Cape Girardeau City Council to review $237 million improvement program

Over the years, Cape Girardeau's capital improvements program has often served as foreshadowing for things to come.

The Shawnee Park Center, the Fountain Street Extension, Siemers Drive and the Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center all began as line items in the long-range planning guide that lays out future community and neighborhood projects.

In fact, since the city first started the annual process of adopting the five-year list in 1983, many -- if not most -- of the city's major and minor transportation, recreational and environmental projects were first brought to light with the release of the capital improvements program.

The Cape Girardeau City Council will begin that process anew Tuesday night at a study session to review a draft of the 2012 program. The program, which looks at 2012 to 2017, includes a list of 183 funded and unfunded projects that total more than $237 million.

As mandated by the city charter, a public hearing will be held Feb. 21 and the council must adopt the program by April 1.

The total program includes $137.6 million for projects which are funded from city's various revenue sources, said Kelly Green, the city's director of development services. There's another $100 million in unfunded projects.

Green, who prepared the draft with input from department heads and guidance from city manager Scott Meyer, broke the unfunded portion into two sections -- $80 million in what are considered immediate needs and another $20 million in long-term needs.

"The immediate needs are things we feel are a pretty high priority," Green said. "We need to find a way to get these funded over the next five years."

Funded projects include the city's new wastewater treatment plant, which eats up $66 million of the total. Other funded projects include the $3.8 million Broadway Corridor, the next phase of Veterans Memorial Drive, and a multitude of other projects.

The funded list is also diverse -- it ranges from small projects like street, curb and gutter repair and downtown sidewalk replacement to higher-dollar projects like the next phase of Bloomfield Road and a roundabout at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and Route W.

Unfunded projects include improvements at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, a parking lot for Broadway and a $3.9 million water plant expansion.

The capital improvements program also has been structured differently than in years past. Before, the lists were broken down into categories of transportation, environmental, recreational and community development projects.

This draft has the categories of transportation and environmental, but adds capital assets. The program also for the first time takes a look at fleet services and information technology, which traditionally have just been handled through the budgetary process.

Green believes those areas have suffered for not being a part of the CIP process.

"That's why I really wanted put it in here," she said. "I think those are very important pieces of our system and we need not to neglect them. I'm not saying we never looked at them, but we looked at them under the budget only, so we didn't necessarily look at them holistically."

While some city officials don't like the CIP referred to as a "wish list," the draft also shows that not everything in the program has come to fruition.

Still a big question mark is the proposed -- and funded -- $2 million Armstrong Drive, the lone project yet to be completed from Transportation Trust Fund 3, which was approved by voters in 2005. The project is still being held up by two property owners who are negotiating with city officials about the sale of land to build the project, officials say.

Armstrong Drive, as proposed, would start on the south at Siemers Drive, cross Bloomfield Road and end on the north at Route K about a quarter-mile west of Walmart. As a commercial corridor, city officials say it has the potential to mirror Siemers Drive, the highly developed link between Route K and Bloomfield Road.

Will it get done?

"I hope," Green said. "We're waiting on acquisition. We have the plans ready to go."

Mayor Harry Rediger has been a proponent of the new street since his days on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission. He said the whole issue has come down to money.

"We need to get that done," Rediger said. "I think it will be very significant. It will open up another avenue on the west for commercial development. It's a significant project. It's going to happen. It needs to happen and it will happen."

As has always been the case, there's money for some of the projects and none for others. Green said she hopes the council decides to develop a strategic plan and consider ways of finding money for some of the unfunded projects, whether it's new revenue or a reallocation.

"Is the answer a TTF-5? A parks and rec sales tax 2?" Green asked. "This allows folks to start looking at what some of those projects might be. Those are the kind of things the council will decide. This is the information that will help them make those decisions."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence, Cape Girardeau, MO