STILL A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR BUILDING FUNDING

All hope of state funding is not lost for the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center.

But it doesn't look too promising either.

Dan Steska, superintendent, was right when he said the district keeps receiving "mixed messages. We've been pulled back and forth so many times with glimmers of hope follow by clouds of disappointment."

The latest glimmer comes in the form of a re-appropriations measure that Gov. Bob Holden has until July 14 to sign. There's $1 million in it for the center. Holden could line-item veto it.

Even if he lets it through, the payment could come anytime up until June 30, 2003. That doesn't help the district much now.

Still, the community can be proud of its building boom, which included Blanchard Elementary School, the career and technology center -- which opens this fall -- and now a high school under construction. The district is well-equipped to face future needs.

Now it's just a matter of gaining financial stability after the boom.