REBUILDING: BOARD SEEKS FUNDS FOR CIVIC CENTER

The African proverb that says it takes a village to raise a child suggests that children's welfare is the responsibility of the community.

But while one of Cape Girardeau's villages, the Cape Girardeau Civic Center, has been doing its part for the children, the center has had problems taking responsibility for its own financial welfare.

These problems resulted in a near-fatal blow in May when the Area Wide United Way refused to supply the second half of a $35,000 funding allotment due to the center's inability to provide adequate expenditure reports and financial statements.

But the Civic Center is starting to rebuild its village brick by brick, and there are concerned Cape Girardeau citizens who plan to make the foundation stronger than ever this time.

Approximately 35 concerned citizens, headed by KFVS-TV general manager Howard Meagle, have created a task force to restructure and revitalize the Civic Center. The group members have chosen to remain anonymous, Meagle said, while they work on various projects, including organizing a financial plan and seating a new board of directors.

"We pulled together an informed group of people who had been involved and had a vested interest in the center," said Meagle, who got involved after several employees came requesting his help. "They feel they're in it for the purpose of returning an asset to the community."

Meagle said some of the task force members will fade into the background after the new board of directors becomes active in January, but the task force will remain in an advisory position.

"This task force is made up of community leaders hoping to reinvigorate the board of directors," he said. "We want to do the legwork, to deliver the board a notebook of ideas so they don't have to reinvent the wheel starting Jan. 1."

Meagle makes no excuses for the center's troubled financial past, nor does he sugar-coat its future.

"They were, to use a word, bankrupt and out of business," he said. "There will be no funding for 1997, because they missed all of (the United Way) deadlines in the spring. Next year will be a very tough year."

Meagle said the Civic Center actually has very little funding, period. The center has utilities, he said, because of emergency funding from the United Way.

"We assisted them in some of their basic needs," said Pete Poe, chairman of the United Way board of directors.

Nancy Jernigan, United Way executive director, said the funding was a one-time grant that covered the Civic Center's utilities and liability insurance through December.

"We did it in good faith," she said, "because everybody on our board has a soft spot for (the Civic Center) because there's such a need for it in the community. We thought keeping the doors open was a good thing while they're restructuring."

Fred Pennington, who was director of the Civic Center when United Way funding was pulled, said community support will be vital if the center is to survive. The concept behind the center was excellent, Pennington said, and it's important that the community and the board of directors readopt that concept. Otherwise, the Civic Center will never be able to achieve what it set out to accomplish 40 years ago, he said.

"We have to have community help," Pennington said, "and I don't just mean monetary support. We need volunteer time, ideas and suggestions, and elbow grease. We need to try to develop a strategy of how we can help the kids better."

Pennington said he hopes the Civic Center will be able to get back on track, but people have to support the center, or else all of the money in the world won't help.

"The bottom line is the people who want to do something need to quit talking about it and get involved," he said. "They need to come on down here because we, and I mean the kids, need people down here."

Jernigan agreed. She said although the United Way cannot help the Civic Center financially during 1997, she hopes the task force and new board are successful.

"We're hoping and praying that they get back on track," said Jernigan. "The reality is they need some money and they need a group of people who aren't just willing to come to meetings, but are willing to get in there and roll up their sleeves. I'm hoping they find people who are willing to do that."