CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO FINISH ROADWORK

The Cape Girardeau City Council eliminated more of the city's residential gravel streets when it approved an ordinance Monday night to pave more than 6,000 feet of road.

The council unanimously adopted the ordinance during its regular meeting at City Hall. The ordinance was one of 60 items on the agenda.

The ordinance calls for a 4-foot-thick asphalt overlay on several streets named specifically under the Transportation Trust Fund program. Each year of the five-year program specific streets have been designated for paving. "This fulfills the commitment that we made," said City Engineer Mark Lester.

To date, the city has paved 2.63 miles of street and removed 2,800 feet of gravel streets in the flood buyout program, Lester wrote in a memo to the council.

The paving program is only part of the current Transportation Trust Fund, a program that began in 1995 when voters approved a half-cent sales tax to fund road improvements. The tax expires Dec. 31.

Other projects included redesigning intersections, widening roads and extending major routes throughout the city. Several projects are pending, either under design or put on hold by the council but should be under construction by year's end.

Voters will consider whether to continue the Transportation Trust Fund program today when they head to the polls.

The city asks voters to extend the sales tax for another five years to fund another $20 million in improvements.

The council also approved an ordinance to accept easements for the Mount Auburn project, also on the Transportation Trust Fund list.

The new road and the extension of Southern Expressway west of Kingshighway will connect to provide access to the city's new Career Center and high school, said City Planner Kent Bratton.

Lester was working on an update report on the Transportation Trust Fund Monday afternoon that shows all projects should be started by the end of the year, he said.