DOWNTOWN KIOSK WILL SOON BE INSTALLED

Eight years after the idea was first proposed, Cape Girardeau is poised to erect a shelter with tourist information by the Mississippi River downtown.

The city already has spent more than $3,000, and the kiosk is in kit form ready to be assembled. Its spot has been selected: on the northwest corner of Broadway and Water streets just east of the billboard advertising Port Cape Girardeau.

A grease pit that had been standing at the spot has been removed. The city still has to figure out what kind of foundation to put under it and remove the asphalt from the spot before starting to assemble it, said Mary Miller, director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The business that would assemble it needs two weeks notice before it can start work, said Gary Bunting, chairman of the Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Committee.

The kiosk will consist of a 4-by-8-foot panel under a roof, Bunting said, with a park bench on each side.

On one side will be a map "showing you-are-here kinds of stuff and how to go to get to the Glenn House or Old St. Vincent's," Bunting said.

On the other side will be brochures and possibly a calendar of events, Bunting said.

Bunting said he first pitched the idea to the Convention and Visitors Bureau eight years ago, but the city didn't act on it until last year.