HALFWAY HOUSE PROPOSAL TABLED

Proponents of a halfway house program for parolees asked the Cape Girardeau City Council to table action on a requested rezoning and special use permit Monday night.

The council also voted to deny a special use permit that would have allowed an insurance agency to operate in a residential area on the city's north side.

Parents, teachers and neighbors opposed to the proposed halfway house for clients of the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole turned out in force to voice their objections to the program, slated to operate in the Gibson Recovery Center, 1112 Linden.

They never got the chance.

Jeff Hinds, an attorney for the Gibson Center, asked the council to table action on two issues -- a request for rezoning the center from R-4 multiple family residential to C-1 local commercial and the special use permit -- that would allow the program to begin operations.

"We think it might be beneficial to the parties to exchange some more information," Hinds said. "We would like another opportunity to present the facts of the issue instead of the emotions."

Hinds said some members of the council -- he did not identify who -- might be members of a non-functioning advisory board to the Gibson Center, and any vote on the proposal might constitute a conflict of interest for those councilmen.

The issue will go back before the City Council at its Jan. 5 meeting.

Opponents of the proposed halfway house say the inmates who would be served there are a security risk for the Gibson Center's neighbors, including the Parkview State School for the Severely Handicapped, the Head Start day care center and apartments for elderly and disabled adults.

Parents of children at Parkview collected signatures from 600 people opposed to the halfway house plan.

Terri Neumeyer, a teacher at Parkview, said she was "frustrated" by the decision to table the issue.

"Our parents come from as far away as Perryville and made a special effort to be here," she said.

She said Hinds suggested finding an opportunity to share more information with concerned parties, but public information meetings on the halfway house proposal have been canceled "at least twice" before the issue went to the council or the Planning and Zoning Commission.

"We feel like we're kind of being jerked around to see if they can outlast us, and they can't," she said.

In response to Hinds' suggestion that the public consider the facts of the proposal versus their emotional concerns, she said, "I'm sorry but I don't think we need to set our emotions aside to serve our children. I think our children deserve better."

Terri Neumeyer's husband, Tom, represents Ward 2 on the City Council. Tom Neumeyer has said he has reservations about putting the halfway house in the Gibson Center, but would not be opposed to another location that isn't so close to schools or day care centers.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission voted Nov. 12 to recommend approval of the two measures. The council will have the final say.

In another zoning matter, the council voted unanimously to deny a request from Bo and Dianne Shantz for a special use permit to construct an insurance office at the northeast corner of Perryville Road and Lexington Avenue. Several residents of the surrounding area told council members they oppose the plan.

Shantz had asked for the special use permit to construct a log home in which the office would be housed.