COUNCIL SEEKS ACCELERATED PARK PLAN SCHEDULE

At the behest of the Cape Girardeau City Council, members of the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board have agreed to look at ways to reallocate capital improvement funds to start the Washington Park project two years ahead of schedule.

The two-year, $45,000 project was not scheduled to begin until the 1997-98 fiscal year.

"What I'm wondering is what your rationale is for waiting five years to start working on Washington Park?" City Councilman Richard Eggimann asked park board chairman Jim Grebing.

Said City Councilman Melvin Gateley, "We've pushed the start of this project almost to the year 2,000, and the first year there's only going to be $25,000 spent.

"We're spending $95,000 for the five-year Capaha Park project and not even starting on Washington until the 1997-98 fiscal year. Why wait so long?"

Grebing said there was no attempt to slight one project in order to take care of another. "We aren't saying Capaha Park is more important than Washington," he said. "At the time that we made our recommendation for not starting with the Washington Park project until 1997, we thought it would take that long to put everything into place."

Tom Meyer, who worked with Grebing and Parks and Recreation Director Dan Muser during a presentation before the city council's study session, said the first phase of the project would be to bring in topsoil.

"This area was once used as a landfill and doesn't have the proper topsoil to work with," said Meyer.

But City Engineer J. Kensey Russell said some dirt would be available now from the Lexington Avenue arterial project.

"After realizing that we could get topsoil this soon, we would certainly be interested in working with the city to get the Washington Park project started sooner," said Grebing.

Meyer indicated he would work with various civic clubs to help share the cost of a picnic shelter and playground unit.

"We would be willing to take playground equipment that has been removed from Capaha Park until we could get new equipment," said Meyer, who resides in the Washington Park area.

Said Eggimann,"I don't see why we should provide new playground equipment for the west side of town and make the people in Washington Park settle for used equipment."

Meyer assured Eggimann and the other city council members that used equipment would be better than none.