Chamber not backing CVB relocation to River Campus

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce won't recommend the city council relocate the Convention and Visitors Bureau to the River Campus.

It is premature to decide on any site, chamber president John Mehner said. The chamber board of directors made its decision Tuesday.

The recommendation will be forwarded to the city council.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said the council could take up the issue at its June 19 meeting.

The council at one point agreed to a plan to house the convention and visitors bureau in a welcome center at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus. But that plan fell through when the university couldn't secure state funding for the project, Knudtson said.

The mayor said the council will look to cancel its previous agreement.

The CVB currently operates out of a building at the corner of Main Street and Broadway. The chamber operates the bureau under a contract with the city.

Knudtson has suggested that the city might prefer to locate a welcome center along Interstate 55 with Center Junction as one possible site. Another is on Southeast Missouri State University land just east of I-55 bordering the planned East Main Street interchange, the mayor said.