QUALITIES OF LIFE: RIVER CAMPUS MAY BOOST CAPE CULTURE

The proposed $35.6 million conversion of the old St. Vincent's Seminary into a school for the visual and performing arts could transform the city's cultural life and help reinvigorate the city's south side, officials say.

"We have the opportunity for transformation, a sea change in thinking," says Dr. Marc Strauss, head of the Dance Program at Southeast and president of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri.

Strauss likens the possibilities to the new experiences created during last spring's residency here by the Cleveland Dancing Wheels. The Wheels include dancers with disabilities and taught local people -- some with disabilities and some without -- quite a few new moves.

"When you see a 6-year-old crawling across the floor, his arms and legs wriggling with the sheer delight of being alive you realize anybody can do anything given the right milieu," Strauss says.

Cape Girardeau City Councilman Melvin Gateley, who has been very interested in improving the quality of life on the city's south side, says the River Campus will be a stunning landmark.

"It's going to be a beautiful area with the new bridge coming from Illinois, the location along the river. It's right at the doorstep of the downtown area."

He has a dream of turning South Sprigg Street into a scenic drive that would lead to River Campus.

"It's going to take some time and some labor and some dollars," Gateley said. "But it's all going to come together."

The centerpiece of the project is to be a state-of-the-art performing arts center which will allow students to train in interdisciplinary skills while providing the community with a variety of new cultural offerings, including Broadway musicals and music and dance performances.

Last month, the Legislature allocated $4.6 million for the River Campus project. Southeast Missouri State University hopes to receive another $13.2 million next year to complete the state's half of the cost. The university and the city are prepared to fund the other half but can't move the project forward until the state half of the funding is in place.

In the meantime, the arts aren't standing still.

Strauss plans to have the Cleveland Dancing Wheels back next year. He also is scheduling the David Parsons Dance Company next year, one of the country's foremost contemporary dance troupes.

Daniel North, executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, says the River Campus already "acts as a catalyst" for cultural foment in the community.

His organization is looking at May Greene School, now closed, as a possible site to establish an arts education center. Many different organizations would belong to the center, which would have its own board of directors. The center would work hand-in-hand with the River Campus and target youths and minorities with an emphasis on integration, North says.

"It's creating a community-accessible atmosphere for the arts. The idea that the arts truly are available for everyone."

The River Campus will help the arts flourish throughout the community, North expects.

"It will be a strong draw for increasing the number of artists and patrons of the arts.

Best of all, the effects will be long lasting, he said.

"Once the River Campus is here it would be here to stay."

Cape Girardeau's recreational quality of life also could change for the better in the next few years. With the Capaha Pool already having outlived its normal lifespan by 15 or 20 years, city officials are beginning to look at options for its replacement.

The pool was built in 1957. Parks and Recreation Director Dan Muser said the cost of making repairs is going to become impractical. "When you're talking about the main drains and the main water piping around the deck of the pool it's not going to be a quick or inexpensive fix."

The community has become accustomed to having two pools. Muser said the replacement might not be built at Capaha Park but somewhere else.

Many communities that are building new pools are choosing family aquatic centers instead of traditional pools. These centers usually have a water slide, lazy rivers, tube slides and zero-grade entries like beaches. "These are things the whole family can get in there and enjoy," Muser said.

One option for future use of Capaha Pool is as a skateboard park. "That would only occur after Capaha would cease to function as a pool," Muser said.

This summer, the Parks and Recreation Department is conducting an informal in-house survey to find out park users' views on the city's facilities. Muser said the results will be available at the end of the summer or early fall.