COUNCIL PREFERS HOSPITAL SITE FOR COURTHOUSE

The Cape Girardeau City Council Monday night ranked the old St. Francis hospital block as the public's preferred choice for a new federal courthouse.

The Happy Hollow area, a former dump site of nearly six acres west of City Hall, ranked second. The north side of the 400 block of Broadway, home to the H and H Building, ranked third.

The vote was 5-0. Councilman Richard Eggimann was ill and couldn't attend. Councilman Melvin Kasten abstained because his wife, state Rep. Mary Kasten, is leading an effort to preserve the old hospital structure and convert it into a state building for social services offices.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the council itself wasn't expressing a preference for a particular site but merely passing on the public's view.

But backers of the old St. Francis site were thrilled by the council's action.

"We got the ball rolling around the street and we are going to pursue it," said Ted Coalter of the Haarig Area Development Association. Its members are businessmen and women in the Good Hope, Morgan Oak and Sprigg streets area.

Coalter said Haarig representatives will meet soon with officials of the General Services Administration, the federal agency in charge of selecting a courthouse site.

The vacant, vandalized hospital building is in the block bounded by Good Hope on the north, Ellis on the east, Pacific on the west and Morgan Oak on the south.

Backers of the site want the 83-year-old building and five bordering houses razed to make room for the courthouse. They said the project would revitalize the southeast part of the city.

About 60 supporters of the old St. Francis site crowded into the council chambers. Afterward, Coalter and others said they were surprised the council ranked the sites.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer initially called on the council to recommend all three proposed sites to the GSA without ranking them. All three sites are in Neumeyer's downtown ward.

The councilman said he didn't want a divided community as happened in the choosing of the Show Me Center site. He said he didn't want to antagonize the federal government.

"Each of them has merits and demerits," Neumeyer said.

The Broadway site is diagonally across the street from the Federal Building; the Happy Hollow site has the most land; and construction of a courthouse on the old St. Francis hospital site could help revitalize a neighborhood.

Neumeyer said he would like to see the old hospital building turned into a state office building and the courthouse built downtown.

He said it would be unwise for the council to choose a site without knowing all the "facts and figures."

But Councilman Melvin Gateley urged the council to show leadership by ranking the sites.

"We heard so many times it is the right thing to do," Gateley said.

Councilman Jack Rickard maintained that the old St. Francis site would have won with residents if the issue had been put to a vote.

In the end, Neumeyer backed Gateley's motion after the rest of the council voiced support for ranking the sites.