CITY TO BUY VACANT BANK; BUILDING IS AT 100 BROADWAY

The city of Cape Girardeau's purchase of the former Boatmen's Bank facility at Broadway and Main should be a done deal by Friday.

The City Council authorized City Manager Michael Miller to negotiate the sales contract after a closed session Monday night.

"As I understand it, we should be ready to close on the 10th of October," he said.

The building will house the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, now housed at 2121 Broadway.

A contract for the sale "was already worked out," he said.

City officials previously have indicated a purchase price of about $150,000 for the bank. Trammell Crow, a St. Louis-based real estate firm, had listed the property for sale at $350,000.

The bank, located at 100 Broadway, closed June 12 after Boatmen's merged with NationsBank. City officials have been negotiating with NationsBank since the downtown facility shut down.

Mary Miller, director of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, is getting ready for the move.

She and her staff plan to move into their new home next week.

"We're the only department that's not in a city-owned facility," Mary Miller said. "We would like to have a permanent facility. This will be our third move in four years. It's just very difficult to pack up a whole organization and plan on where to go. But we're happy to do it."

The downtown area is a natural location, since that's where most tourists head, she said.

"It's a great location, because almost anybody in town can get you to Broadway and Main Street," she said.

The CVB and studios for Cable Channel 5 will take up most of the main floor of the building, Mary Miller said.

Some renovation will be necessary, but plans call for the CVB to eventually set up a visitors center, complete with brochures, maps and other displays on tourist attractions in the area.

The center would be open on weekends and would allow tourists the time and space to mull their options, Mary Miller said.

The city's plans also called for using the drive-up windows to allow residents to pay city bills and using the vaults to store city records.

In other action, council members approved the first reading of an ordinance reaffirming its decision to build a water main system to serve Twin Lakes subdivision.

The subdivision was annexed into the city three years ago, and residents are waiting for sewer and water mains to be extended to their homes.

City officials have said the biggest hold-up on the project has been getting easements from property owners.

The project could be let for bid this fall.

Construction of the water and sewer lines could also be extended to serve the new Notre Dame High School building, located about two miles west of Siemers Drive on Route K. The school is outside the city limits in unincorporated Cape Girardeau County, but school officials have asked for the site to be annexed.

Members of the school's building committee originally said the school would need water by November.

Council members also accepted the resignation of Ward 3 Alderman Jack Rickard. Rickard made no comment on why he resigned.

Council members also agreed to list the vacancy left by Rickard's resignation on the ballot for the April municipal election.