SOUTH SIDE CLEANUP URGED

Cape Girardeau's South Side needs cleaning up, and Ted Coalter has the pictures to prove it.

Coalter, president of Haarig Area Development Corp., shared photos of South Side property code violations with members of his organization and Friends of the South Side at a joint meeting of the two organizations Monday night.

The photos showed trash and junk stacked around homes, dilapidated houses and high weeds.

"It only took me half an hour to shoot a roll of film," Coalter said.

The photos and others will be turned over to city officials, who, Coalter hopes, will start the process of getting problem areas cleaned up.

The Haarig group is setting up a committee to follow progress of complaints, Coalter said.

The photos will help document merchants' and residents' complaints of poorly-maintained properties, he said.

"Until I saw the pictures, I didn't know things were that bad," said City Councilman Melvin Gateley of the Friends of the South Side group.

Coalter's group and others interested in cleaning up the South Side will only be filing complaints on the "worst areas," Coalter said, "the stuff that just looks like a dump."

They won't be taking photos of every property with cracked windows or missing screens, he said.

"What we don't want to do is be known as the Gestapo squad," he said.

The meeting was the latest in a series of events aimed at improving conditions on Cape Girardeau's South Side.

Several organizations are banding together to clean up the neighborhood, said Jim Williams, vice president of the Haarig group.

In addition to Friends of the South Side -- headed up by Gateley and Councilman Tom Neumeyer -- the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Merchants Association, Downtown Neighborhood Organization and other groups are looking at ways to focus resources on revitalizing the area.

A panel made up of representatives of all those organizations will be established to oversee and coordinate efforts, Williams said.

By banding together and showing strong numbers, he said, city government "will have to deal with us."

Several hopeful signs of renewed growth on the South Side were mentioned Monday night:

-- Formation of a Neighborhood Watch group at Second Baptist Church, mentioned by Gateley.

-- Ongoing housing rehabilitation through community development block grants, including a new project starting in the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway area, mentioned by Neumeyer.

-- The parks foundation's decision to allocate $25,000 for new equipment and shelters at Ranney Park.

-- Ongoing funding through the Transportation Trust Fund for new curb and gutter and sidewalks and paving of streets on the South Side.

-- Development of a Family Resource Center to coordinate services for low-income families. Ray Pensel, a member of the Family Resource Center board, said the organization is looking at funding sources.

Gateley's organization has surveyed the South Side to identify residents' concerns. Code violations, including poorly maintained property, weeds and trash, are high on their lists of what needs fixing.

Gateley reported Monday night that city staff will be looking at about 10 dilapidated properties as possible candidates for demolition.

Keith Brennecke, a Cape Girardeau resident and member of the Civil War Round Table group, said he would like to see Fort D refurbished and promoted as a historic site.

"We have, in my opinion, a viable attraction, a piece of history," he said. "There's no sign there. There's no anything to speak of."

The Haarig group is working to build its membership. Williams said the group will hold a membership blitz starting at 10 a.m. Feb. 2 at the Salvation Army to recruit new members.

The group has been working to revitalize the business district in the Good Hope area.

One of its pet projects -- attracting a new federal building to the South Side, specifically to the old St. Francis Hospital site -- is on hold, Coalter said.

Funding for the new building and debate over whether Cape Girardeau needs a full-time federal judge have delayed progress on the project.

In the meantime, Coalter said, something has to be done with the old hospital building at Good Hope and Pacific.

"We're open to any reasonable ideas," he said, adding the building needs to be "either revitalized or torn down."