TOURISM BOARD FAVORS SPORTS COMPLEX PLANS

After nearly six months of deliberation, the Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board apparently is ready to recommend to the Cape Girardeau City Council how best to spend reserve city tourism funds.

Without taking formal action, the board Tuesday reached a consensus that a sports complex combining the best components of two separate recreation and sports proposals would be the best use of the funds.

But board members also said their recommendation other Convention and Visitors Bureau needs including, an annual contingency fund for worthwhile tourism projects that arise and a CVB building separate from the Chamber of Commerce.

The board also agreed that the council needs to consider whether to fund the CVB after the city's restaurant and motel tax which finances bond payments on the Show Me Center, the CVB's budget, and other tourism and economic development proposals expires in 2004.

A final recommendation for the council will be drafted July 15 at the board's next meeting.

Two sports complex proposals were included in eight projects the council referred to the CVB board in February.

One of the proposals included improvements to soccer facilities at Shawnee Park and construction of a softball complex at the site. The other also called for soccer field additions, but included softball facilities and other recreation features at a site along Mt. Auburn Road near Kingshighway.

Board members said Tuesday they'd like the city to research the feasibility of a single sports proposal that would include the best features of both the proposals.

Board member Walt Wildman said the city council and administrative staff will need to work out funding details and other specifics related to the proposal.

"I think the sports concept is a good one, and that's my recommendation. That's my job," he said. "I'll let someone else work out the details."

Wildman said he also wanted the board to recommend a one-time payment for a proposed national and local historic museum and Civil War interpretive center at the St. Vincent's Seminary site.

But other board members opposed a payment for the project. They said the project's future is too uncertain.

"Yes we want to support this project if it is out there and established," said board member David Ross. "But I'm not willing to just roll the dice.

"I don't feel like that's our job. If it works we're heroes, but if it fails, we've wasted the city's money."

Ross said the seminary still is a "pie in the sky" project that's "way out there."

But Wildman and board chairman Robert Hoppmann urged at least some funds be earmarked for the project.

Hoppmann said the final decision remains with the city council. "If the council says it's something they don't want to fund, then that's their decision," he said.

Board member Juan Crites said she was in favor of a small, one-time contribution to the $11 million St. Vincent's project for use as "seed money."

But Wildman said that without the support of the city, few people are liable to support the project. Hoppmann said a small, "token" contribution would only be a "slap in the face" to the project's backers.

Board member Dan Drury said he thought support of the seminary project would set a bad precedent as other groups likely would expect city funding for similar proposals.

Board member Pete Poe said such proposals could be justified if their backers had needed funding already in place. But the supporters of the seminary project now have little money, he added.

Poe said if the project develops, the CVB could provide support through marketing or a line item in its annual budget.

Wildman said he supported the sports complex proposal as a priority. But he questioned whether the city council will be receptive to the project after tax measures to fund a softball and soccer complex at Shawnee Park already have been rejected twice by Cape Girardeau voters.

"I don't know if anybody on the city council has the political courage to go with that after it was voted down," he said.

But Drury said the board was charged by the council with coming up with the proposal that would provide the best return on tourism tax dollars.

"Our key issue has got to be to create more tax dollars," he said. "I think the whole board agrees that a sports complex is probably the best bet out of all the proposals."