Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation department hopeful for Capaha Park Rose Garden planting in fall

Progress rolls on with the renovations on the Capaha Park Rose Garden with the addition of electricity to the Rose Garden with hopes to plant in the garden in the fall of 2023.

The renovations to the Capaha Park Rose Garden started Oct. 31 with a portion of the work being done to the garden to make it more accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Doug Gannon, City of Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation director, said they just added electricity to the garden for a new feature.

"There's a bubbling fountain in the middle of that garden and so it'll recirculate water and then we'll have to hook that up to electric for a pump," Gannon said.

He said some of the next steps for the project are installing irrigation and pouring concrete.

Gannon also said they've put a retaining wall in the garden and have lowered the level of that to make it more accessible. He said they will also have a "T" shaped sidewalk that leads to the garden.

"That'll tie into the sidewalk system, it'll tie in the park view, and then it'll tie into a parking lot on the east end of the garden," Gannon said.

According to Gannon, many of the maintenance staff are busy finishing up the construction of the public park at Jefferson Elementary School and a "couple" of staff members are working on the Rose Garden right now. He said once the park is "wrapped up," full attention will go to the Rose Garden.

"We'll hit that (Rose Garden project) hard once we get that park at Jefferson done," Gannon said.

Gannon said they are "really shooting" for planting in the fall, "if at all possible."