Cape Mayor Bob Fox: Spanish Street upgrades could tie in with courthouse project

Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox wants to see improvements made to Spanish Street in conjunction with plans to renovate the Common Pleas Courthouse as part of the new city hall project.

“It needs to be discussed right now,” Fox said Wednesday.

The City Council on Monday approved a design-build agreement with Penzel Construction Co., in partnership with architecture firm TreanorHL, to renovate the 165-year-old Common Pleas Courthouse and the adjacent Annex and construct a connecting addition at 44 N. Lorimier St., at a cost of $12 million.

The plan includes construction of a parking structure and “redoing” the courthouse steps, which Fox said are falling apart.

A downtown strategic plan unveiled in 2017 calls for adding 48 parking spaces on the west side of Spanish Street, bordering the courthouse property. It envisions cutting into the hillside to carve out the parking spaces.

“Now is the time to be thinking about the future of Spanish Street,” said Fox, adding any improvements to the street should be coordinated with the courthouse project.

The mayor said the council will discuss possible Spanish Street improvements at the Nov. 18 council meeting.

The council is expected to discuss proposed projects, recommended by an advisory committee, which could be funded if voters extend a transportation sales tax in April.

Spanish Street improvements were not on the committee’s list, but Fox said the council may look at adding it to the package of transportation projects.

Fox said the Spanish Street improvements, which could include street lighting, might be funded with casino revenue, which is earmarked for downtown projects.

But some transportation sales tax money might have to be used to help pay for the work, Fox said.

Council members don’t have to make a final decision on Transportation Trust Fund 6 projects right away.

“We have time,” he said, adding the council has until January to formally vote to put the sales tax issue on the April ballot.

Fox, however, raised the issue at Monday’s meeting.

“I wanted to get it in front of the council,” he said.

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