BIG GARAGE SALE SET AT CITY'S NEW OSAGE CENTRE

Anyone curious about what happened to a certain $2.5 million from the city's hotel and restaurant tax might go to a garage sale Saturday morning at the Osage Centre.

Actually, it may be more like 50 garage sales. From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, the city has rented out more than 50 stalls in the center to those who want to sell whatever people sell at garage sales.

It could be the first time the big room has been used since the Osage Centre held its ribbon-cutting April 15, but it won't be that long before the next time.

The city built the Osage Centre to host events too small for the Show Me Center but too large for the A.C. Brase Arena. It was also designed to provide additional space for basketball, volleyball and weight lifting.

The Osage Centre's first volleyball league starts play June 6, with basketball starting later.

If it rains on Memorial Day, the Osage Centre will be the site of Memorial Day services planned for Cape Girardeau County Park.

The Cape Central Graduation Project, an all-night party from 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. for the 1997 graduating class, will be held at the center May 30.

The center will host its first wedding in June. And in case of rain, a June 12-13 baseball camp with Ozzie Smith would move there from Capaha Park.

The smaller meeting rooms have been in use as well. Five different groups booked rooms at the center this week alone, said Penny Blandford, the Parks and Recreation Department supervisor in charge of the Osage Centre.

Still, Blandford said, the center isn't completely outfitted. If someone were to book a banquet, employees would have to bring in tables from the Arena Building. "Our tables haven't come in yet," Blandford said.

The weight rooms are open, equipped with the weights from the Arena Building because the "new weights are being bid on," Blandford said.

In addition, not all the food-handling equipment is in, she said.

When finished, the Osage Centre will not be set up for preparing a complete banquet, she said. Rather, it will have warming and storage space for caterers to use -- caterers who fixed the meals elsewhere.

Once all the equipment arrives, Blandford plans a second grand opening ceremony.

David Ross, director of the Show Me Center, attended a meeting Wednesday at the Osage Centre. He was happy with what he saw.

"We were in a room that had windows," Ross said. "That's something we don't have in the Show Me Center. I spent the day looking at the outside."

Ross said he's not worried about the Osage Centre's slow start. "They opened without all their furniture," Ross said. "That's normal. It happened to the Show Me Center.

He said he doubts that the Osage Centre will be available as a rain-out place in two years because he expects it will be booked for other events.

Ross said summer is the hardest time to book events because people prefer to be outdoors.

The fall and winter are already filling up, Blandford said, with a food show in September, a folk arts show Oct. 4 and 5, a health fair the following weekend, the Food and Gift Festival in November and Christmas parties booked every weekend in December.

"I'm sure it will find its level of utilization," Ross said.