CITY COUNCIL, SCHOOL BOARD DISCUSS PROJECT

The Cape Girardeau City Council and Board of Education received updates on related projects associated with construction of the new vocational school during a joint meeting Monday.

Members of both groups attended the meeting at City Hall. Its purpose was to discuss how best to integrate the school district's construction of the vocational school and renovation projects with the city's road, water and sewer development projects.

"Sometimes public entities seem to work in a vacuum, then later realize we could have worked together," said Dr. Ferrell Ervin, school board president. "By holding this meeting we are able to let the city know what are our needs, and the city has a chance to tell us what their needs are so we can work together."

The new vo-tech building is being constructed on property west of the intersection of Kingshighway and Southern Expressway. The property borders a gravel section of Silver Springs Road. The building was scheduled for completion in time for the 1999-2000 school year. However, last year the Army Corps of Engineers declared a wooded area on the property to be a wetland, and subsequent efforts to work around that designation have pushed the completion date back.

The vo-tech site is in an undeveloped area. The school board had asked the city to consider paying a percentage of costs associated with providing water and sewer lines to the site that would allow for future construction in the area, much as was done when Notre Dame Regional High School was being constructed.

City Manager Michael Miller and others developed several possible proposals, all of which the school board considered too expensive to consider. If no agreement is made, school officials said they will proceed with alternate plans to extend a smaller water system across Kingshighway for exclusive use of the school district.

"I don't see any justification for giving an entity outside the city a better deal than we would be receiving," said board member Bob Blank, referring to Notre Dame, which was built on property outside city limits prior to annexation last year. "I don't think it does the city or the taxpayer any justice at all to run an 8-inch line."

City and school officials said the later completion of the vo-tech school could coincide with road improvements scheduled to begin after July 1999. The city's capital improvement plan calls for the extension of Southern Expressway and Mount Auburn Road to the school site.

Access to the property from the south is available only through an intersection not designed to handle the volume of traffic the vo-tech school will attract. School and city officials agreed they should work closely with the Missouri Department of Transportation, which is responsible for road improvements on Kingshighway.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent said he believed a recent proposal by the Missouri Department of Transportation for improvements along the street were inadequate.

"When I looked at it I didn't think it solved the problem at all," Tallent said. "It was an expensive proposition that I don't think really addressed the problem."

It was the third meeting between the council and school board. Officials said the meeting was productive and that more joint meetings would be scheduled as the vo-tech school and other projects developed.

"That would certainly be fitting in our efforts to work together, as I'm sure there are many projects we will be working on in the future," said Mayor Al Spradling.