GRANT APPLICATION DEADLINE NEARS FOR PRESERVATION COMMISSION

Aug. 31 is the deadline for Cape Girardeau's historic preservation grant application.

Brian Driscoll, chairman of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, is putting the finishing touches on the grant now, he reported at Wednesday night's commission meeting.

The city will apply for $20,300, including $12,800 in state funds, with the remainder coming from a local match.

Most of that local match will be in in-kind labor, Driscoll said.

The City Council approved submitting the application Monday night.

The city is seeking funding to pay for application to the National Register of Historic Places for a historic district in downtown Cape Girardeau; an intensive survey of the area immediately surrounding the downtown district; and an architectural survey of the Reynolds House.

Phillip Thomason, a historic preservationist, is drawing up a preservation plan funded by a grant received last year.

One of Thomason's recommendations was seeking the establishment of the downtown historic district, to include a wide range of commercial buildings.

Thomason's survey is still under way, Driscoll said. A first draft of the final report is expected by the end of September.

That report will include information on potential National Register sites, endangered areas and strategies for preserving historic sites.

The proposed downtown historic district grew out of the survey Thomason is now conducting.

The Downtown Merchants Association has written a letter supporting the establishment of the historic district, Driscoll said.

"Hopefully we'll get a couple of other letters from other groups," he said.

Thomason told commissioners last month that the downtown business district -- bordered by Main, Broadway, Themis and Independence streets -- will qualify as a district in its entirety, even though some of the buildings might not qualify for the National Register as individual edifices.

The survey of the surrounding residential areas will be done "with the hopes of later developing additional districts," Driscoll said Wednesday night.

The survey of the Reynolds House will be useful in continued efforts to restore the historic home, he said.