POLICE HIRING PLAN COSTS ADDED $30,000

If the city council wants to step up a plan to hire more officers for the Cape Girardeau Police Department it will need to devise a way to get another $30,000 from the city budget.

The city council tonight will discuss a proposal made Oct. 4 by Police Chief Howard "Butch" Boyd Jr., who proposed hiring six police officers over the next three years.

But Councilman Doug Richards said he'd like the city to consider hiring all but two of the officers in the current fiscal year, which expires at the end of June 1994.

Richards asked that the city staff report to the council tonight on the impact the proposal would have on the city's budget.

In a memo to City Manager J. Ronald Fischer, the police chief said hiring two community service officers on Jan. 1 would cost almost $6,000 in the remaining six months of the 1993-94 fiscal year.

"The federal government would provide up to 75 percent for wage and fringe benefits, with the city being responsible for the remaining amount," the memo said.

If two additional patrolmen were hired in January, Boyd said the cost would be almost $24,000 more. If the officers weren't hired until April, the added cost would be about $12,000.

The council is expected either to endorse Boyd's proposal as presented Oct. 4 or amend it to step up the employee hiring process.

The hiring proposal was only part of a three-pronged plan to battle street crime, particularly illegal drug sales.

Boyd proposed using a crime unit composed of law enforcement officers from several area agencies to harass drug dealers. He also plans to implement community service programs aimed at crime prevention and education.

The crime unit, dubbed SLASH for Southeast Law enforcement Against Street Hoodlums, will conduct investigations to pressure drug dealers in Southeast Missouri.

In other business tonight, the council will conduct a public hearing on a grant application that would enable flood victims to raze water-damaged homes for free.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development, through its community development block grant program, will provide the funds. The program is aimed at helping cash-strapped flood victims remove buildings that pose a health threat in the community.

In a letter to the council members, Ken Eftink, the city's development services coordinator, said 132 buildings were damaged by this summer's flooding.

"Most have received only minor structural damage and can be repaired at a reasonable cost," he said. "However, there are approximately 30 structures that the flood has damaged to the point that they may not be worth repairing."

The grant application is for $105,000, which would cover the costs to demolish the 30 buildings.

Eftink said many of the buildings were substandard before the flood, "with problems from termites, dilapidated roofs, and failing foundations."

He said many of the property owners have said they're weary of their recurrent battle with the river and prefer to walk away from their damaged homes.

"Even if they made the repairs, they would still have a substandard unit that will be flooded again," Eftink said.

If approved, the grant would be used to raze those flood-damaged buildings the owners want torn down.

"It would not be a buyout," Eftink said. "The property owner would still own the land which could be sold or developed in compliance with the floodplain management regulations."

He said there are several benefits to the program. Taxpayers would enjoy future savings on insurance claims, emergency assistance and relocation.

Also, the neighborhoods where the buildings are situated would be improved with the removal of unsafe and unsightly buildings that "may attract criminal activity... and be a hazard to children," Eftink said.

"The property owner has an opportunity to remove a structure that is caught in a flood-repair-flood-repair cycle," he added.

Some of the other agenda items for council consideration tonight are:

-- A resolution declaring it necessary to improve Margaret Street between Leroy and Marvin with six-inch concrete pavement and curbs. The maximum cost to be assessed to abutting property owners for the street work is $36.70 per front foot.

-- A resolution to authorize a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers for appraisals and court testimony for properties at the detention reservoir site of the Cape LaCroix Creek/Walker Branch flood control project.

Six properties need to be condemned for the project, and city officials said updated property appraisals are needed to ensure that the city offers fair market value for the properties.

-- Appointments to the city planning and zoning commission, where the terms held by R.J. McKinney and Charles Thrower are ready to expire, and the park board, where terms held by Mike Kohlfeld, Terry Ashby and Stephen Jackson are set to expire.