CITY IMPROVEMENTS PLAN OK'D

Cape Girardeau's proposed five-year Capital Improvements Plan came under fire at Monday's city council meeting.

Councilman David Barklage said he thought the council should be responsible for cutting projects in the plan, rather than abdicating the burden to the city administrative staff.

And at least two residents of a subdivision served by Perryville Road protested the removal from the five-year plan of a project to improve that street.

Despite the concerns, the council unanimously approved the five-year plan, which has been scaled back significantly to reflect shrinking city revenues.

The Capital Improvements Plan is updated each year, and Barklage suggested during the council's study session that the staff present the current plan, including recommendations for possible cuts to reflect fluctuating revenues.

"The staff ought to make recommendations and provide them to the council prior to printing the plan," he said. "I'm not calling it a problem it might be a lack of direction on our part.

"But it was a policy decision by the council to adopt the projects, and the council should take them off the plan by a policy decision."

Mayor Gene Rhodes said that deteriorated existing streets, such as Perryville Road, should be improved before the city continues work on new street projects, such as Lexington Avenue. He said that other streets in need of repair are Hopper, Kage and Bloomfield roads.

"To me, they should be done even before we build new streets," said Rhodes. "Those are my recommendations."

During the council's regular session, David Little of Lakeshore Drive also questioned the removal of Perryville Road from the proposed plan.

"Everyone agrees that it needs to be completed," he said. "I don't think we need to complete Lexington and the northern extension of Sprigg or any other street until we improve one of the heaviest travelled streets in the city."

Loretta Schneider, who lives on Lakewood Drive, said that since she's lived in the area, city officials have maintained that Perryville Road improvements are a high priority.

"Every year we were told that the road was going to be improved," she said. "It is so narrow and rough, there are bicyclists and joggers, and it is so dangerous. Why was it taken off the list?"

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said that Perryville Road, and other street projects, were removed from the plan because of a lack of funding. He said that like other street improvements, Perryville Road has been placed on the city's "unfunded needs list."

Barklage said that he would oppose any plans to delay the Lexington project in lieu of Perryville Road improvements.

"You would have a half-done road to nowhere," he said. "Tying Perryville Road into Lexington would be very poor planning on the city's part.

"Your point on Perryville Road is well taken, it's an important project," Barklage told Little and Schneider, "but not at the expense of Lexington."

During the study session, Barklage discussed at length the need for the staff to not simply recommend cuts in the five-year plan when revenue is scarce, but to come up with "creative funding" sources so that all the street projects can be done.

He explained that prior to the late 1980s, the capital improvements plan was a "wish list" with little practical results.

"Since the late '80s, when the staff started to come up with a more realistic plan of matching revenues and expenses and because of the growth of the city, there haven't been any projects we've had to remove from the plan," Barklage said.

"Now that funding is short, the council needs to make those decisions."

The councilman said the city invests money in comprehensive capital improvement planning, and that when priorities are established, the staff should recommend ways to fund the projects even if it means seeking voter approval for a tax increase.

"If you don't take some kind of action, what good is it to have an unfunded list," Barklage added.

But Councilman David Limbaugh said that budgetary constraints might justify cutting projects.

"In times of slow growth, even if you say we have to have all these projects, we just won't be able to do some of them," Limbaugh said.

At Monday's meeting, the council also approved a plan by a private property owner to pave a section of Northview Drive.

The council approved the plan by the Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall to pave the street serving the facility, provided the asphalt be at least three inches thick and extended to the end of the lot of the property owner directly across the street, and that ditch work be completed to assure drainage is to the west side of the street.

Joyce Cain, who lives across from the facility, also asked the council about placing a stop sign at the Kingdom Hall's exit. The city staff will study the possibility of placing a stop sign on city right of way at the exit.

In other business, the council:

Heard the Vision 2000 annual report. In the report, Vision 2000 Community Relations Committee members reviewed the group's nine strategic goals for the city and progress that's been made during the past year.

Heard a report on plans for Help Cape Shine week, April 20-24, and Friends of the Park Day April 25.