Cape council looks over revised capital improvements list

Cape Girardeau would tackle $3.1 million worth of fire department construction and renovation projects on the city's $89.4 million, five-year capital improvements plan if voters approve a quarter-cent fire sales tax in June, city officials said Monday.

The list includes replacement of roofs at two fire stations, relocation of another fire station and major renovations to the police station, including replacement of its faulty heating and cooling system.

At a city council study session to review the capital improvements plan, Councilman Jay Purcell said the city needs to replace the heating and cooling system in the police station because it is "throwing good money after a bad system."

Over the past four years, the city has spent over $60,000 repairing the heating and cooling system. "You have the furnace and air conditioning running constantly," police chief Steve Strong told the council.

City manager Doug Leslie presented a revised capital improvements plan, which included two projects added since the first draft and corrected cost figures that lowered the total amount from over $109 million to more than $89 million. But there's no funding currently available for over $60 million worth of the projects, according to the latest draft of the capital improvements plan.

The added projects, which currently aren't funded, are a pavement rehabilitation project at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport and construction of a road to connect a planned East Main Street/Interstate 55 interchange with Route W.

Final revisions to the overall plan are expected when the council holds a hearing on the capital improvements program on March 1, city officials said.

The plan, which Mayor Jay Knudtson calls a construction "road map," includes $25.9 million in transportation projects; $31 million in sewer, trash, water and storm drainage projects; $13.45 million in parks and recreation projects; and $18.8 million in "community development" projects, including nearly $9.2 million for a new public works building.

But like many of the city projects, the city has no funding right now to construct a new public works building, officials said.