CITY REVERSES DECISION ON JASMINE LANE PAVING

Despite controversy over whether Jasmine Lane is actually a street, the city plans to pave it with Transportation Trust Fund money.

When the city was promoting the half-cent transportation sales tax passed by voters in August 1995, paving Jasmine was included on a list of potential projects.

Under the fund, property owners on gravel streets pay only $10 per foot of frontage for improvements. Transportation sales-tax collections pay the rest.

But Jasmine dropped from Transportation Trust Fund updates in May after city officials found it wasn't a dedicated gravel street -- it was an unmaintained right-of-way. Although a street was shown in the subdivision plat, officials said, the city never created a roadbed or maintained it.

Residents on the section of Jasmine between Dixie Boulevard and Flad Avenue said the city led them to believe they would be covered under the trust fund. They even helped with the drive to get the tax passed.

On Monday night, the Cape Girardeau City Council voted to pave the 2900 block of Jasmine at the same time the city paves nearby Dixie. And the property owners will get the $10-per-frontage-foot rate.

Paul Brown, a Jasmine Street resident active in promoting the tax last year, said he was cautiously optimistic about the council's decision.

"I have been through a lot with the city, to the point where I will believe it when I see it," he said. "But when you set up a trust fund, you must trust the city officials to get things done."

Brown's wife, Tricia, said she was thrilled with the city's reversal.

"I think it is absolutely wonderful," she said. "The city finally came through and did the right thing."

Mayor Al Spradling III presented Monday night's motion to pave Jasmine. All the councilmen voted to pave Jasmine except Melvin Gateley, who abstained because he has a relative on the street, and Richard Eggimann, who voted against paving.

Spradling argued that information published during the trust fund campaign indicated Jasmine would be paved. Eggimann said publication in newspaper articles doesn't matter -- it's the city's own documentation that counts.

"The question is if it was an existing gravel street," he said. "Some of the people here on the council have decided that if there is any gravel on it, it's a gravel street."

Plans and funding for Jasmine improvements already exist. Now the city must acquire easements for the work, and at least two of the four people with property on the street have said they gladly would grant the easements.