County commissioners field questions, concerns about Klaus Park plan

Cape Girardeau County Commission's most recent regular meeting was taken up with resident concerns about a proposed plan to place a new 8,000-square-foot emergency management building on county-owned property in Klaus Park.

Three county residents addressed Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy and Associate Commissioners Paul Koeper and Charlie Herbst on Thursday, Nov. 17 — a day after two public meetings on the project were held in a pavilion at the park attended by both Koeper and Herbst.

"We're not opposed to the [emergency management] building but where it will be located," said Matt Smith of SEMO Mudcats, a local youth mountain biking team.

"Our team practiced over 800 hours in the last year at Klaus Park. You're putting it right in where we practice. It's no different than taking a baseball field from a baseball team. There is no other park available in Cape County where we can go and practice," he added.

"We looked at other sites. We don't feel that we'll be disrupting the property and we plan to make some major improvements, and we won't be stopping those who walk or bike there and won't interfere with [park] access," said 1st District Commissioner Koeper.

"I guess I'm just disappointed in the fact that this group is looking for just themselves. We, as commissioners, have to look out for 78,000 people [who live in Cape Girardeau County] and have to take a broad view."

OEM building

County Office of Emergency Management director Mark Winkler spoke to what he described as a need for a dedicated structure to house and protect the county's emergency equipment.

"People look at emergency management as a response agency and a recovery agency, but we're more than that," said Winkler, who has headed the county Office of Emergency Management since July 2018.

"We're a mitigation agency — we try to do things ahead of a possible disaster to lessen the severity, try to build safe rooms, that sort of thing. We're also in the preparedness business, and that's to get us ready for the next thing that happens. Right now, [Office of Emergency Management] has some equipment — some of it is ours and some is federal equipment assigned to us — and the real problem is it's scattered all over the county. We're trying to bring it all together to make it readily accessible at a moment's notice — so we don't have to drive 15 miles one way to pick up equipment or 10 miles another way. We trying to design the [new] building to sustain 200 mile-per-hour winds so it can resist any violent tornadic activity in a worst-case scenario."

What's next

"There might be an option [to go elsewhere]," Presiding Commissioner Tracy.

"We're not opposed to looking at other avenues [for the building] and we haven't closed the door," he continued.

"We haven't moved any dirt yet and this is still a work in progress," 2nd District Commissioner Herbst added.

Tracy concluded the 30-minute dialogue with an eye toward more interaction with those concerned about Klaus Park's future.

"We look forward to continuing the discussion," he said.