Cape officials consider renaming Cherokee Park

More than $150,000 is riding on whether the Cape Girardeau Kiwanis Club gets a park to call its own.

The city council will consider a resolution at its meeting tonight to rename Cherokee Park as Kiwanis Park. The park would be the first in the city to be named after a service organization.

For its part, the civic club plans to donate an initial $150,000 to the Cape Girardeau Park Development Foundation to improve the park which can be reached from both Perryville and Lexington roads. The money will be donated in increments for projects as they occur, city officials said.

Dan Muser, the city's parks and recreation director, said the money would be used for new picnic shelters and playground equipment.

The civic club plans to provide additional funding over the next decade and provide an annual report to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board over how the money is spent, Muser said.

Both the park board and the foundation have endorsed the proposed name change.

Mayor Jay Knudtson favors the name change. He said the Kiwanis Club has a long history of using its bingo proceeds to fund park and other improvements.

"They are looking for a legacy," he said. "It's a group that has a tremendous history in this town."

Knudtson said he knows renaming Cherokee Park would set a precedent for renaming parks. But he said the Kiwanis Club has a long track record of donating to civic projects and it would be foolish to turn down such a sizable donation at a time when the city is strapped for money.

Tom Ward, first vice president of the Kiwanis Club, said his club choose Cherokee Park because it wants to improve what it views as a largely undeveloped and underused park.

"Cherokee Park is a park a lot of people don't know much about," he said.

Ward said Kiwanis Club has committed to provide continued funding for park improvements for 10 years, but plans to support the park even beyond that time period.

"This is an ongoing thing," he said. "It is not going to be a one-time check."

The Kiwanis Club hired a landscape architect to look at possible park improvements. Ward said club members plan to meet with city park officials to look at improvement plans.

Ward said the club doesn't want to turn the park into recreational sports fields like those at Shawnee and Arena parks. "We want to keep it a family-type park," he said.

City officials said it might be harder to change the name if the name Cherokee had some historical significance for the park land, but it does not.

Ward said the park would still have an Indian name. He said Kiwanis is an Indian name that means "we build."

mbliss@semissourian.com

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