LEADERS: CENTER WON'T FORCE OUT MEMORIAL

The Missouri Conservation Department won't go to war with area veterans over a proposal to move the Cape Girardeau County War Memorial to make room for a nature center.

Conservation Department architect Keith Lesko said Thursday that his agency can work around the memorial if area veterans' groups don't want it moved.

The proposed nature center can be built in Cape County Park North without moving the war memorial. But Lesko said relocating it could provide greater visibility, access and parking, he said.

Project architects with the Peckham and Wright firm in Columbia, Mo., have recommended moving the flag-centered memorial to the west side of the county park, away from the proposed 23,000-square-foot nature center.

Current plans call for building the nature center at the edge of a wooded area on the east end of the park, no more than a couple hundred of feet north of the war memorial.

But Lesko, as well as Peckham and Wright architect Erik Miller, insist the memorial doesn't have to be moved unless veterans and the County Commission desire it.

"We can move that building here and there and adjust the building," Lesko said. "Nothing is taking the war memorial out."

Miller said the nature center could be moved back from the war memorial, if necessary.

Miller and Lesko voiced their comments a day after meeting with veterans and the County Commission to discuss the possible relocation of the war memorial.

County officials want the project architect to meet with representatives of veterans groups in an effort to reach a consensus on the memorial issue.

County Commissioner Max Stovall said he hopes the commission can decide within 30 days whether the memorial should be moved or kept where it is.

The county plans to lease about five acres to the Conservation Department for the nature center, parking and the immediate grounds around it.

But proposed nature center would be built on a two-acre site where a house now stands. The county still must purchase the house and grounds.

Stovall said the county is negotiating with the property owner to buy the land. Stovall said the nature center location would change slightly if the property can't be bought.

"If we don't get something worked out with the owner, the footprint will be moved," he said.

The county owns the wooded area that borders the private property, as well as developed park land.

As currently planned, the nature center would be part of a 50-acre area at the park. It would sit on the edge of a wooded area where the Conservation Department plans to build trails.

The Conservation Department doesn't want to build the nature center deep in the woods because it would require cutting down too many trees, Miller said.

Other sites in the park were considered, he said. But the site near the war memorial was deemed the best.

Other sites were too steep, too near developed areas or near two old cemeteries, he said.

Miller said the Conservation Department doesn't want to build the nature center near the agency's regional office in the county park for fear that it would only confuse visitors.

The ground behind the regional center falls off sharply. "This is really an unbuildable site," he said.

Both Miller and Lesko said there are a number of reasons to consider moving the concrete war memorial and its flagpole and American flag.

Plans call for building a new entrance road to the park. The current entrance road, which goes past the war memorial, would become a service road for the nature center.

Lesko said that would cut off use of the existing road for the "avenue of flags" displayed during veterans' holidays.

"We don't think veterans would be happy with that," said Lesko.

Relocating the memorial would allow room for a display of American flags, he said.

"We can give them a more prominent site," said Lesko.

"This has been a very touchy subject for some time," he said. "The county has been nervous about it and we have been nervous about it."

The Conservation Department, he said, wants to see that the war memorial continues to have a prominent place at the park.