Clayton Hester

The process is underway to renovate the historic Common Pleas Courthouse in order to return City Hall back to the facility. The city is operating on a $12 million budget for the renovation of the Common Pleas Courthouse and the Carnegie library, and they have selected architecture firm TreanorHL and Penzel Construction Company for the project. 

Deputy city manager Molly Mehner says the design has not yet materialized, but maintaining the structure of the historic courthouse building is important due to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

In January, Bruce Loy will be retiring from his position as manager of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. After 22 years, a lot has been accomplished under his wing, and he expects a few more projects to take off during the time he has left.

One includes building a new tower, land acquisition, and hangar at the airport, which will be funded by a capital improvement sales tax recently approved by voters. 

Dr. Hamner Hill, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Southeast Missouri State University, speaks about his trip to India in the Summer of 2019, to teach logic to Tibetan Buddhist monks.

Cape Comic Con will celebrate 15 years in the community next April. This year, they expanded the operation by adding an inaugural anime event and another, horror-themed convention. 

The latter, titled “Fear Con,” took place just two weekends ago, with nearly 400 costumed attendees filtering through the Osage Center. 

Con director Ken Murphy says such large attendance at previous events has allowed him to branch off into these single-genre conventions and, by watching calendars and landscapes, says we have a strong local interest. 

Cape Girardeau residents will soon have the opportunity to receive a notification when someone goes into cardiac arrest in a nearby public space. The fire department has partnered with PulsePoint, an organization and app, to ensure those struck by such a medical emergency can receive CPR in a timely manner.