PARK PLAN HAS BIG IFS; AVAILABLE FEDERAL FUNDING LIMITED; MAYOR WANTS BUDGET

The city of Cape Girardeau wants a scenic entrance from the new Mississippi River bridge.

Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation hopes to get out from under its land-purchase debt and move ahead with efforts to raise money to turn old St. Vincent's Seminary into a cultural center and museum.

Both the city and foundation believe they have a solution.

The City Council voted Monday to apply for $440,000 in federal funds through the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department to purchase 16 acres of the old seminary property. The city would have to provide a 20 percent match of $110,000.

The foundation would keep 2.5 acres, including the old seminary buildings and a one-acre tract south of the new bridge right of way.

The $550,000 the foundation would get from the city would pay the balance of the foundation's purchase price for the entire property. The purchase price is $700,000.

The grant money that the plan hinges on represents virtually all the money available for such projects in Southeast Missouri. John Miller of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department said it is unlikely a single project would get all the money.

The federal money is available for transportation enhancement in 10 specific areas, including acquisition of scenic easements and scenic or historic sites.

Miller said the city will have to make a convincing case that acquiring the park property is in some way transportation related.

"We aren't in the business of buying park land," said the highway planner.

City Manager Michael Miller thinks the land, which overlooks the Mississippi River and surrounds the historic seminary, will qualify.

Miller said the city is looking to pay its share with an outside funding source rather than take it out of the city budget. But Miller said it could be weeks before that issue is finalized. Until then, he won't disclose the funding source.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the council hasn't taken a final vote on the plan. First the mayor wants some assurances that the foundation can afford to convert the seminary buildings into a cultural center and operate it.

Spradling said the city could be faced with having to buy the historic buildings in the future if the foundation doesn't secure private funding.

The mayor said he doesn't want the city to be saddled with such a financial burden.

Spradling said he won't sign onto the deal until the foundation provides the city with a realistic budget of income and expenditures for the operation of the buildings, specific plans for the buildings and how they will be financed.

Mary Robertson, chairman of the foundation board, said the mayor should demand details.

"I'd ask for the same information," she said. "That was our next hurdle: to expand the board and plan the budget."

A meeting is planned Feb. 26 when business people will be added to the foundation board. The new members, Robertson said, will be people with expertise in budgeting and fund raising and strategic planning.

The city's purchase of the land would allow the foundation to pay its debt to the Provincial Administration of Vincentian Fathers of St. Louis, who previously owned the property.

Miller said the purchase price wasn't based on the foundation's financial needs. He said it was based on comparative prices paid by the state highway department to purchase property for the new bridge route.

The fact that it would pay off the debt to the Vincentians is coincidental, he said.

The Vincentians, who have waited as the foundation board has scrambled for a variety of funding sources, have been updated on the new possibility, and Robertson thinks they will continue to be patient as the foundation awaits the fate of the grant request.

Robertson said she isn't considering what will happen if the grant isn't approved. "You can't be realistic and still believe in this kind of dream. We have to keep looking at the possibilities."

Miller, who proposed the plan in private meetings with foundation officials, said the feasibility of the foundation's project isn't his major concern. He said he proposed the plan to provide the city with a scenic park entrance.

"We are looking for park land," said Miller, adding that it would provide the city with a scenic site along the river.

Miller, who has toured the seminary land, wants to see the historic buildings preserved. But he said his proposal leaves that effort in the hands of the foundation.

Foundation officials repeatedly had asked the city to participate financially in the project. But Spradling said the council didn't want to invest in a project in which the city had no ownership.

"The city has to own a substantial portion of this property to invest in it," he said.

Spradling proposed last December that the whole issue of city involvement in the seminary project be put to a vote of the people.

But Spradling said Tuesday that his recommendation was based on the belief that voters would have to approve a tax to fund it.

The current plan doesn't involve a tax issue and the city wouldn't own, operate or maintain the buildings, Spradling said.

Miller said the park plan developed out of meetings he had with Robertson and other foundation officials.