Cape's police chief says city crime rate not following national trend

Cape Girardeau Police Chief Wes Blair told city council members Friday more people than on average have been shot in Cape during the first six months of 2020 but his department has logged fewer "shots fired" reports compared to the same period a year ago.

Blair's remarks came during a day-long virtual retreat attended by Mayor Bob Fox, all six ward council members and heads of various city departments.

There have been three homicides in the first half of the year, said Blair, the same number as in January through June of 2019.

Noting Gov. Mike Parson's recent special session of the state legislature to address crime in Missouri, Blair said Cape Girardeau "does not seem to be following the national trend" of seeing upticks in violent crime.

Blair did say one of the loopholes in state statutes he hopes Show Me State lawmakers will close is one involving juveniles carrying firearms.

Asked about neighborhood watches, Blair, who came to Cape Girardeau from Texas in 2013, said he would love to see more established.

"One of the problems today is many people don't know their neighbors anymore," he said.

Retail tax receipts

Cape Girardeau's city manager says finances for municipal government have not been hit as hard by COVID-19 as expected.

Scott Meyer told the council retail sales tax receipts from its 50 highest-revenue payers is down $95,000 from a year ago.

"We're in better shape since March than we thought we were going to be," said Meyer.

"The first three months were pretty catastrophic," added Meyer, "(but) we're in a much stronger position than I (expected)."

Meyer credited federal stimulus checks which he surmised were used to pump money back into the local economy.

"We feel good about the data we have and the money we previously set aside (pre-pandemic) is more than sufficient to take care of the shortfall," he noted.

Meyer encouraged wariness about the optimistic metrics.

"I thought (the pandemic) would bring six-to-eight months of (negative) impact to city income," he said. "As I look at it now, (the impact) is probably going to be longer than that," Meyer added.

Other city income

In contrast to sales tax revenue, money normally flowing into city coffers from the Parks and Recreation Department is way down, noted Meyer.

"We would normally expect to take in up to $1.2 million during these (pandemic) months," he said, "but we've received about $748,000."

Some of the drop is traced to $100,000 in less income from the city's SportsPlex facility, which had to be shut down in June due to an employee testing positive for coronavirus.

The city's restaurant tax is helping with the deficit, indicated Meyer, as are lowered expenses, such as hiring fewer part-timers and cutting back on the purchase of materials and supplies.

Cybersecurity

Referring to a cyber-attack on city infrastructure over the winter, Meyer said the city is about $250,000 out of pocket overall in covering the insurance deductible, new virus protection, cloud storage and the reconfiguration of software. Funds from a separate emergency account, he added, would make up for the expense.

Project updates

The design phase for the new aquatic center at Jefferson Elementary may be finalized as early as next week, said Julia Jones, the city's parks and recreation director. The goal is to have construction underway for the new facility on the south side of Cape in early 2021.

New downtown restrooms near the Red House Interpretative Center and at Indian Park should be open by mid-to-late August, added Jones.

Plans are still being "firmed up," said Jones, for two neighborhood parks in south Cape Girardeau -- one adjacent to the House of Hope on Ranney Avenue, the site of the old May Greene School and the other adjacent to Jefferson Elementary. Final decisions about locations, she said, have not been made.

"We always have to keep families in mind when we do this (park) planning," said Shelly Moore, Second Ward Councilwoman.