COUNCIL PETITIONS MAY NOW BE FILED; RACES ALREADY HAVE DEVELOPED

Candidates for the Cape Girardeau City Council can begin filing nominating petitions for the April 7 general election today at City Hall.

Filing for the mayor's office and council seats in Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6 won't close until Nov. 25. Races are already developing in two wards.

In Ward 1, incumbent James "J.J." Williamson will seek a second four-year term. Williamson will again face Frank Stoffregen, whom he defeated in 1994 by a 15-vote margin.

Williamson, 45, of 117 Centennial Drive owns an insurance agency.

If re-elected, Williamson said he will continue to concentrate on improving the infrastructure on the city's northeast side and cleaning up abandoned and substandard buildings. He said he will "listen to what the citizens of the neighborhood have to say and bring that to City Hall."

He is the first black council member in Cape Girardeau.

Stoffregen, 43, is service manager of Sappington Auto Parts in Jackson and part owner of P&S Development, a real-estate management firm.

Stoffregen said his priorities, if elected, will be bringing in more business and better-paying jobs to the city and reviewing the city's building code requirements. Some are "a little too stringent," he said.

In Ward 3, Gerald Stevens, 329 N. Pacific, and Jay Purcell, 315 N. Pacific, are vying for a two-year unexpired term vacated by the resignation of Jack Rickard in October.

Under the city charter, the council could have opted to appoint a replacement to fill the rest of Rickard's term or set a special election to fill the seat, rather than put the vacancy on the April ballot.

Purcell lost to Rickard in the 1996 general election, 334 to 176.

Only the incumbents have filed for the remaining City Council posts: Mayor Al Spradling III; Councilman Tom Neumeyer, 48, in Ward 2; and Councilman Richard "Butch" Eggimann, 69, in Ward 6.

Candidates can continue to pick up nominating petitions until Nov. 25.

To be placed on the ballot, candidates have to collect signatures from at least 50 voters. Candidates for council seats must collect signatures of registered voters living in their respective wards.

The mayor is elected by the city at large.