HALFWAY HOUSE PUT ON HOLD

Withdrawal of a request for a special use permit to operate a proposed halfway house leaves the program "kind of dead in the water," the director of the Gibson Center said Wednesday.

Dick Decker, whose agency wants to operate the halfway house for the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole, said his agency won't have time to find another site and get it operational by the state's June 30 deadline.

George Bockhorst Sr., George Bockhorst Jr. and Loy W. Welker had applied for a special use permit to allow the halfway house to operate at 20 S. Sprigg/625 Independence.

That application was withdrawn Wednesday afternoon. It was due to be voted on by Cape Girardeau's Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday night.

George Bockhorst Sr. said he and the other property owners didn't have enough information on how much it would cost to renovate the building, usually used for storage, into a facility suitable for housing the inmates.

"If we didn't know that, there wasn't any point in getting started," said Bockhorst, who is a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The City Council in March rejected a special use permit that would have allowed the halfway house to operate at the Gibson Center itself, 1112 Linden St.

There was widespread opposition to the original site because it would have put the halfway house next to a school for handicapped children and apartments for senior citizens and disabled adults.

Decker said the new location at Sprigg and Independence "could have worked for us. I don't know, at least in Cape Girardeau, where we'd have a better chance."

In other action, commissioners recommended by a 4-2 vote approval of a special use permit for rental storage lockers at 920 Perry Ave. in a C-1 local commercial district.

Neighbors spoke out against the application by Jeff Overbeck and Mitch Shelby, saying the business would create a traffic hazard and would be an unsightly addition to the neighborhood.

But Commissioner Tom Mogelnicki said the storage units wouldn't create any more traffic than any other commercial use.

"I think it would be better than a quick shop. I think it would be better than a filling station. I think it's the best use for the property," Mogelnicki said, adding he hated to see the property "just sitting there idle."

Mogelnicki, chairman R.J. McKinney, Robert Cox and Charles Hauboldt voted to grant the special use permit.

Jim Ramage and Tom Holshouser voted against it, and Bockhorst abstained from voting.