CITY CANDIDATES DISCUSS ISSUES; GODFREY SAYS HE'LL BE FOR WORKING MAN

Lawrence Godfrey wants to represent the "working man" on the Cape Girardeau City Council.

Godfrey is one of six candidates seeking three, four-year terms on the council. City council elections will be held April 7.

Godfrey said Sunday that most of the current city council members are professionals or business owners and that the "working class" is not adequately represented.

"The main reason I wanted to run is that I don't think I have been well represented on the council as a working man," he said. "I thought if I wasn't represented, there were a lot of others who weren't either."

Godfrey, who lives at 1732 Rampart, worked for 18 years as the treasurer at Riverside Building Co. He now works at Horizon Screen Printing and Marcon Specialty Advertising.

Godfrey said solid waste and new state and federal mandates regulating the amount and type of waste allowed in landfills likely will be a key issue before the city council during the next four years and beyond.

He said he doubted recycling efforts would be sufficient to meet the waste reduction requirements in Missouri's new solid-waste law.

"The number one issue is the solid waste," he said. "We're going to have to go down some other avenue than just recycling."

Godfrey said the city should begin to study the possibility particularly with the formation of a six-county solid-waste district here of waste incineration.

"I'd like to see that (district) go ahead and build a ceramic tile incinerator to burn the trash," he said. "It would take care of the trash and could generate some electricity for the area.

"It's definitely something we need to look at. You can't keep burying it in the ground for future generations to dig up and have to deal with."

Godfrey said he'd like to change the city's trash collection so that residents pay only for the amount of trash that's collected each week. He said the measure would encourage people to recycle, thereby reducing their volume of waste and saving on trash fees.

Godfrey said the council also will need to resolve how it wants to spend tourism funds generated by the city's motel and restaurant sales tax. He said he favors keeping all the tourism money in the Convention and Visitor Bureau and its budget, and letting the bureau deal with individual proposals for economic development and tourism.

"I don't think you can legally divert those funds for something other than what they were started for," he said. "I think the tourism bureau is supposed to be funded, and any proposals for tourism or economic development ought to come from the bureau's budget.

"As far as anything else, the only thing I could see is maybe retiring the bonds early; then, if you needed additional funds for something, take it to a vote of the people."

Godfrey said that if elected he also would take a close look at the city's five-year capital improvements plan to see if the priorities for street and road projects should be changed.

At a recent city council meeting, two residents asked the council to table completion of new street projects such as Lexington Avenue and the North Sprigg extension so that deteriorated existing streets such as Perryville Road can be repaired.

"I do think that priorities in the five-year plan need to be looked at," said Godfrey. "Perryville Road definitely needs improvement before the Sprigg Street project.

"We have two or three bottlenecks that cause real traffic problems in town, and that's one of them."

Godfrey said much of the Perryville Road project likely could be tax-billed and wouldn't be particularly expensive for the city. He said other new street construction would have to be delayed until more funding is available.

Another issue the candidate said he'd address as a council member is the city's lack of growth.

"We've been kind of stagnant in population the last 15 years, and I'd look for things to promote population and bring new industry to the city and jobs for our people," he said.

"We've been lucky in the past, but we're going to have to work a lot harder to get industry in here."

Godfrey said he represents new direction for the council, away from past bickering and infighting and toward common-sense governance.

"Mainly, I just want to promote the city," he said. "I think we need to change the atmosphere as far as city government goes. The city council's been fighting too much among themselves."

Godfrey is a Dexter native and a 1969 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, where he earned degrees in math and business administration. He and his wife, Linda, have two daughters: Lori, 22, and Wendy, 20.

He has served for six years on the Otahki Girl Scout Council Board of Directors, for nine years including six as chairman of the council's finance committee, and is currently chairman of the fund development committee.

He also has served for three years as president of the Promenaires Square Dance Club.