NOV. 2: GROUP TO TRY AGAIN FOR CASINO

With a slogan of "Don't Give Up The Ship," a group of Cape Girardeau citizens is initiating a grassroots effort to revive a campaign to bring riverboat gambling to the city.

"The idea emerged during what was hoped to be a celebration party Tuesday night," said David Knight, a Cape Girardeau businessman who favored the riverboat gambling measure defeated at the polls Tuesday. The vote was 5,506 against and 4,940 in favor.

"Several people at that meeting didn't want to see this chance slip away."

Knight, downtown booster Evelyn Boardman and local businessmen Joe Low, Glenn Reeves and Kent Zickfield were among those at a press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss a petition to place the issue on the Nov. 2 ballot.

"We want to carry forward on what The Boyd Group started here," said Low. "We were disappointed with the final vote tally, but encouraged at the amount of people who voted for the issue."

During the past campaign, The Boyd Group, a casino and resort group from Las Vegas, discussed plans for a $37.5 million riverfront project for the Cape Girardeau riverfront.

"This new effort will be a grassroots effort," said Knight. "We'll be talking to all of our neighbors and our friends. Almost 5,000 people showed they were interested in the riverboat project, and a lot of people didn't turn out to vote for one reason or another."

Those opposing riverboat gambling viewed this development with interest.

"We feel that the Cape Girardeau citizens have spoken," said the Rev. Charles Grant, an organizer of Citizens Against Riverboat Gambling. "Fifty-four percent of registered voters turned out to vote, and 53 percent of that group voted against riverboat gambling."

Grant added that his group would not challenge the new group's right to petition for another vote.

"They're certainly within their rights as citizens," said Grant. "We just feel that the city has spoken and spoken definitively."

Grant says the first thing on the agenda of the Citizens Against Riverboat Gambling, however, is to "do what we can to heal the wounds of the last battle and help accomplish some goals that everyone can agree with."

He added that he was overwhelmed by the support shown against gambling, and that "my faith in this community has been reaffirmed."

Zickfield, a supporter of the issue, said he was concerned about some of the things he had heard concerning downtown Cape Girardeau.

"A lot of people say they don't want it (downtown) to change, that they like it just as it is," he said. "But, we need new businesses downtown, since some of the big stores left the downtown area. We've been trying to attract new businesses for the past 10 years."

Low added, "An industry like this can be a big boost to the entire city and area." He stressed that it would help not only downtown but also the west end and the entire area.

"We're talking about 800 jobs and more than a million visitors to the Cape Girardeau area each year," said Low.