SPECIAL LIBRARY WEEK PROMOTION AT RESTAURANTS RAISES ABOUT $2,000

Last week's special fundraising promotion at six city restaurants for the Cape Girardeau Public Library netted about $2,000, said an official with a local restaurant firm.

The official, Kevin Silvers, vice president of DeStock Inc., feels the promotion was a success.

"I think the people did respond to it. We had quite a few people come in and mention that they had come in there to eat specifically because of the (promotion)," he said.

"I had one lady mention that she usually goes to McDonald's and that day she didn't because of the library program."

In the promotion, called "Get Fed Up for the Library," 10 percent of the sales of each restaurant on a given day was pledged to the library. Cape Girardeau businessman Dennis Stockard owns the restaurants.

The promotion took place during National Library Week, which ran from April 5 to April 11.

Business levels at the restaurants were "normal to a little up, maybe," said Silvers. He said the money raised for the library "came out to what we anticipated."

Shoney's restaurant, at 161 West Street, participated in the promotion Thursday. Assistant Manager Shawn Waters said the restaurant had an exceptional business day.

"Compared to last year we did $600 more in sales," he said. "So people were evidently supporting it."

Though library Director Terry Risko expected more money to be raised through the promotion, he said the $2,000 is more than the library had last week.

"I think the big thing is the visibility," Risko said. "It gave us tremendous visibility and it showed the need for money. The visibility was worth a lot more than $2,000."

Risko said Stockard was great in offering to carry out the promotion and hopes he makes it an annual event. If the promotion is held annually, he said, it may take on a bigger perspective.

Silvers said the promotion has "great possibilities in the future."

Bettye Black, the library's assistant director, said before the promotion that it was something the library needed considering today's tight budgets.

Risko said the library's total expenditures in the current fiscal year, ending in June, would be about $434,240. Expenditures usually equal revenues, he said.

Ninety-five percent of the library's funding comes from real estate and personal property taxes, business surtaxes, and railroad, utility and delinquent taxes, he said. The library will be losing $15,000 of that funding, he said, because the city removed Cape Girardeau's water company from the tax rolls after taking it over.

The library has 13 full- and part-time employees, said Risko.

According to the library, federal funding for libraries has been cut drastically over the last three years. The fiscal year 1993 federal budget proposes $35 million for Department of Education library programs, a 76 percent cut from the $147.7 million appropriated last year, the library reported.

In 25 years, it said, federal funding for libraries totals less than the cost of one aircraft carrier, estimated at $3.5 billion.

Risko said he hoped other merchants would help out the library as Stockard did by offering some type of promotion.

"I think if they would take a lesson from this it would be nice," he said.

The five other restaurants that participated in the promotion were Captain D's Seafood Restaurant, Applebee's, El Chico, N'Orleans' Seafood and Broussard's Cajun Cuisine.