YEAR 2000 CLASS LOOKS AHEAD, SEES CITY'S NEEDS

Twenty years from now students from the Class of 2000 at Cape Girardeau Central High School hope to find improved parks, more hiking and biking trails, better streets and a drive-in movie theater in Cape Girardeau.

The students, who have never been to a drive-in, agreed that an outdoor movie theater would be an exciting addition to the city.

Students were participating in a series of group meetings being held by Vision 2020 to create a long-term community development plan for the city. Vision 2020 is an outgrowth of Vision 2000, a community improvement group established in 1987.

"About a year ago we decided the year 2000 wasn't very visionary any more," said Walter Denton, assistant city manager, who conducted Thursday's meeting at the high school. "We hope to carry on the vision for another 20 years or so."

The Cape Girardeau City Council established the new group by ordinance last year. It will officially replace the older effort on Jan. 1. The council allocated $2,500 in seed money for Vision 2020 for the current fiscal year.

Members of the Vision 2020 steering committee are conducting fact-finding meetings with lots of different groups in the community.

"We were interested in getting input from you," Denton told the students. "You folks will be running this community in 20 years. You will be the mayors and city managers and business leaders."

Students followed the same format as meetings held with adult groups. Students brainstormed ideas to make the city a better place to live.

Suggestions were to fall in six broad vision areas: tourism, transportation, quality of life, economic development, community involvement and education.

Student suggestions included a boardwalk along the Mississippi River to encourage exercise for local residents and tourism. They also suggested developing the City of Roses theme.

Students were interested in mass transit or public transportation, more volunteer opportunities and mentoring programs. They suggested fully using buildings that currently sit vacant throughout the community.

Lots of suggestions centered around improving city parks. For example students thought chess boards would be a nice addition to the parks. Students also suggested more ducks.

Pot holes need to be fixed, roads with dangerous curves straightened and overall streets ought to be improved.

The students were also interested in a White Castle hamburger restaurant and another doughnut shop.

At the end of the session, students voted on their top five suggestions. Their votes will be tallied along with others collected at similar meetings over the summer.

Denton said Vision 2020 hopes to have an outline of it's community development plan near Jan. 1.