Candidates spar over utility rates

Jackson's three candidates for mayor sparred for about an hour Tuesday evening over electric rates, annexation and the best way to guide development near the new East Main Street interchange.

With two long-term members of the Jackson Board of Aldermen vying for the spot against a political newcomer, most of the criticisms came from the outsider, but disagreements did surface between David Reiminger and Barbara Lohr over a recent controversial vote on a development issue.

Reiminger and Lohr will be on the ballot when Jackson voters go to the polls April 3. John Graham, who was knocked off the ballot because of unpaid taxes, is running as a write-in candidate. Graham has since settled his tax bill but not in time to save his ballot slot.

The candidates took part in a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters. The forum included a shorter debate between Ward 3 candidates Mark Dambach and Val Tuschhoff. The 30 people on hand at the Jackson Senior Center also heard from unopposed Ward 4 candidate Dale Rauh.

Graham questioned the city's electric contract and rates that have gone up 40 percent for residences and 54 percent for businesses. The city relies too heavily on utility income to provide services, he said. "The increase, in my opinion, is catastrophic," Graham said. "We need to do other things to manage the budget shortfalls without putting it on the backs of the citizens."

Lohr and Reiminger both defended the contract with the Missouri Public Energy Pool as actually providing a cost savings to the city. They said the city budget was held in check this year as a means of keeping the electric rate increases as small as possible.

"Many of the services you have come from the electric surplus," Lohr said.

The new East Main Street interchange on Interstate 55 will spur development, all the candidates agreed. Reiminger said the city must move to implement commercial zoning along much of the East Main Street corridor to capture as much revenue as possible from the development.

"I would like to see a lot of commercial development," he said.

Lohr said she wants to help businesses and residential development the area attracts.

Graham, however, was critical of past city decisions that he said allowed Cape Girardeau to annex too much of the area, including a small portion on the west side of I-55.

Lohr and Reiminger took different sides on a development issue that generated a veto from Mayor Paul Sander at a recent board meeting. Lohr voted with four other members to abandon a street easement to accommodate landowners near a new development on U.S. 61; Reiminger voted against the abandonment and defended that vote Tuesday.

City ordinances call for subdivisions to be connected, Reiminger said, and he voted to sustain the city's policies.

Lohr, however, said the development policy is based on the need for multiple paths in and out of new subdivisions and the one in question had satisfied that requirement.

In the Ward 3 race, Dambach is challenging Tuschhoff, the city's longest-serving member of the board. Ward 3 covers the northwest portion of Jackson.

While both agreed on the need for a new fire station, Tuschhoff said the board was hesitating because recent tax increases by the county and the Jackson School District would make it difficult to convince voters.

But Dambach said the need is clear and believes voters would support a tax for improved public safety and to avoid increased homeowners insurance rates.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126