Cape Council OKs 13th community college survey proposal first reading, narrowly

By a 4-3 vote Monday, Cape Girardeau City Council approved the first reading of a $20,000 expenditure to support a needs analysis and community survey for a proposed 13th community college in Missouri.

Rich Payne, who for 18 years directed the Career and Technology Center (CTC) in Cape Girardeau, made the request on behalf of the Committee for Affordable Technical Education, which he chairs.

Payne told city lawmakers MGT of America Consulting of Tallahassee, Florida, will do the analysis/survey and is charging a total of $98,375.

The technical education committee was formed recently by the school districts of Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Perryville to pursue forming a community college and technical school taxing district in the Cape Girardeau region.

“We have to call it a ‘community college’ by state statute,” said Payne, who fielded a series of questions from the six ward council members and Mayor Bob Fox, who met via Zoom.

“It will be a technical school (because) we don’t need more general education in our area,” Payne added.

It marked the third consecutive meeting in which city lawmakers met virtually because of COVID-19 concerns.

Stacy Kinder and Shannon Truxel, of the sixth and fifth council wards, respectively, thought the city should give only $10,000, the amount previously approved by the cities of Jackson and Perryville.

“It’s a confusing topic (so) I’m comfortable with 10 right now,” Kinder said.

“$10,000 shows support and is more appropriate,” Truxel added.

Ward 1’s Dan Presson joined in favoring the reduced amount but was generally skeptical of the concept.

“Not enough information has been provided to my satisfaction,” Presson said.

“I want to see the overview of the goals. A taxpayer-funded ‘anything’ needs to be scrutinized to the nth degree,” he added.

“Our (city) taxpayers already pay for the CTC. If we could add programming to an existing entity, that would be great, (but) we might not need to create something new to achieve the same goals,” Presson continued.

Shelly Moore, Nate Thomas and Robbie Guard of wards 2, 3 and 4 voted to support the full $20,000, as did Fox, the seventh council vote.

“We’re the largest community (and) we should be the leader of the region,” Fox said.

The ordinance to approve the full amount will be revisited when council again meets virtually Jan. 19, one day later than usual because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

On that occasion, the council will take a final vote the second and third readings of the measure.

Payne informed lawmakers of the commitments from other governmental entities for the consultant’s work: $10,000 each from the cities of Perryville and Jackson, $10,000 from Perry County and $30,000 from the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Cape Girardeau County.

The former CTC director said he will likely approach business leaders to raise the rest of the money needed to pay MGT Consulting.

Other action

• Heroes

Council members, in recognition of National Heroes Day on Dec. 29, each shared stories of personal heroes.

Jane Wernsman, director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, came in for special attention.

“(Wernsman) is a nurse, has dedicated her life to public health, and her (COVID-19) leadership has literally been amazing over these past 10 months,” Fox said.

• Tree Board

Jennifer Behnken, chairwoman of the city’s Tree Board, made a PowerPoint presentation about the continuing work of her seven-member advisory panel and was joined by the city’s Parks and Recreation director, Julia Jones.

City manager Scott Meyer told council members monthly presentations will be made during their meetings by city advisory panels to keep lawmakers informed about their work.

• Block grant

The council voted 7-0 as part of the evening’s consent agenda to formally accept a $40,000 grant from the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to fund air service promotion and marketing at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. The city, in accepting the money, will be obligated to kick in a 10% match. The award is far less than the $170,000 received a year ago because of fewer receipts from the jet fuel tax caused by a drastic decline in pandemic-impacted airplane travel.

• Appointments

The City Council reappointed Mayor Fox and Councilman Guard to the Cape Girardeau Area Magnet Board of Directors. Additionally, Sid Wittington of Ward 6 was named to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.