NEW SIGNS WILL LEAD TO CITY ATTRACTIONS

The Missouri Department of Highways and Transportation has given the green light for directional signs to help visitors find popular places in Cape Girardeau.

The project, organized by Southeast Missouri State University, the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, downtown merchants and the city's Parks and Recreation Department, calls for a series of trail signs to be placed along state and city routes guiding visitors to the Show Me Center, the university, Riverfront Park and other attractions.

"We're just thrilled to death about it," said Mary Miller, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We'll be ready to move on the project in the next couple of months."

With the state's approval, Miller said, the next step will be to go before the Cape Girardeau City Council to get permission to have the signs placed along city rights of way.

"It's just a win-win situation," she said. "It's certainly something that is lacking in our community."

Dr. Ken Dobbins, executive vice president of the university, said the signs will cost $45,000, and the cost will be divided among the cooperating agencies.

"It's been a long time coming," Dobbins said, explaining the project has been in the works for about two years.

Al Stoverink, the university's director of facilities management, said the project ties in with the university's master plan and its stipulation for "making it more convenient and easy for visitors to our community to reach key destination points. The university campus is a major destination point for the community."

Stan Johnson, a traffic operation engineer for the state highways department, said 10 directional signs have been approved for placement along state rights of way, including Interstate 55, William Street and Kingshighway.

Those will include directional signs for the university, the Show Me Center and city parks, he said.

The state already allows universities to use their logos on highway signs, Johnson said, and now logos for other sites such as city parks and recreational facilities can also be used.

The project will be "kind of the first time we've combined the two together on the same signs," he said.

Johnson said the state will use the Cape Girardeau project to gauge public reaction to the new sign format.

"You can get too much information on the signs," he said. "We want to see how it works out."

The entire package will include some 70 signs.