Cape County vacates section of road because of drug activity

EDITOR'S NOTE: The closing of the road isn't yet a completed process. The county commission will host a public hearing on the issue Feb. 6 before it will take final action on abandoning the road.

The drive all the way down County Road 229 in rural Cape Girardeau County is a trip that should rarely be taken, people who live near the road say.

Two landowners own ground near the end of the road, which is tucked away off Route A in Hubble Township. The road winds up and down hills and alongside a creek before dead-ending at the bottom of a hill. Gravel flies as cars zoom down the wooded road and if drivers are not careful on a rainy day, they will get stuck in the mud.

At the road's dead end there isn't much more than a view of the farmland that surrounds the road.

Since moving into a home near the end of the road more than 20 years ago, Michael Wessel said, he has seen vehicles he didn't recognize travel to the dead end, but not to get a better look at the farmland.

The drivers were more than likely involved in illegal activities, Wessel said.

That's why Wessel successfully petitioned the Cape Girardeau County Commission in December to give him and the other landowner jurisdiction over the portion of the road starting 5,150 feet from its intersection with Route A.

"You can let your mind wander about what's going on there," Wessel said of the illegal activities that occur near the road's end.

Wessel was not specific about what exactly goes on toward the end of the road but said most of it was drug-related. In December, the county commission labeled the activity "nocturnal recreational pharmaceutical use."

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan put it in simpler terms: Methamphetamine cooks are using the road's dead end to dump waste from their labs.

Wessel said he worked with Jordan to police activity on that portion of the road, but because sheriff's deputies could not patrol the road at all times, the effort was unsuccessful.

"There is always something going on down there," Wessel said. "If I don't know you or you aren't working on the land, you probably shouldn't be down there."

As many as six cars -- all of which Wessel did not recognize -- made the trip down the road on New Year's Eve, Wessel said.

Under state law, 12 township residents may petition for a road or part of a road that is termed useless or an "unreasonable burden upon the district" to be vacated. In getting the commission to vacate the road, Wessel got 13 people from Hubble to sign the petition.

Wessel said he plans to gate the road off and post signs of its closure. The closure only affects Wessel and the other landowner, who Wessel would not name. The other landowner is in a nursing home and typically does not keep tabs on the land, Wessel said.

The road's closure may be beneficial to the land. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a report to President George W. Bush that estimated for every pound of meth produced, between five and six pounds of "highly toxic waste" is generated.

Meth is typically made using a potent mix of ingredients like battery acid, drain cleaner and ammonia. The components are not safe for a regular landfill, and if the ingredients seep into a water supply, they can be highly dangerous to people, according to the report.

psullivan@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

County Road 229, Cape Girardeau, MO