Getting By: Cape police want officials to consider new station

Water leaks into strategically placed buckets. Laundry from as many as 29 inmates is done in a common household washer and dryer. And the quarters are so cramped that about 22 of the staff of 97 continue to work in what amounts to a double-wide mobile home.

Capt. Jack Wimp stands outside a storage room on the second floor of the Cape Girardeau Police Department on Friday. (Laura Simon)

At the Cape Girardeau Police Department, this is what "getting by" looks like.

"It's OK. But it could be a lot better," said Capt. Jack Wimp, who oversees the department's support services. "How long do we just want to get by?"

For years, the department has lobbied city officials for a $7.3 million addition to address these needs and a litany of others. Chief Carl Kinnison mentions it ad nauseam during the capital improvements program and budgeting process every year. It's on his capital improvements request annually, and he says he talks about it at every meeting where it's appropriate.

This year, he even mentioned for the first time the possibility of needing a new police station, though he was quick to emphasize he's amenable to other solutions, such as a new annex, if it's more cost-effective.

But Kinnison says something needs to be done. And the chief even has an idea about how to fund it -- the public safety trust fund, a pool of general revenue money set aside with funds freed up by a quarter-cent fire tax. The tax has generated $2 million annually since Cape Girardeau voters first overwhelmingly approved it in 2004.

In the eight years since it passed, Kinnison says the fire department has been the priority, getting a new fire station and other equipment upgrades.

While state statutes require that the money has to be spent specifically on the fire department, the tax revenue could free up other funds that could be used to upgrade a new station or build a new one altogether, Kinnison said.

When the idea was pitched to voters in 2004, it was touted as a way to offer pay raises to police and firefighters, hire three more firefighters, buy police cars, fire trucks and other safety equipment. It was also used to pay for what Kinnison calls a modular unit -- the double wide -- where some of his officers work.

"When the public safety sales tax was first passed, the fire department was the priority of the time," Kinnison said. "Our fix was temporary. ... I think we've been patiently waiting for the funding."

When the quarter-cent sales tax turns 10 in 2014, an eighth-cent portion that is set aside for capital improvements will expire, leaving behind the permanent eighth-cent in place for salaries and three additional firefighters.

Kinnison said it has been his expectation that voters will be asked to renew the portion for capital improvements and that his department will be the priority this time.

"We put off our needs for the first 10-year period," Kinnison said. "We're certainly looking to that renewal in 2014" as a way to pay for department needs.

Not everyone agrees that fire-tax money should be used for police needs. Fire chief Rick Ennis stressed repeatedly that he respects his police counterparts and that he has no question their needs are legitimate.

"But this is a fire tax," Ennis said. "They keep talking about money that is freed up. But the budget is tight. There is no extra money. I'm not sure how the fire sales tax frees up other money. ... I do, quite frankly, have some reservation about that large of a sum of money coming out of the next fire sales tax."

Ennis pointed out that he did help promote the tax in 2004 as Kinnison described it -- a way to generate funds for both departments. And to some extent, he said, it has been. The new $2.5 million Fire Station No. 3 on North Sprigg Street also serves as a public safety communication center and included the city's new operations center. The majority workload of the 911 center is for calls to police, he said. The old 911 center was moved from the police department, which freed up some room there, he said. The public safety trust fund also helped pay for new police cars for the department, Ennis said.

That's all as it should be, he said. But he was new to the department then and had little idea about a city budget that has since continued to dwindle. His job is the same as Kinnison's -- to outfit his department so it can best serve the city.

"And the fire department has needs just like the police department does," Ennis said.

The biggest of those unfunded needs, he said, is as many as three new fire stations at $2.5 million apiece, in the north, south and west sides of town. Equipment that was bought in 2004 will be 10 years old by the time the tax is up for renewal, he said.

"Obviously, there's competition for resources," Ennis said. "They call it a public sales tax all the time. But there's no such thing in the statutes about a public safety sales tax. That money is a fire sales tax."

Mayor Harry Rediger said he was aware of the police department needs, but he said no definite plans have been made about how to address them. He suspected the overall issue will be discussed at the city council's budget retreat in late April.

"The need to do something at police headquarters is real," Rediger said. "Who the beneficiaries would be if and when we ask voters to extend the tax hasn't even been discussed yet."

Kinnison, for his part, hopes it would be an easy sell for voters.

"We are getting by," Kinnison said. "Are there worse police department buildings in the country? Absolutely. But voters will need to decide if we want to have a department that forces officers to work in a modular unit."

Then, he adds, "a mobile home."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

40 S. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO