SCHOOL DISTRICT, COUNCIL DISCUSS DEVELOPMENTS

The city council and school board met for the fourth time Monday to talk about schedules to complete the high school and Area Career and Technology Center and the city's road, water and sewer work.

"One of the benefits of the open meeting is they recognize what our timelines need to be and can try to accommodate those needs within the lines of what they are able to do," said Dr. Ferrell Ervin, school board president.

The school district is developing a 70-acre site west of Kingshighway and east of Interstate 55 along a gravel section of Silver Springs Road. The Career and Technology Center is scheduled for completion next year; the high school is to open in fall 2002.

The city's capital improvement plan calls for the extension of Southern Expressway and Mount Auburn Road to the school site. Other road improvements vital to the high school campus, including the extension of Silver Springs to Kingshighway, would fall under an upcoming trust fund measure Cape Girardeau voters could be consider in August.

City manager Mike Miller said road projects around the campus are considered a priority and likely will be completed early if voters approve a five-year extension of the transportation tax.

The city is holding hearings to determine what projects voters consider top priority to do.

"The public meetings are being held to gain input from others what projects voters consider important," Miller said. "It basically determines how we deal with development in every part of the city."

During a joint meeting last year, the school board asked the city to consider paying a percentage of costs associated with providing water and sewer lines to the site that would allow for future construction in the area, much as was done when Notre Dame Regional High School was being constructed.

City officials agreed Monday to pick up about $60,000 of the costs to add a water main and provide some equipment for development of a water system near the campus. The city's agreement means the district will save about one-third of estimated costs for connecting water lines.

"That obviously is good news," Ervin said.