CREEK TRAIL: WHERE IT ENDS, NO ONE KNOWS

Picture this: A blacktop pathway varying in width from 6-8 feet snaking its way through Cape Girardeau, grazing parks, past ~benches, along a creek, ducking under streets and bowing around trees.

Hard-core bikers and hikers pump their legs mercilessly up and down, almost kicking up dust on a asphalt and concrete trail.

Couples enjoy an evening walk along the Cape LaCroix Creek, off the beaten path.

The city of Cape Girardeau wants to make that vision a reality.

The U.S. Army Corps of En~gineers and private contractors are currently working on a $35 million flood control project, which will when completed include recreational areas and a nine-mile long hiking and biking trail.

But since its beginning, the trail has had detractors.

The cost of the flood control project has increased from $28 million in 1988 to the $35 million mark. One report estimated the final cost at $42 million.

The trail itself was initially going to be four miles in length. Then it was stretched to nine miles, emptying out into a massive park in the 157-acre dry detention area north of the city, complete with an amphitheater and camping grounds.

Then the city was going to send the trail over city streets. Later it was decided to re-route the trail beneath overpasses.

Now the city just hopes to be able to complete the trail.

When the project is completed in September 1995 a date that has been moved back at least three times it could well take an expert to tell the general public how it got there.

Cape Girardeau City Planner Ken Eftink said that the city has earmarked $665,400 for the trail and the parks for fiscal year 1993, which is about half of the projected $1.23 million the trail itself was expected to cost.

"We really can't predict what's going to happen on down the road," Eftink said. "We can't know if we're going to run into costly problems or if everything will go smoothly."

One cannot discuss the bike and hiking path without an explanation of the package in which it is wrapped.

Cape Girardeau lies in the middle of a sizable water shed that surrounds Cape LaCroix Creek and its tributaries. Many times when the rains came hard to this area, the creek has flooded its banks, causing significant damage to homes, businesses and seriously hampering travel from east to west of the city.

"The town was virtually being cut in half by the flooding," Eftink said. "People were cut off from their work, from the hospitals, from emergency services; it was a real problem."

On May 15, 1986, Cape Girardeau received 6.64 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.

The storm put Cape Girardeau at almost a standstill, closing schools and many businesses.

Water near the intersection of Kingshighway and William Street was 3 feet deep.

Losses were estimated at about $2.5 million for businesses and homes in Cape Girardeau. The total damage in the region topped $56 million.

"Every time we'd get a real heavy rain, the Town Plaza would flood," Eftink said. "After the 1986 flood, the city was ready to move on the flood control project."

In 1986, there was a major push to develop a flood control plan. The city hired consulting firms to evaluate channel improvement options.

During the 1988 general election, voters overwhelmingly approved a quarter-cent sales tax increase to raise local matching money for the flood control project.

The city which earmarked $5,000 to sell the tax hike to the voters mailed brochures to Cape Girardeau residents, touting the attractive recreational facilities the flood control package could offer.

In 1990, the Corps of Engineers got federal approval to proceed with the long-needed project.

The project includes three miles of channel modifications on Cape LaCroix Creek and Walker Branch, construction of a 157-acre water detention basin north of Cape Girardeau, and construction of the nine-mile hiking and biking trail.

The project will also involve replacement of eight bridges along Kingshighway. Bridges at Bloomfield Road, Route K and Independence will include concrete underpasses for the fitness trail.

Contractors will construct vertical, sloped and rip rap walls along the Cape LaCroix Creek in an effort to reduce by 70 percent damages from a 100-year flood.

When the plan was initiated, the city was promising voters that they would have parks, the bike path, perhaps soccer fields and softball diamonds and a park/camping area in the detention basin.

Since then, plans have been drastically scaled back.

It is these reductions that trouble Eric Gooden, owner of Cape Bicycle and a proponent of the fitness trail.

"They sold one idea to us so that we would pass the tax measure," Gooden said. "Then they keep taking more and more away.

"I believe that if the city says they're going to do something, then they have an obligation to fulfill their promises to the taxpayers," Gooden continued.

The Corps of Engineers originally planned to route the trail across major city streets with crosswalks and stop signs.

Gooden and about 30 other people stood before the city council pleading for the underpasses to be built, preaching the sensibility and safety features of the diversion of the path beneath the busy streets.

"If they were going to run the trail across a busy street, they would have to put up stop lights with a push button signal or stop signs," Gooden said. "That would cost money; we just thought that money would be better spent constructing underpasses beneath busy streets.

"Besides, it would be infinitely safer than letting small children on bikes cross a busy street," Gooden continued.

Then the discussion focused on Bloomfield Road.

"They were going spend a half-million dollars to build a new bridge to improve traffic flow on Bloomfield Road; not to control the water flow and not to correct its structural integrity," Gooden said. "We figured that if they spend another $80,000 or so, they could route the trail underneath the overpass, along the creek."

Gooden and his fellow recrea~tionalists won that round with the city sort of.

The underpasses constructed beneath Independence and Bloomfield Road ended up being only six feet wide, which could make it difficult for bikers to pass one another let alone pass people walking along the path.

About 50 feet from the narrow Independence underpass, the path takes a sharp turn on a downslope, which could cause accidents in the future, this despite the fiberglass rail guarding the edge against the sharp rocks below.

"I can just picture a cyclist or someone on roller blades rounding that curb and heading straight into another cyclist or someone walking along the path," Gooden said.

"Now first I want to say that the city council, the Parks and Recreation Board and everyone else has been working really hard on this project all along," Gooden said. "But I just think that if they're going to do this, they should do it right the first time."

Currently, the city planner's office and the Parks and Recreation Board are budgeting money for future upkeep of the trail.

"Upkeep costs will have to be resolved shortly after the trail opens," Eftink said. "We'll have a better handle on maintenance costs when the trail is put in place and we have an estimate on the number of people and the type of uses the trail will have."

One mile of the trail will open in January 1994, if everything moves along as scheduled.

The Cape Girardeau Department of Public Works will be responsible for maintaining creek channel improvements. The cost of the trail itself will be left with the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Both agencies are looking at prospective full-time employment positions for upkeep of the project, but such planning remains in premature stages.

"We're dealing with the economics of the trail now the cost ratio between the flood control project and the completion of the trail," Eftink said. "And we're a long way from being finished."