Cape Girardeau County 1st District Commissioner Paul Koeper settles into job

First District Commissioner Paul Koeper has marked more than 100 days in office, but Cape Girardeau County's newest commissioner said he's still learning the ropes.

Koeper, a former vice president for Penzel Construction, said he's having to adjust to a different pace as his schedule fills with a patchwork of committee, regional and state meetings, as well as luncheon and dinner appointments.

He conducted a series of town hall meetings on road paving during his first quarter in office, and plans to repeat those later this year. He tracks the information gathered in a series of white binders, most of which are stored in a cabinet over the desk he has in a second floor office in the county administration building. He shares the office with Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones.

In addition to overseeing long-standing projects, such as the Route AB roundabout, a state-funded project led by the Missouri Department of Transportation, Koeper has assumed responsibility for figuring out how to set speed limits on county roads that are currently 65 mph. He said with the required public hearings, lower speeds may be set and signs installed before the year's end.

Koeper has also taken on reviving the county's safety committee.

"No question about it, the highway department and the sheriff's department are the two most likely to have accidents," he said.

He is recruiting committee members from all departments and said one suggestion he would like to see implemented is a badge system for all county workers.

Keeping promises

True to his campaign promise, Koeper is routinely present in the administration building beyond the twice-a-week commission meetings. He tries to take a regular lunch hour, but his open door policy sometimes means he is sidelined with questions from county employees or others.

Chauncey Buchheit, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission, has worked with Koeper on a group aimed at preventing Southeast Missouri counties from being deemed as having excessive ozone pollution by Missouri Air Conservation Commission. Koeper said Monday that the county must find ways to reduce its own pollution and lead the way for corporations, from using more energy efficient light bulbs to upgrading inefficient heating and cooling systems.

Buchheit described Koeper as "very responsive and concerned by his constituents."

Koeper has been meeting with Delta officials to find funding for flood remediation, and he said his initial investigation may also help Dutchtown find some funding, though the information is tentative.

Waiting for answers from state or federal agencies is the most frustrating, he said.

"It's harder to do in government than in the private sector," he said. "In private industry, you say you're going to do something, and you do it."

Small victories

But he's not complaining, he said, just learning and appreciating small victories. Shortly after taking office, he received a call from a woman living on a dead-end county lane. The road had a sign used for emergency vehicles, but a neighbor's tree has blocked the sign.

"She wasn't upset with the neighbor, who didn't want to cut the tree. She just wanted to know if something could be done," Koeper said. He asked the county's emergency officials to look into the problem, and they moved the sign to the opposite site of the street.

"She came all the way to my office one day to thank me. I told her, I didn't do anything. I just made a phone call," he said, grinning.

As for the two recent resignations from the road and bridge advisory board -- part of an ongoing disagreement over the usefulness of chip-and-seal paving, Koeper shrugs. He attended several meetings, and when he couldn't sway the group, he wrote a letter explaining why he wanted to delay the experimental paving program.

"Ninety nine-point-nine percent of the people I've talked to have been very understanding," he said, "even when I have to give them an answer they don't like."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

388-3646

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