COUNCIL HEARS OBJECTIONS TO RESTAURANT-BAR NEAR DAY CARE

Concern for the safety of 65 children at a Cape Girardeau day care prompted 45 parents, teachers and workers from Friends Forever Preschool to attend the Cape Girardeau City Council meeting Monday night.

The council two weeks ago gave conditional approval of a liquor-by-the-drink license to Show Me's, a Florida-style restaurant and bar. The business is at Independence and Caruthers streets and shares a parking lot with the preschool off Independence.

Day-care owner Patty Turner was angry that the council approved the liquor license without considering the day care as a school and that by approving the license the children's safety is jeopardized.

She collected more than 600 signatures from residents who signed a petition requesting the license be revoked. Turner presented the petition to the council.

Some spoke before the council, expressing their disappointment that the city ordinance doesn't recognize day-care centers as schools.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the issue is one of semantics. He said the law has a different definition of a school, and the city has no way of denying a license if the business passes inspections and complies with the law.

There is little the council can do to alleviate the parents' concerns, said Spradling. The liquor licenses are approved by the council and cannot be repealed based on the complaints, he said.

"We can't undo something that we've already done," Spradling said.

City ordinance only prohibits liquor establishments within 200 feet of a church, house of worship or school.

Turner has already contacted state Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, about getting a change to the state law, which prohibits liquor establishments from 100 to 300 feet of a church or school and is the basis for the city's ordinance.

Don Harris, owner of Show Me's, said he doesn't expect many problems with the restaurant since the majority of business comes from food sales, not alcohol. Harris also owns several day-care centers in Southeast Missouri.

Most of the business will be at the lunch hour, when people are less likely to even drink alcohol, Harris said.