BUILDING PANEL SEEKS SPECIFIC PROBLEMS

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and the city staff are looking for specific problems builders, architects and developers confront when they deal with city hall, and generalities, half-truths and rumors aren't welcome at Thursday's task force meeting.

City building inspector Rick Murray said it is time put "coffee shop gossip to bed and get at some specific cases with everyone concerned in the same room."

Chamber President John Mehner is confident pertinent information from a question-and-answer session will surface during the first public building task force meeting at 4 p.m. at the Chamber of Commerce building.

"The first meeting was pretty open," Mehner said. "The people involved in this want to get at the problem and find answers so we can improve the situation."

Following a closed meeting in March, Mehner has held one-on-one meetings with members of the task force to determine how to proceed.

"It looks like a lot of good information will come out of this," Mehner said. "Communication is going to be a big part of this."

The chamber deemed the building task force committee necessary after a member survey revealed problems builders face with city hall ranked sixth on a list of the 10 most pressing issues in Cape Girardeau.

The chamber's building task force met with city officials March 14 to discuss the focus of the meetings and establish problems that exist when builders, contractors and architects deal with city hall.

Some of the issues covered at the March meeting were communication between members of the city staff and the inspection process.

Others were:

-- a lack of good communication at city hall between departments and departments dealing with builders.

-- a less than caring attitude by city staff.

-- a failure to adopt the policy that each builder is the most important person they will talk to that day.

-- a suggestion on establishing printed "how-to" guidelines.

-- a problem with time lapses between submission of plans and review of plans.

-- a request not to change the rules or inspectors in the middle of the process.

"We have already addressed the communication problem," Murray said. "We're looking for ways to do a better job communicating with the customer and also make the process less complicated."

Both Murray and Mehner said adequate information can go a long way in helping the city staff and builders understand how each operate.