Cape County Commissioner Jones seeks to calm park land controversy

The potential sale of a strip of Cape Girardeau County park land is not a finished deal, Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones told the county's Board of Park Commissioners in a meeting Monday.

Jones, appearing before the board for the first time in his new role as supervising commissioner for parks, said he wanted to provide details of the proposed sale and calm the controversy surrounding the sale. At the end, several park board members said they were satisfied that they are getting more information and a chance to examine the deal in detail.

The commission voted April 3 in a closed session to accept a $300,000 offer from Mid America Hotels for a 70-foot wide strip of County Park North adjacent to other land owned by the company. The parcel, 1.24 acres in all, is on the west edge of the park.

The land deal was one of several major disagreements among the three county commissioners. Jones and Associate Commissioner Larry Bock voted to sell the land; Associate Commissioner Jay Purcell voted against it. Purcell has said he opposed the deal because the park commissioners, a county advisory board, had not considered the issue in a formal meeting and given its approval.

Jones, in the meeting Monday, told the board that Purcell voted against the land sale because Jones and Bock declined to agree during the meeting to spend $150,000 on a new playground.

The meeting Monday, Jones said, was an attempt end the fighting over the land. "This was to try to put a stop to the controversy," Jones said. "I've got 2-1/2 years left in office and I want it peaceful and productive. And one way or another, it will be."

An advisory letter from John Lichtenegger, a Jackson attorney retained by the county to study the land sale, cautions the county to look harder at the price offered and the value of the property, Jones told the board. The county needs to obtain its own appraisal of the property, he said, and work is still underway to make certain that the county is not restricted in any way on selling the land.

The land deal controversy should never have reached the level it has, Jones said. "To tell the truth, I am sick of it. In the big scheme of things, this is way down the list."

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