City council could vote on casino money Monday

With higher-than-expected February revenue due to the city of Cape Girardeau from the operation of Isle Casino Cape Girardeau, city leaders are set to move ahead Monday with plans for several improvement projects.

Ten percent of the total state taxes paid by the casino and half of admission fees for patrons go into a city Casino Revenue Fund, which will help fund the projects up for consideration.

The council met in January to review its five-year capital-improvements program, along with the casino revenue funded projects planned for this year. It recently held off on final approval until revenue could be more fully evaluated.

City manager Scott Meyer said the most recent payment, of about $375,000, strengthened confidence in the revenue stream, which should provide about $2.2 million for the fund this fiscal year.

"We feel good about the revenue that will be generated, so we are ready to move forward," Meyer said.

Proposals would appropriate $714,000 for a parking lot overlay at the River Heritage Museum; create a dog park, community garden and accelerate tree planting; improve city walking trails; purchase fitness equipment; construct downtown parking lots; replace a roof at the Fort D historical site; make lighting improvement on Hopper Road and add scoreboards and bleachers for teen football fields.

An appropriation for $906,000, approved by the council in February, is going toward a first set of projects on the city's list of casino-revenue funded projects. That set provided for new playground equipment, equipping baseball fields in Arena Park with safety fencing, installing more emergency sirens throughout the city, lighting improvements along Main Street, sidewalk improvements from Kings-way to Janet Drive, demolishing the Convention and Visitors Bureau building at the corner of Main Street and Broadway for use as a parking lot and a space-design survey of the city's police station.

Adding parking lots along Broadway has been a focus since the city's streetscape project, which finished in 2012 and eliminated parking along the north side of the street. Nearly all spaces removed for the project have been, or soon will be, replaced, Meyer said. A parking lot that will be added behind Broadway Prescription Shop, 710 Broadway, is among the projects to be considered Monday, as is a lot that could be placed across the street behind The Last Call, 632 Broadway.

"There's questions about whether or not we need to provide it, but we went and put it in for them to consider because its easier to add it than eliminate it once all is said and done," Meyer said.

The projects list will need to be approved at Monday's meeting and during a later council meeting for work to commence.

City staff has said if the council approves, it plans to schedule the projects from both sets for completion within this calendar year.

The council also will consider adopting its 2013-2018 capital-improvements program, which basically creates a blueprint for small- to large-scale projects that city staff has determined are needed to improve and maintain infrastructure and facilities.

The council's study session begins at 5 p.m. at city hall; the regular session begins at 7 p.m.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO