Cape projects short on funds by $54 million

Cape Girardeau city officials have no shortage of proposed capital improvement projects. But funding them is another matter.

The city council annually approves a five-year capital improvements plan that covers everything from street construction to park improvements.

This year's draft proposes spending $87.8 million on 125 projects from July 1 this year through June 30, 2010. But currently there is no funding source for over half of the cost -- $54.5 million worth of projects listed in the plan.

The city council is scheduled to hold a special study session Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Osage Community Centre to review the planning document. The council is expected to approve the plan in March.

City manager Doug Leslie said the capital improvements plan is designed to help the city staff establish funding priorities.

"It is not a wish list per se," he said. "It's a list of needs."

Said Leslie, "This is a good document to always keep in front of everybody."

Some of the projects have been on the plan for years and city officials still haven't managed to secure funding for them.

A case in point is the proposed expansion of the police station, estimated to cost more than $5 million.

"We first started talking about an annex in 1995," said police chief Steve Strong.

The project has been listed in the capital improvements plan since 1998 and currently is scheduled for possible construction as early as 2008. But Strong said there isn't any funding for construction.

The proposed project would involve construction of a two-story, 16,000-square-foot addition to the north and east sides of the police station at 40 S. Sprigg St. The added space is proposed to include a courtroom, office space, witness interview rooms and locker facilities.

Still, Strong said the police station will see about $550,000 worth of improvements in the new fiscal year that starts July 1. They include replacement of the faulty heating and cooling system subject to repeated and costly repairs.

Strong said that project also will include some improvements to a house the city owns behind the police station. The house will provided added temporary space for the police department.

The city could get by without an addition to the police station for possibly another decade, he said.

But eventually the city will have to find funding for the project, Strong said.

Public works self-improvement

Officials have talked for a decade of building a new public works building to replace the city's worn-out facility on Kingshighway. But the city doesn't have the estimated $9.16 million it would take to build a new 86,000-square-foot public works building.

The city owns ground on Corporate Circle near the Dana Corp. plant that officials have identified as the future site for a new public works building.

But Leslie said a new public works building is contingent upon selling the old facility. "That would be the main source of funding for a new building," he said.

The current draft of the capital improvements plan -- which is revised and approved annually by the city council as required by the city charter -- includes only two new projects, city planner Kent Bratton said.

Those projects are the reconstruction of the curve on North Kingsway, west of Jessica Drive and south of Paul Revere Drive and the reconstruction of North Main Street from Robert Street to Cape Rock Drive.

The Kingsway project would cost an estimated $656,000. The North Main Street work would cost an estimated $730,000. Both projects would be funded with motor fuel tax money -- Kingsway in the coming fiscal year and North Main Street in 2009-2010.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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