Cape will ask for extension of sales tax

Cape Girardeau voters will decide Aug. 2 whether to extend the city's half-cent transportation sales tax for another five years to fund road projects in a city that will hold a bicentennial celebration next year.

The city council said it plans to celebrate the 200th anniversary of when the town was first platted.

As for the sales tax, the city council voted unanimously Monday night to put the issue on the ballot. The tax extension would fund nine specific road projects, street and sidewalk repairs, and resurfacing of existing streets.

If voters extend the tax, the city will:

* Widen sections of Mount Auburn Road from Independence Street to Kingshighway.

* Widen Bloomfield Road from Stonebridge Drive to Benton Hill Road.

* Widen Sprigg Street from Shawnee Parkway to William Street.

* Construct Armstrong Drive from Siemers Drive to Route K.

* Improve sections of Main Street and Big Bend Road.

* Construct Vantage Drive from Kingshighway to Scenic Drive.

* Improve the Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive intersection including adding a northbound right-turn lane on Kingshighway.

* Build LaSalle Avenue from the new East Main Street interchange at Interstate 55 to Route W.

* Extend Fountain Street from Morgan Oak Street to William Street.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said voters need to understand that the council isn't asking voters to enact another tax. "It's not a new tax, but extending an existing one," he said.

This would be the second five-year extension of the tax since voters first approved the measure in 1995.

City staff members plan to try to sell the tax in presentations to local civic clubs over the next several months.

In addition to funding road projects, the council had other city improvements on its mind Monday.

The council authorized the issuance of $8.45 million in special obligation bonds to fund improvements to the police and fire departments and finance the purchase of the new public works building on Southern Expressway.

City officials said they were pleased that the municipality received a good bond rating.

Bicentennial committee

Regarding the bicentennial, Knudtson said it isn't too early to start planning for the celebration. At his suggestion, newly elected Councilwoman Loretta Schneider, a historic preservation enthusiast, agreed to head a committee to help plan the celebration.

This will be the second bicentennial in 13 years.

The city celebrated a bicentennial in 1993. The celebration actually extended over the course of a year, ending in July 1994 with the placement of a time capsule in a mausoleum vault in Memorial Park Cemetery.

The celebration commemorated city founder Louis Lorimier receiving a Spanish land grant on Jan. 4, 1793, for what is now the Cape Girardeau area.

Trying to sort out all the starting dates for a community can make it hard to settle on just one bicentennial, said Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University.

"It is not uncommon for a town to have a settlement date, a sort of design date and then an incorporation date," Nickell said before the council meeting.

Cape Girardeau wasn't incorporated as a town until 1808. "You could really have another bicentennial in 2008," Nickell said.

But the 1806 date was recognized in a centennial celebration in 1906 and again in 1956 in a sesquicentennial celebration, Nickell said.

City planner Kent Bratton has suggested the community celebrate the bicentennial in September 2006.

Schneider said she's ready to help plan the anniversary party. "We'll have to do it bigger and better this time," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123