ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER TELLS MEETING OF CURRENT AND LONG-RANGE CITY PLANS

The Bloomfield Road bridge that crosses Cape LaCroix Creek a block south of Kingshighway is scheduled for reopening Dec. 15, a little more than six months after the road was closed in early June for construction of a new, 36-foot wide bridge.

"The bridge site has been closed since June 2," said Al Stoverink, assistant city administrator, who was guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee Friday. "The new, wider bridge also includes a five-foot pedestrian crossing on the upstream side."

The bridge work is part of the Cape LaCroix Creek-Walker Branch flood-control project being done by Dumey Excavation Inc. and Brenda Kay Construction Co., with the bridge work contracted to Givens Construction of Poplar Bluff.

Stoverink presented an "Aerial Tour" slide show of the city and discussed a number of projects, including the flood-control project, airport improvements, sewer projects, recreational facilities, street improvements, industrial growth and other topics during his update on Cape Girardeau.

"We'll be replacing a number of other bridges as part of the flood-control project over the next two years," said Stoverink. "The flood-control project is designed to alleviate storm-water flooding along Cape LaCroix and Walker creeks."

The entire flood-control project is expected to be completed by 1994.

"We have a lot of good things happening in Cape Girardeau," said Stoverink. "One of the most recent street improvements was the completion of Lexington at the intersection of Mount Auburn-Route W. We're looking forward now to the completion of the Lexington arterial to Perryville Road. We should be letting the contract for this phase of work in the near future."

Also scheduled in the near future is the extension of North Sprigg Street to Lexington, hopefully to be completed in 1994, to coincide with final Lexington construction.

Stoverink also discussed other street improvement potentials.

"Down the road we'd like to see Broadway widened from Clark Street to West End. Boulevard," said Stoverink. "West End, a straight north-south shot, also needs expanding. We need a north-south, four-lane badly." He also outlined work along Broadview, which would relieve congestion in Arena Park.

Stoverink also discussed industrial growth in and about the city.

He explained that the aerial view of the airport and Southeast Missouri Regional Port facility were made long before some needed improvements were made.

"We have a new T-hanger at the airport and the terminal building is undergoing a complete renovation," said Stoverink. "Work on the a railroad spur at the airport is, or will soon, be completed."

Slides were also shown of progress along Highway 74 and to the north around the Procter and Gamble facility. The area alongside Highway 74, which has been renamed Southern Expressway, "has grown considerably the past couple of years," said Stoverink. He mentioned Dana Corp., Mid-America Distributors, Day Transfer Co. and others.

To the north toward Procter and Gamble, growth over the past two years includes M&W Manufacturing, Saueressig, and expansion of a large truck terminal.

"We also receive a lot of questions concerning the soccer and softball complex at Shawnee," said Stoverink. "Some people wonder why we have a sports complex in the south part of the city." He explained that there has been a lot of progress in that area, and that "when the new (Mississippi River) bridge goes in, it will cross the north end of the park, and you can expect to see even more progress."

Stoverink also discussed the growth around West Park Mall.

"At least 16 buildings have been constructed around the mall perimeter in recent years," he said. One of the biggest projects is that of HSCA and its multimillion dollar complex along Auburn Road near the mall. Other big projects in the west end include the new Rust and Martin store and Applebee's Restaurant in the Cape Centre area.

The aerial slides also showed several home developments in the city.

"We have seen a lot of improvements over the past couple of years, said Stoverink. "But there's still a lot of work to be done. We recently started our fifth neighborhood sewer project in the Henderson-College area. Our water transition is going well and we should have our water master plan completed in January."

The Henderson-College sewer project is part of a two-year, $800,000 community development program in the College-Jefferson neighborhood. The program includes a $570,000 grant to rehabilitate about 60 housing units in the neighborhood and $230,000 for the sewer improvements.

"We are accomplishing a lot," he said. "But we're only scratching the surface. We have to keep cranking out projects. For this we're going to have financial help form the community. Over the next 10 to 20 years we'll be looking at $30 million in street improvements and $30 million in sewer improvements."

Stoverink closed by urging residents to take part in the capital improvements process, which gets under way in January.

"We urge citizens to provide input into this process," he said