Community Partnership seeks $500,000 block grant to renovate former Cape police station

A Cape Girardeau social services organization is seeking a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to help finance planned renovations to transform the city’s former police station into its new quarters.

As part of the application process, the city council held a public hearing during its regular meeting Monday. No one spoke in opposition to the project.

The city will submit the application on behalf of the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri, formerly the Community Caring Council, according to Steve Williams, the city’s housing coordinator.

Melissa Stickel, Community Partnership’s executive director, said the entire project could cost $1 million.

She told the council she is hopeful her group will receive the federally funded grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED).

“I am pretty optimistic about it,” she said, adding the state agency is “excited about doing this.”

Stickel said Community Partnership plans to obtain a bank loan to provide the remaining revenue needed for the project. The organization intends to seek donations to pay off the loan.

The city council voted in closed session last month to sell the vacant building at 40 S. Sprigg St. to the social services organization for $100,000.

The two-story building, constructed in 1976, stands on 1.83 acres. The property borders South Sprigg, Merriwether and Frederick streets.

Stickel said the former police station will provide badly needed space for all of Community Partnership’s services for low-income residents. It currently operates out of cramped quarters on three floors in a Broadway office building.

The added space also will allow the not-for-profit organization to offer day services for the homeless.

The organization provides case management services to support “housing stability and self sufficiency,” Williams, the housing coordinator, wrote in an agenda report to the city council.

Williams wrote the site is centrally located for the group’s clientele, and is within walking distance from The Salvation Army and transit services.

Community Partnership, in addition to its offices, plans to have a computer lab, laundromat, showers and a common area in the building, Williams wrote.

Stickel said the application must be submitted to the state by May 31. The grant could be awarded by July 1, she said.

Renovation of the building could take a year to complete, Stickel said last month.

Other business

At the regular meeting, the council also:

• Awarded a contract to Apex Paving Co. for asphalt paving of streets at a cost of more than $693,000.
• Revised its municipal court fine schedule to conform to the fine structure mandated by the Missouri Supreme Court.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641