COUNCIL TO CONSIDER ADDRESS NUMBERING

The Cape Girardeau City Council tonight will consider an amendment to a city law regulating address numbering on buildings.

The issue arose at the council's last meeting July 7, when city officials asked the council to prohibit the practice of painting address numbers on the curb in front of buildings.

City law now requires that four-inch numbers be affixed to the wall of the building that faces the street, and Police Chief Howard Boyd said earlier this month that the curb numbering gives residents a "false sense of security" that they're in compliance with city law.

But some council members said they didn't see a problem with the curb numbers, provided property owners also place the number on the building.

City Attorney Warren Wells said the amended ordinance will allow for the curb lettering.

"This bill, if adopted, would permit owners and occupants of all buildings in the city to place their address numbers on the street curb in front of the building if they desire to do so," Wells said in a letter to the council members, "but only if they have also complied with other provisions of the ordinance, which require that the numbers also be placed on the buildings."

The proposed amendment would require that the numbers painted on the curb be in Arabic numerals, painted in black on a white background and at least four inches high.

The council also will consider a contract to lease office space at 1707 Mount Auburn Road for the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city took over operations of the CVB July 1 and plans, eventually, to place the bureau in a new recreation facility at Osage Park on the corner of Mount Auburn and Kingshighway.

However, that building won't be completed for another 18 months or so, and the city staff has recommended the office space on Mount Auburn Road be rented in the meantime.

The lease is for 1,378 square feet at a cost of $8.75 per square foot, or $1,005 per month. The rental also covers utilities water, electric and gas during the term of lease.

In other business, the council consider:

20A request by the Bible Missionary Baptist Church for a special use permit for a double-wide mobile home at 2885 Hopper Road, which is zoned single-family residential. The city's Planning and Zoning Commission, fearing that it would set a bad precedent, recommended the request be denied.

20Final passage of an ordinance placing the question of riverboat gambling on the Nov. 2 ballot.

An ordinance prohibiting parking on the north side of Whitener Avenue from Pindwood Lane to Silver Springs Road.

20An ordinance calling for the issuance of special tax bills for the costs of demolishing buildings at 608 and 656 S. Henderson Ave.

A resolution to authorize preparation of a plan and preliminary engineering work to enable application for state funds for a waste water pathogen reduction and sludge storage project.

20Resolutions declaring it necessary to improve Brenda Lane and Scotts Lane and setting Aug. 2 for public hearings on the projects. The maximum cost per front foot to be assessed to property owners for both projects is not to exceed $10.

20Appointment of someone to the city's Planning and Zoning Commission, from which Joe Gambil is resigning.