FUNDING A DREAM

What started out as a request for $75,000 in city funds to help the Colonial Cape Foundation meeting its financial needs has now turned into a $310,000 plea with the likelihood of continued reliance on tax money well into the future.

At stake is Colonial Cape's effort to turn the former St. Vincent's College campus -- well-situated on a bluff with a commanding view of the Mississippi River -- into a museum and cultural center. The project is particularly appealing to history buffs and supporters of historic preservation. The 152-year-old campus is a key part of Cape Girardeau's history.

Even though Colonial Cape board members say they have raised more than $300,000 privately for the project, the plan is in a deep financial bind. Banks have turned down the group's financing plans. And the former owners of the property, the Provincial Administration of the Vincentian Fathers of St. Louis, are expecting to be paid. The Vincentians put up a $600,000 loan to Colonial Cape to make possible the sale of the site, with its historic and highly regarded buildings, for $700,000.

In a proposal that has been sent to the city council, Colonial Cape is asking for the city to match the $310,000 the groups says it already has raised. The group is particularly targeting revenue from the city's motel and restaurant tax. But that revenue already is committed to other long-term city projects, and the city's finance director says there is only about $15,000 that hasn't been earmarked. That is an estimate, of course, and the motel-restaurant tax is like any other tax: It it could generate more revenue, but it also could provide less money than anticipated.

Another of Colonial Cape's proposals is to combine several important historical efforts in the downtown area to be administered by an umbrella board of governors. Under this plan, these governors would determine funding needs for not just the seminary project, but such sites as the Glenn House and the River Heritage Museum, which are currently operated on a shoestring by the local historical society.

The level of support for historical endeavors can be measured, in large part, by the support the Glenn House and River Heritage Museum have attracted for years. The support is loyal, but it is barely enough to keep the sites open to the public.

Using this yardstick, the city council might well wonder whether taxpayers would want the city's dollars, particularly those earmarked for other important projects, should be shifted or jeopardized by making such a hefty commitment to a project that, at this point, is a dream.

And the city council should consider whether it wants to assume financial risks that banks have rejected. After all, banks are in the business of evaluating their loans on the basis of good business practices. The city council, it seems, would want to have the same high standards.

In the end, the Colonial Cape project will succeed because of private fund-raising efforts. Just as the historical society is looking for ways to increase its revenue in order to make improvements and expand its services, the seminary project must find winning donors and interested sponsors in the private sector who share the dream of a museum and cultural center on the bluff overlooking the river.