Compere to use CPA skills to benefit UDA, center city

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Crunching numbers will still be part of Bill Compere's daily routine as the new executive director of the Urban Districts Alliance. |ret||ret||tab|

Compere left his CPA practice July 1 to assume his new position in center city, and said one of his responsibilities at the UDA will be assisting center city property owners with their applications for federal and state tax credits for rehabilitating old buildings and buildings with historical significance. Compere's years of accounting experience as a partner in the CPA firm Compere & Robinette will assist the UDA in that capacity, he said. |ret||ret||tab|

"I think I can be of some assistance there, and just having general knowledge of finances and financial statements should help," Compere said. "There's quite a bit of incentive to rehabilitate older buildings now."|ret||ret||tab|

Compere said he's at the UDA to stay, which should provide some stability to the organization. The UDA had been without a permanent director since Lance T. Brown resigned the position in order to return to real estate in November 1999. UDA board member Brian Fogle served as interim director, and will continue to work for center city improvements as the new vice president for institutional development at Ozarks Technical Community College, as well as remaining on the UDA board.|ret||ret||tab|

Compere, who is a charter member of Ozark Greenways, chairman of both the Vision 20/20 committee and the Jordan Valley Park Advisory Committee, and a board member of the Center City Development Corporation, The Kitchen Foundation and the Good Community Committee, is a proponent of community involvement and said organizations such as the UDA, ddec.net and the Downtown Springfield Association are important to Springfield because they allow citizens and business owners with common goals for center city to communicate with each other. |ret||ret||tab|

"The UDA is the umbrella organization that helps the different organizations and districts in center city work together and not overlap on things ... that's what I see our role as," Compere said. |ret||ret||tab|

As chairman of the Jordan Valley Park Advisory Committee Project, Compere said the ice arena planned for the park will provide an anchor for the area and draw citizens to downtown that may not have come to center city otherwise. He remembers when Springfield voters failed to pass a bond issue 32 years ago for such a facility in center city.|ret||ret||tab|

"I think we missed out on a great opportunity for a civic center here in 1968," Compere said. "There's a lot of interest in hockey here. I can compare it to what soccer was 15 to 20 years ago."|ret||ret||tab|

Compere said making sure the Community Improvement District is functional is the immediate goal of the UDA. This entails includes parking improvements and emphasizing cleanliness, safety and friendliness of downtown, according to Barb Baker, who formerly served as the marketing and special events coordinator for the UDA. Baker began duties as the CID manager July 1 and will continue to work in the UDA office. |bold_on||bold_on||ret||ret||tab|

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