Students' effort to get Tiger Pride Drive meets opposition

A student-led attempt to rename the street that runs in front of Central High School has hit a wall of opposition.

At their Oct. 20 meeting, Cape Girardeau City Council members requested an ordinance to rename a section of Silver Springs Road to Tiger Pride Drive following a proposal by the high school student senate.

Approval of the ordinance, which will be considered at tonight's council meeting, is contingent on consent from local emergency agencies and other property owners along the portion of Silver Springs from Mount Auburn south to the intersection at Kingshighway.

While the Cape County Private Ambulance Service and the city fire department approved the change, officials with the Cape Girardeau Police Department and three adjoining property owners expressed disagreement with the proposal.

Not only that, but Cape Girardeau Career & Technology director Rich Payne is concerned about how the renaming would affect his facility, which is next to the high school on Silver Springs.

While Payne would not comment on the situation, superintendent Mark Bowles said issues were raised in regard to the CTC's standing as a regional center that receives funding from several school districts.

"We would expect him to do that," Bowles said. "He has 13 sending schools throughout the region, and something to consider is some kind of neutrality."

On other hand, Bowles said, the CTC is a Cape Girardeau public schools program.

"In the end, we decided to honor what our kids are doing," Bowles said.

The response has been disappointing for the students, 50 of whom showed up to support the proposal at the last city council meeting.

"We thought it would go over well," said student senate president Katie Porter. "People drive past our school to get to the CTC. It's pretty much known that it's part of our school. We have classes over there."

The council had requested written responses from three property owners along that stretch of Silver Springs by today.

According to a letter from city planner Kent Bratton to the council, all three expressed verbal opposition in a telephone conversation, but only one owner responded with a letter.

Daniel M. Drury, president of MidAmerica Hotels Corporation, and Dennis Vollink, president of Drury Southwest, own two of the four parcels of land across from the high school.

In their response to the city council's request, they called the renaming of a short stretch of road "confusing" and "a mistake."

Their letter also mentioned the issues with the CTC, stating that "Cape Central signage would not be appropriate on the career center campus" due to the funding the facility receives from other school districts.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128