COUNTY MOVES NATURE CENTER; WAR MEMORIAL WILL STAY

A proposed nature center will be built farther away from the war memorial in Cape Girardeau County Park North.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission said the war memorial won't be moved.

Project architects earlier this summer had proposed building the nature center near the park entrance close to the war memorial. The plan called for relocating the war memorial to a ridge west of the park's main lake, closing the existing park road and building a new entrance road from U.S. 61.

While the memorial won't be relocated, the plan still calls for closing the park entrance road and building a new entrance road just west of the park's small lake.

Veterans had been divided over whether the memorial should be moved. But county Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said Wednesday that the decision to keep the memorial where it is came down to money.

Jones said it would have cost $600,000 to build a new memorial on the west side of the park and buy a house and two acres near the memorial. The property and home are owned by Bruce Watkins, the superintendent of the county park.

Plans called for tearing down the house and a storage building on the land to make room for the nature center.

Jones said the commission didn't have the authority to take the property through eminent domain because the project isn't an essential county project. Even if it could, Jones said the commissioners wouldn't have done so.

Jones said Watkins wasn't eager to move.

Jones said Conservation Department officials indicated the project needed to be scaled back to keep it in the $6.7 million range. The Conservation Department has budgeted $4.7 million for the project and hopes to raise the other $2 million, Jones said.

"You can draw a lot of beautiful pictures, but when you put the financial touch to it, then reality sets in," Jones said.

The revised plan calls for building a one-story nature center to the northwest of the original site and east of the Conservation Department's regional headquarters building in the park. The plans includes parking for the nature center.

Exhibits in the regional headquarters will be moved to the nature center, freeing up space for more offices in the headquarters building, Jones said.

The building doesn't have enough room for all the Conservation Department offices. The agency houses some of its personnel in a house not far from the park.

Jones told the noon meeting of the Cape Girardeau Lions Club Wednesday that the Conservation Department hopes to let bids on the project by the first of the year. Construction could begin as early as April or May, he said. The building is slated to be completed by fall 2002.

Many VFW members had expressed support for building a new memorial rather than having the proposed nature center crowd the memorial.

Veteran Jerry Jenkins is past commander of VFW Post 3838 in Cape Girardeau. Jenkins was among those who had welcomed the idea of a new memorial.

But he said he and other veterans are satisfied with keeping the existing memorial. He said veterans liked the existing memorial. Jenkins said he and other veterans just didn't want the nature center to overshadow the memorial.

Jenkins said the revised plan would put the nature center about 150 to 200 yards from the memorial. "I have no problem with the change of plans," he said.

Veteran Charles Woodford of Cape Girardeau is a member of several veterans groups. He had opposed building a new memorial.

Woodford said he was glad the existing memorial will remain where it is. "I think we can live with this," he said.