Cape council to look at annual operating budget

The Cape Girardeau's City Council will decide the use of millions of dollars at today's meeting.

The packed agenda includes the city's annual operating budget for the fiscal year, which begins July 1. Annual revenue for the coming year is projected at more than $22 million.

Among the rising expenses are the cost of televising the city council meetings — $24,000 — and an anticipated 7.2 percent jump, equaling $32,000, in the cost of electricity for street lights. The city's estimated total cost for personnel, $17,312,410, includes a 2 percent cost of living increase in the coming fiscal year.

Property taxes remain unchanged but the board will hear the first reading on raising rates for water, sewer and solid waste by a total of 3.47 percent as well as transfer station fees by 6.2 percent, or $2.50 per ton. According to a summary by John Richbourg, the city's financial director, the average household utility bill of $47.21 will rise by $1.64, to $48.85 while the average commercial bill, $132.85, will increase to $137.41, a $4.56 difference. If approved, the increases will take effect July 1. The ordinance will also restructure how partial payments are applied by evenly crediting payments to each utility, rather than in order.

Agreements considered

Two agreements, with the Main Street and North Main Street levee improvement districts, will be read for the first time. The agreements put the city in charge of both districts, to allow a joint project between the city and the Army Corps of Engineers to begin a $9 million reconstruction of the Mississippi River Flood Protection System, which includes the floodwall that protects the downtown area.

The city will also decide whether to apply for the Missouri Department of Economic Development block grant funds to bridge a $250,000 gap in the DREAM Initiative renovation of the Schultz School building. The project will convert the school, built in 1914, into 45-unit senior housing facility. Jackson developer Chad Hartle won a $6,000,000 federal and state tax credits from the Missouri Housing Development Commission in December, but had asked for $700,000. Hartle bought the building for $1.7 million last year, at which time he told the Southeast Missourian that converting the school into apartments would cost an estimated $16 million.

The council is also expecting a visit from Bill Vickery, director of the Small Business Development Center at Southeast Missouri State University, who will answer any questions regarding his $6,000 annual grant request. In a letter to the city, Vickery notes the center's Operation Jump-Start entrepreneurial development program has helped create or expand 17 business over the last two years.

High school zoning

Rezoning is being proposed for Notre Dame Regional High School's property. The school is currently zoned R-1, which is reserved for single-family homes; the city's planning and zoning board unanimously recommended rezoning the area to R-4, multifamily residential.

Also among issues being put to a vote is a ban on people hired to hold signs and wave from curbsides at passing traffic. Such live advertisements are used for some restaurants or, on a seasonal basis, to draw customers to tax services by using people dressed as the Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam.

The Rev. Mark Martin of St. Andrew Lutheran Church is scheduled to give the invocation. Public hearings will be held on the Schultz School grant; the city's operating budget; and rezoning requests for 721 Sunset Blvd., 723 Sunset Blvd., 265 Notre Dame Drive and 824 South Kingshighway.

Today's meeting begins with a 5 p.m. study session with the regular meeting beginning at 7 p.m. at city hall, 401 Independence St. The city's complete agenda is available online at http://www.cityofcapegirardeau.org/aboutcapegirardeau/citycouncilmeetingagenda1.aspx.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

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