LACK OF ACCESSIBILITY KEEPS TWO GROUPS OUT OF OLD ST. VINCENT'S

The lack of accessibility for disabled people is preventing two arts organizations from negotiating a move into Old St. Vincent's College.

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation bought the former Catholic seminary and college in April with plans to turn it into a Civil War museum and cultural center.

Officials for both the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri and the Broadway Community Theatre say they'd love to occupy space in the huge century-and-a-half-year-old building.

But Beverly Strohmeyer, the Arts Council's executive director, says, "The Arts Council is not ready to make a commitment to make a move until the building is livable for us."

The Arts Council receives state funding for its gallery and programs and is required to be housed in an accessible building.

The Arts Council currently occupies a suite at 1707 N. Mount Auburn Road, an office building it shares with the Cape Girardeau Visitors and Convention Bureau among others. The space is inadequate to the council's needs.

The foundation has long-term plans to install an elevator in the building. For now, it is investigating whether a ramp can be built at one of the entrances to make the first floor accessible, Executive Director Loretta Schneider said.

Miki Gudermuth, executive director of the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence, is scheduled to survey the facility Wednesday.

"I would tell her the least expensive means they could get by with," Gudermuth said.

She anticipates that a first-floor ramp could be built at the Morgan Oak entrance and that a tour of the top floor could be videotaped for the benefit of disabled people.

"I can fine-tune things," she said. "I realize things get expensive. But there are alternative methods."

The theater company, homeless for about six months, has asked the foundation for rental terms. But Schneider said no determination has been made about rates to charge tenants.

"We haven't even turned on the air conditioning yet," she said.

Theater board President Marta Green said she is concerned about getting sued if the group performs in a space that isn't accessible.

"It depends on what part of the building they would let us use," she said.

The foundation would like to have both groups as tenants, Schneider said, but others also are interested. Among them are Civil War re-enactment organizations and quilters.

Right now, the foundation is concentrating on cleaning the grounds and getting two or three rooms of the building painted and refurbished so it can officially open.

"We're anxious to get the doors open and keep them open in the renovation process," Schneider said.

That might not happen until Thanksgiving.

"We don't want to have an opening until we have something that is of the quality we want the museum to be," Schneider said.

In the space of less than an hour Thursday afternoon, Schneider fielded about five calls. One group wanted to use the grotto for a rosary service. Someone else wanted to tour the grounds as a possible site for a wedding reception in May. A roofer called about damage sustained in a recent storm.

"Every day it's, Which is the greatest priority?" Schneider said.

She said a sustainable source of funding still is being sought through some kind of partnership with the city. "One of the ideas is to make it a city park."

The foundation owes the Provincial Administration of Vincentian Fathers $600,000 for the building.

"We're going to have to do a lot of fund-raising," Schneider said. "Obviously, this is a long-term project."