CITY PARES PARK PLANS

Cape Girardeau city officials have scaled back plans for the Osage Park community center and Shawnee Park sports complex.

The move was made to bring the projects within budget and terms of an agreement between the city and businessmen Jim and Robert Drury.

Jim Drury and Bob Hahn, an employee of Jim Drury's Mid-America Hotels, have been involved in the plans. Neither could be reached to comment Friday.

The city began advertising for bids on the two projects Thursday. Bids will be opened Oct. 12.

Jay Knudtson, city Parks and Recreation Advisory Board chairman, said construction could begin this fall if bids are in line.

The projects have lingered on the drawing board for some time. Delays have frustrated members of the parks board and Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board. They had hoped to have the projects already under construction.

Knudtson said the agreement has been a key factor in the delay.

"The problem with the agreement is that it does not allow us to move forward with one project without moving forward with the other," he said.

Knudtson said the 1993 agreement gives Jim Drury a "trump card" over the projects.

Under that agreement, the city must spend equal amounts of money on the two projects. It spells out details of the projects, including that the multiuse building or community center be at least 32,000 square feet in size.

The agreement settled a long-standing lawsuit against the city in which the Drury brothers had paid under protest the city motel and restaurant taxes on their businesses. The protest tied up motel and restaurant tax money that the city wanted to use to fund the two projects.

Without the agreement, the city wouldn't have the money to fund the projects, Knudtson said.

The motel and restaurant taxes were approved in 1984. The Drurys protested the taxes less than a year later. They claimed that the motel and restaurant tax violated the city's charter form of government.

At the time of the settlement, the tax money, which was put in escrow, amounted to about $130,000. The fund grew by about $30,000 annually.

The Shawnee Park project was initially bid alone. But bids came in $600,000 over the architect's estimate of $1.2 million, and city officials worried that the Osage Park project would come in too high as well.

As a result, the City Council decided earlier this year to rebid the Shawnee Park project and seek bids for the Osage Park community center at the same time.

J. Ronald Fischer, then city manager, said it made sense to bid both projects together to assure that they came within the $4 million budget and met terms of the agreement.

The city plans to spend about $2 million on each project. Some of that money already has been spent on site work at both locations.

The city issued $3.5 million in bonds. The parks foundation has raised another $300,000 in pledges toward its goal of contributing $500,000 to the projects.

City officials said it took months to scale back the projects with the input of the park board, the convention and visitors board, Jim Drury and Bob Hahn.

Among other things, the Shawnee Park concession building has been moderated and an elevated track has been scrapped from the Osage Park plan.

The community center will be built in Osage Park, situated southeast of the Lexington-Mount Auburn and Kingshighway intersection.

The Shawnee Park sports complex will feature five softball fields around a central concession stand. The project also includes four soccer fields.