Cape city council to vote on building new trash transfer station

With approval granted tonight by the Cape Girardeau City Council, work can proceed on building a new transfer station.

For many years, the project has been one of the city's top capital-improvement needs, and an agreement made last year with Republic Services helped the city establish a revenue stream for it.

The council approved in December an agreement with Republic that included hauling solid waste from the city's transfer station to the company's landfill. Another provision calls for Republic to run its hauling operation and process all solid waste through a new city-owned multiuse transfer station.

The city would benefit from the revenue generated from the additional solid waste processed by the city, plus lease payments from Republic for using city-owned facilities. Special obligation bonds and casino revenue also are funding the project.

In January, the council approved a resolution to enter into an agreement with Cambridge Companies Inc. for professional and construction management services for the new multiuse transfer station. The issue requiring council action tonight is approval of a guaranteed maximum price, which, according to the agreement, is $3,812,614. That cost is nearly $57,000 lower than the initial estimate.

Public works director Steve Cook said in a recent interview the department holds regular teleconferences with Republic's engineers, and the project has remained on track so far this year. He said it's time to move beyond the existing transfer station in the 2500 block of South Sprigg Street, which frequently suffers problems with its scales and has become more difficult to access because of sinkholes shutting down a nearby part of the roadway.

"We're moving up out of that area to new and better," Cook said. "The new transfer station will be better the way it's built, better in the way it serves the citizens, better traffic flow in the area. The old one, the way it was designed was not ideal for the services we're providing now. This transfer station would be designed for the equipment that's being used today."

The new station will be built across from the city's new wastewater treatment facility on Corporate Circle, near the public works station.

Other business

A public hearing will be held at tonight's council meeting regarding the proposed property tax rates for the 2016 fiscal year. The council also will vote after the public hearing to set rates.

The tax levies per $100 valuation are $0.3027 for the general fund, $0.567 for the health fund and $0.6866 for the Downtown Special Business District. The rates for the general and health funds remain unchanged from the previous year, while the special business district rate decreased from $0.6869. Rates were set based on preliminary assessment figures the city recently received from Cape Girardeau County, which considers factors such as assessed values on new construction, annexed property and the current year's increased personal property.

Based on those rates, a homeowner with a house worth $200,000 would pay $136.57 in real estate tax to the city, according to city documents, and residents would pay $11.98 for each $10,000 of personal property they own.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

2500 S. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.