County Road 623 work brings residents to meeting

A group of residents along County Road 623 sought answers from the Cape Girardeau County Commission on Monday to understand why they are still waiting for their road to be listed on the county paving plan.

Bill Shivelbine, whose family owns Shivelbine Music on Broadway in Cape Girardeau, led the group of about a dozen residents. Many of the residents signed easements years ago and some, including Shivelbine, wrote checks as long ago as 1995 to help pay for a blacktop road.

The residents are angry that they are being told that the county does not have sufficient easement for the road to be paved. They pointed to County Road 532, a project under construction with donated labor and equipment by the Missouri National Guard. For that project, the adjacent landowners gave only a 35-foot easement when the county normally requires a 60-foot easement -- 30 feet from the center line of the road on each side.

The work moves County Road 532 out of a creek bed.

"I don't see how the county can do this," Shivelbine said.

The residents said the road is unsafe because of blind corners.

In response, assistant to the commission Robb McClary said the issue isn't the 60-foot easement requirement. Instead, he said, the problem is that two landowners who live at the intersection of County Road 632 and Highway 177 have refused to give enough easement for the road to be realigned for safety. One landowner refuses to sign any easement, he said, and the county has been unable to persuade the other to give an extra 10 feet.

The county only wants 40 feet total, McLary said. "If they would give us that 10 feet, that would solve the problem."

Shivelbine, however, said he feels the county has not tried hard enough. "Questions were asked but they were never answered. It seems like the follow-up wasn't there."

The residents did not walk away happy. The discussion of their road went on for half an hour, and at the end they received promises of another approach to the landowners. "We appreciate you folks coming in, and we understand the problem," Bock said.

-- Rudi Keller