Cape City Council approves payment for asbestos remediation

Cape Girardeau's city council voted to move forward with steps in various projects throughout the city during Monday's meeting.

Asbestos remediation is complete at the former Convention & Visitors Bureau building on Broadway that soon will be torn down. The council voted to approve final payment for the remediation, which cost just more than $20,000.

City manager Scott Meyer said demolition of the building is likely to begin by early summer. For now, he said, the site will be turned into a parking lot, but the city also will be looking for a next best use for the space. The total cost of the demolition is estimated at $125,000. The project is among several the council approved earlier this spring to be paid for with revenue the city receives from the operation of Isle Casino Cape Girardeau.

The Convention & Visitors Bureau moved from the former bank building at the corner of Broadway and Main Street in 2007 into the Himmelberger-Harrison building at 400 Broadway, where it still is located.

The council also approved a time extension for a project that will connect Cape LaCroix Trail to the Shawnee Sports Complex in two areas. Assistant city manager Kelly Green said the project is being funded through federal grants. The project will add two segments to the existing trail, one of which will start at West End Boulevard and Linden Street and extend to the current south end of the trail. The other will connect the trail to the complex and West End Boulevard at Highway 74. Residential areas near both segments that will gain walking access to the complex when the project is complete, Green said. Work is expected to begin in September and be complete by spring.

Green said the additions are one step in eventually connecting a trail near the downtown riverwalk with Cape LaCroix Trail, which begins north of the Osage Centre on Kingshighway and stretches south toward Highway 74. The ultimate goal is to make the trail into a large loop that would take it all the way around the city, according to a master plan devised by the city's parks and recreation department with the help of a consultant.

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