DOWNTOWN RESIDENTS URGE CITY TO GET STRONG MAINTENANCE CODE

A spokesman for a group of downtown Cape Girardeau home owners Monday urged the city council to adopt "as strong" a property maintenance code as possible.

Charles E. Kupchella of 303 S. Spanish St. said he and several neighbors are concerned about the council's apparent reluctance to pass the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) version of a national property maintenance code.

Last month, the council sent a pared down version of the code back to the city's Board of Appeals, a citizens advisory board that in July recommended adoption of the measure.

On Monday, Kupchella who in May moved to Cape Girardeau from Bowling Green, Ky., to take the job as Southeast Missouri State University's provost questioned newspaper accounts of the debate surrounding the property maintenance code.

"It's hard to believe there's a great reluctance on the part of the council to pass what is a basic standard for property maintenance," he said to the assenting nods of several other property owners at the meeting. "We're here tonight to speak in favor of the code."

In July, council members were critical of the BOCA code, calling it too intrusive. They then went through the code and suggested deletions and amendments a process that was completed late last month.

All the council suggestions have been grafted onto the code. The revised measure has been released only to city staff, council and board of appeals members.

Some city staff members have been stalwart proponents of the code as a needed measure to ensure Cape Girardeau has safe and sanitary buildings, while opponents have said more government intrusion is unnecessary in the area of building regulations.

Kupchella contrasted those comments made by city officials lauding the code with contrary remarks by council members.

"We're sure most landowners and property owners do a very good job maintaining their property here in Cape Girardeau," he said. "(But) we're concerned with those who don't.

"From accounts in the newspaper, we got the impression the council is wanting to gut the code. But if not the city government, who is going to see to it that Cape Girardeau has minimum standards for maintenance of properties?"

Kupchella said he and others in downtown Cape Girardeau are particularly concerned that the "downtown might be allowed to disintegrate as so many downtowns" have in other cities.

But council members said the issue isn't as simple as whether or not property ought to be safe and sanitary.

"This is not a black and white issue," said Councilman David Limbaugh. "It's very complex. There are some provisions in there that are troublesome to me.

"These provisions sound good in the abstract, but we have to consider the costs to everyone involved."

Mayor Gene Rhodes admitted there were problems with the BOCA code, but he denied the council was against property maintenance standards.

"I think we all want minimum standards," Rhodes said. "If we didn't, we wouldn't have sent it out to the board of appeals."

Councilman Al Spradling III explained that council members made changes in the proposed code and remanded the matter to the citizens board for its comments.

"We have not gutted that code by any stretch of the imagination," Spradling added. "But we have made some changes to make it more acceptable to all the people involved."

The council took no action on the matter, and City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said the issue will go before appeals board members at their Oct. 14 meeting. Any recommendation from the board likely will be on the agenda for the council's Oct. 18 meeting.

In other business, the council approved:

A resolution approving a grant application with the Community Development Block Grant Program for $200,000 in equipment and working capital to benefit a company being displaced by the new Mississippi River bridge route.

20A resolution to extend for one year the contract with the Federal Aviation Administration for operation of the air traffic control tower at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport.

First reading of a law prohibiting developers and contractors from burying sanitary manhole covers.

First reading of a law approving the request of Southeast Missouri Hospital that the city vacate a portion of Frank Avenue, an undeveloped street.

20The reappointment of Everett Hey and Dorothy Holland to the city's Golf Course Advisory Board.

A measure to extend the city's water system to Chateau Girardeau Cottage Complex.

Acceptance of and final payment for the new A.C. Brase Arena building ceiling at a cost of $23,500.

First reading of ordinances to set the speed limit in the recently annexed Twin Lakes subdivision at 25 mph and place stop signs at various intersections in the neighborhood.