LEADERSHIP CAPE PITCHES IMPROVEMENTS

A new skate park roars with previously banished youngsters. Tourists eager to part with their money head downtown thanks to inventive new signs that point the way. When they finish shopping, they head over to the newly renovated Riverside Park to enjoy a picnic lunch and watch the barges drift lazily along.

These were some of the community betterment projects pitched to Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce members who attended Friday's First Friday Coffee.

Five groups from Leadership Cape's 2001 class prepared the projects as part of the program, which is intended to identify and motivate emerging leaders into developing their potential.

Dusty Rhodes is co-chairman of the Leadership Cape program. He said the reasons behind having the 25 members of this year's class -- and every class since 1998 -- prepare improvement proposals is twofold.

"We want our members to develop leadership skills by working together, planning and doing all of these things that they need to know how to do as leaders," said Rhodes, who is also vice president of administrative services at St. Francis Medical Center.

"But we also hope that they may have some new ideas of their own," he said. "They may even tackle an idea that has been kicked around for a while and breathe some new life into it."

Projects called for building a new skate park in Washington Park, putting up signs that direct people to the downtown area, a youth mentoring program, a speakers bureau and revitalizing Riverfront Park.

The skate-board park team leader, the Rev. Paul Short, said a skate park in Washington Park would give skateboarders, who are often ostracized from other parts of town, a place to skate.

The group looked at other skate parks around Missouri and estimated that a 12,000-square-foot park would cost $57,000 to build. If it included an in-line hockey rink, it would cost $75,000. They also prepared a humorous yet informational video that will be used for fund raising.

A group led by Cape Girar-deau public schools assistant superintendent Mark Bowles proposed putting up attractive but inexpensive signs that would clearly direct tourists from Interstate 55 to William Street, Kingshighway, Broadway and then to the city's historic downtown district.

Tourists being lost

They say in a handout that tourists who pass Cape Girardeau by would spend $2.6 million locally.

Rust Communications co-president Rex Rust spoke about his group's proposal, a youth mentoring program called Missouri Mentoring Leadership Workshop.

It would provide a workshop for at-risk or underprivileged children that would allow local business and community leaders to discuss such topics as dressing for success, personal safety, time management and communication in the real world. That has already been set up for June 2002.

"With our proposal, we really wanted to target a different audience," Rust said.

Speakers bureau in place

Another group, led by Jeff Glenn, director of membership development for the Cape Girardeau chamber, has already implemented its proposal: a speakers bureau.

Glenn explained that the chamber's Web site www.capechamber.com allows a civic group looking for a speaker to find one and for speakers to put their group's name on the site.

"It's kind of a one-stop shop if you're looking for a speaker," Glenn said. "This was a project that we could really see implemented. It wasn't a feasibility study that we could never bring to fruition."

The group who put together the Riverfront Park proposal did not present its plan. A handout on the project said Riverfront Park should be improved because it is a source of community pride and a unique tourist attraction.

The plan suggests researching other successful riverfront parks and implement some of those ideas here, where feasible.