Cape City Council to follow ordinance on name of street

East Cape Rock Drive won out over Country Club Drive in a dispute over the name of one Cape Girardeau street that divided a neighborhood and forced the city council to settle the issue.

The council voted Monday to change six city street signs that label Country Club Drive between Big Bend Road and Main Street at a cost of $120.

The signs will now conform to a 42-year-old city ordinance that changed the name of the road from Country Club Drive to East Cape Rock Drive. The council settled the issue on a 6-0 vote with councilwoman Marcia Ritter abstaining because she has a relative who lives on that street.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said he couldn't justify changing the legal name of the street to Country Club Drive when residents along the street were evenly divided over which name should be used.

Knudtson said the city received responses from 15 property owners. The two street names each were favored by seven property owners. One property owner, the landlord of a vacant property, had no preference, city officials said.

John O'Malley, who lists his address as 537 Country Club Drive, said he and many of his neighbors wanted to keep the Country Club name.

"I believe it is the fiscally responsible thing to do," he said, pointing out that the city wouldn't have to change the street signs if it renamed the street to conform to the signs.

But Sherri Pierce, who lives at 401 E. Cape Rock Drive, said the street signs need to be changed to comply with the 1961 ordinance.

Pierce said the street east of Main Street is named East Cape Rock Drive and runs all the way to Cape Rock Park overlooking the Mississippi River. An adjoining dead-end road is called Country Club Drive, she said.

Pierce said the city caused the confusion when it mistakenly changed the street signs in her neighborhood three years ago. The solution, she said, is simple. "Just change the street signs," she told the council.

The city staff left it up to the council to decide how to resolve the dispute, but suggested the road needed a single name to avoid confusion.

Discussed noise ordinance

In other business, the council voiced support for strengthening the city's noise ordinance and said it would consider a proposed ordinance in two weeks that would allow the city to ticket owners of vehicles that rumble through neighborhoods with booming car stereos.

Councilman Charlie Herbst, a former Cape Girardeau city police officer, said it would make it easier for police to enforce the peace and for residents to file complaints.

A vehicle could be cited based on a vehicle description and a license plate number, he said.

Herbst said loud car stereos rattle the windows of his home daily.

Councilman Jay Purcell agreed the provision is needed. "I do believe that it is an epidemic," he said of noise violations.

In other action, the council without comment voted to give $20,000 to Old Town Cape for the new fiscal year that began July 1.

Old Town Cape is a not-for-profit corporation that works to revitalize the historic 130-block area of the city including the downtown.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123