CAPE COUNCIL CONSIDERS BOND ISSUE FOR SEWER WORK

A special election for a bond issue to pay for sewer improvements could be in the works for the Cape Girardeau.

The Cape Girardeau City Council will consider a proposal to put the bond issue for sewer improvements before the voters on Nov. 2 at tonight's 7:30 meeting at City Hall.

The city plans to borrow $800,000 for sewer improvements. The bonds will be paid through the capital improvement sales tax currently paying for combined sewer overflow projects already under way.

If the capital improvement sales tax grows at an average rate of 2.6 percent over the next 20 years, there would be enough money to pay for the proposed bonds and the current bonds as well as the 10 percent required bond coverage on proposed and current bonds. The capital improvement sales tax is a one-quarter-cent sales tax voters passed in 1994.

The tax would not increase, if the bonds are approved, but simply use some of the revenue to offset the annual cost of the debt. The calculations indicating the tax can pay for the bonds assume that the city will be able to get the bonds issued through the State Revolving Loan Fund at the current rates.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer thinks the city will be able to successfully get the bonds from the revolving loan fund. The fund is a state program that offers municipalities low-interest loans to complete community improvement projects.

"This is a way we can spend more money on projects and less on interest," Neumeyer said.

Neumeyer said the bonds are a good way for the city to get projects completed.

"I feel comfortable with it," he said. "We have done this type of program before. It is not something untried and unproven."

The council also will consider a proposal to change the city code to prohibit people putting unauthorized advertisements on street signs. Current law only prohibits advertisements on lampposts, utility poles, shade trees and buildings.

The change would make it illegal to put unauthorized advertisements on street signs.

"It helps make for a cleaner city," Neumeyer said. "The folks who tend to put up those signs are also the ones who tend to not take them down."