visits Cape Girardeau to see revitalization project results

The interior of the building at 101 William St. has been gutted. Bare beams and posts stand mute. But later this fall, organizers hope dozens, if not hundreds, of children will be visiting weekly when the Discovery Playhouse begins operations in its new quarters.

On Friday, Gov. Matt Blunt came to Cape Girardeau to win a little praise and dish out a little adulation of his own to the people using the Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri, or DREAM, initiative to upgrade downtown.

Missouri had the tools in place to make city cores vital, Blunt told about 100 people gathered in the building that will house the children's museum. But too often, those using the programs were located only in the state's major urban areas.

"There were a number of tools that weren't being used by our small and medium-sized communities," Blunt said. "The DREAM Initiative was designed to make those tools available for those communities."

The Discovery Playhouse, currently housed at West Park Mall, will close at that location later this month and re-open in October or early November at the William Street location, said director Martha Brown. The renovation work is being supported by $172,000 in tax credits for donors to the program. The new museum will feature a water play exhibit and an expanded children's village she said.

In addition to the tax credits for the museum, put on a fast track after Cape Girardeau won the DREAM designation, the city has also received $300,000 in block grant funds to build an extension of Fountain Street from Morgan Oak Street to William Street.

The DREAM Initiative addresses the needs of development in smaller communities, Blunt said. "This is not about finding one or two dilapidated buildings and fixing them up," he said. "It is about comprehensive renewal."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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