CONCERNS OVER INDIAN PARK AIRED TO BOARD

Prompted by a recent fatal accident on a street alongside Cape Girardeau's Indian Park, Leola Twiggs decided it was time to take a more active interest in community betterment.

Twiggs lives three blocks from the park, situated at the corner of William and Lorimier streets, and is a frequent visitor, often with her three grandchildren.

When a two-year-old girl was struck and killed by a motorist after she darted into the street last month, Twiggs decided she'd waited too long to urge the city to take measures to better safeguard the park.

On Monday, she took her concerns to the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

"Why is it that a tragic accident has to happen before citizens wake up?" she asked park board members. "I just wonder why something hasn't been done until now, and what will be done now that a tragic accident has happened."

Twiggs' suggested several measures would improve the park's safety:

20Reduced speed limits on William and Lorimier in the areas of the park.

Signs to warn motorists that children are playing in the area.

Parking restrictions on one side of the street during the peak hours the park is in use.

20Improved or permanent bathroom facilities.

20Installation of a drinking fountain.

Twiggs said putting bathrooms and a drinking fountain in the park would reduce the number of children who now are forced to cross the streets when they're thirsty or they need a bathroom.

She related an experience she had with her grandchildren a few days after the accident.

"I had walked to the park with them, and when they had to go to the bathroom, I had to take them behind some trees because there was no bathroom," Twiggs said. "I thought this was ridiculous.

"I've lived in Cape Girardeau all my life, and I know other parks have bathrooms. Why can't we have bathrooms?"

Park board members said they are sympathetic to Twiggs' concerns.

Board Chairman Jim Grebing explained that many of the city's smaller, "neighborhood parks" have no water or bathroom facilities, as opposed to larger, community parks that are used by many more people.

Dennis Scivally, Washington, Missouri and Ranney are some of the other neighborhood parks in the city.

Dan Muser, parks and recreation director, said the city this year has planned to put a water fountain in Indian Park, and, for the past several years, has placed a portable bathroom in the park.

He said that although the vendor this year was late in placing it, the bathroom now is in the park. Other neighborhood parks have similar temporary facilities.

But Twiggs said Indian Park isn't a typical neighborhood park.

"I drive by Choctaw Park (on Broadway, just east of Kingshighway) and Dennis Scivally and I see maybe five people, maybe nobody there at any time of the day," she said. "At Indian Park, I drive past over the weekend, and it's crowded.

"It's like no other neighborhood park. People come from all over, not just from the neighborhood."

Board member Mike Kohlfeld said restricting parking was a good idea. "The real problem there, and I go by there all the time, is the parking on both sides of the street," he said.

Muser said the city is considering restricting parking to one side on the streets that abut the park, and adding a parking lot, possibly at the south side of William.

Police Chief Howard "Butch" Boyd last week told the city council that signs have been ordered for the park that would warn motorists that it's a children's play area.

Grebing urged Twiggs to bring any further ideas back before the board. "We'd certainly be willing to visit with you to see what we can do," he added.

In other business Monday, the park board approved a motion to earmark $4,000 to the girls' softball league for capital improvements and endorsed a conceptual drawing of a softball and soccer complex that will be built at Shawnee Park.