DOCK DEAL: BOAT CLUB HOPES TO IMPROVE RAMP FACILITY ALONG THE RIVER

Operators of the only Mississippi River boat ramp in Cape Girardeau say they can't make major improvements to their facility because they can't get a long-term lease on the property.

The boat ramp and dock, operated by Honker's Boat Club, are located in the 1000 block of Water Street, north of Sloan's Creek.

Club spokesman Neal Day says the club has the money and is ready to begin major improvements to the dock and boat ramp facilities. He says the improvements would benefit the boating public in the Cape Girardeau area.

But the work can't proceed because the club has been unable to obtain a long-term lease from the owner of the property, Union Electric Co. of St. Louis.

Day said the club now has a one-year, renewable lease with UE at a cost of $10 per year. The club furnishes all liability insurance on the property.

"It's worked out real well for us, and Union Electric has been a great landlord to work with, but we need either a long-term lease or be able purchase the property outright before we can make a commitment to spend a large sum of money on improvements," Day explained Saturday during a meeting at the dock with state Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau.

Kasten was invited to meet with club officials to discuss the problem. Club members asked for her support and assistance in a long-term goal of the club: development of a municipal marina on the river, north of the downtown waterfront.

Although the Honker's facility is privately owned, Day points out, "Our membership is only $20 per year, and we welcome anyone who wants to join, so you might as well say we operate the only public boat dock in the city of Cape Girardeau."

Day said the club has been unable to locate the UE official who can discuss a long-term lease.

Virgil Chirnside, superintendent of Union Electric's Southeast Missouri division, told the Southeast Missourian Saturday he was contacted by the boat club and referred the members to the company's real estate department in St. Louis.

"They were supposed to have met last week with our people in St. Louis," Chirnside said.

The boat club was formed in 1958 when a group of area boaters obtained a lease on a three-acre tract of land along the river from Missouri Utilities. The club built a one-lane concrete boat ramp into the river, and a small "L" shaped dock that boaters can temporarily tie up to.

More than 200 boats are now registered in the club. The number of members is much higher because many of the boats are owned by families.

Day noted that Honker's has the only ramp and dock in the Cape area where large and small boats can put into the river. The Missouri Department of Conservation has constructed an access ramp on the Diversion Channel, but the Little River Drainage District has placed strict limits on the engine horsepower of boats launched in the channel to prevent wave wash damage to its levee on the south side of the channel. The only other access point in the county that can handle larger boats is the Trail of Tears boat ramp, 18 miles north of the city.

Day said if the club can get a long-term lease, the members want to build an additional boat ramp, this one at a downstream angle from the shore for flat-bottomed boats.

"Right now, it's very hard to control a flat bottomed boat in the swift current at the existing boat ramp," Day explained.

Day said the other reason for the Saturday meeting with Kasten was to ask for her support and assistance in a long-term goal of the club to develop a municipal marina on the river, north of the downtown waterfront. In 1976, the club presented a proposal for establishing a marina on the city waterfront, but nothing came of it.

There were great hopes the John L. Wescoat Marina at Trail of Tears State Park would solve the lack of a marina in this area. Those hopes were buried in the mud when the project was finally declared dead last year by the Corps of Engineers because of continued silt problems.

Day says a municipal marina would replace the failed marina at Trail of Tears Park. He said the park marina is gone, but the need for one in this area still exists and is growing each year.

The proposed municipal marina would be in a protected cove along the river between the Huckstep marine refueling dock, north of the Broadway flood gate, and south of Sloan's Creek. He said the site would provide a secure mooring area for local boats, large and small, as well as the large, transient yachts and boats that travel up and down the river during the year.

Day said Cape Girardeau is the only point on the river between St. Louis and Memphis where transient yachts and pleasure boats can stop for fuel and water. It is also the halfway point between St. Louis and Kentucky Lake and the only place to refuel along the way. Currently, some of these boats now stop at the Huckstep marine refueling dock, which has limited docking space.

Day said a municipal marina with a refueling facility will encourage an greater number of the yachts and pleasure boats to spend a night or two at Cape Girardeau.

A municipal marina would also give local boaters a place to moor their boats during the boating season, using the old shoe factory site as a parking lot for their vehicles, Day said.

"The old shoe factory site, which is owned by the chamber of commerce, would make an excellent place for the marina because it's located next to the cove," he said. "You could put a steel access flood gate in the levee from the parking lot and build a concrete walkway from the marina to the downtown area so visitors could walk up to the downtown area to shop or eat."

He noted other communities along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis that have built municipal marinas have seen major economic growth and development along their downtown waterfronts. "Take a trip sometime along the river from St. Louis northward and see what a municipal marina has done for such cities such as Hannibal, Louisiana, Keokuk, Iowa, or the Quad Cities (Rock Island, Moline, Ill., Davenport, Bettendorf, Iowa)," Day said.

W.J. "Bill" Harrington and his wife, Carol, drove to Cape Girardeau over the weekend from their home in Bettendorf, Iowa, to try to rent space at a boat dock here for their boat, then found out there are no docking facilities in Cape.

The Harringtons arrived at the Honker's Club while the meeting between club officials and Kasten was going on.

Harrington, who was involved in the commercial and recreational development of the Bettendorf and Quad Cities riverfront area, said Cape Girardeau is not making good use of one of its greatest economical assets - the Mississippi River.

As he looked downstream toward the location of the proposed municipal marina, Harrington told Kasten and club officials the site is "a natural. There are a lot of communities along the Mississippi River that would give everything they have for something you have available right now."

Harrington said before a city can attract local and transient boaters, there must be a reason for the boaters to stop here. "A marina with refueling and other facilities would provide that reason," he said.