Deadline for comments on Sikeston wards approaching

Associated Press/The News Leader, Bob Linder

Physican's assistant Elton Youngblood talked with patient Catherine Anderson in Dr. Kimberly Witkop's office in Branson, Mo. Youngblood graduated from a two-year medical training program, and a state board exam certifies him to perform routine medical care under Witkop's supervision.By Scott Welton ~ Standard Democrat

SIKESTON, Mo. -- A little over a week remains for Sikeston residents to voice their opinions about the city's new ward designations.

The deadline to submit written comments on the wards is 5 p.m. June 26. The public's comments will then be presented during public hearings at 7 a.m. June 27 and 5 p.m. July 1.

City officials anticipate formal action on the designation of municipal wards during the city council's regular session July 1 following the hearing. The deadline for setting wards is Oct. 1.

Council members Michael Harris and Sue Rogers have spearheaded the development of ward boundaries.

"It's not something that any of us have taken lightly," Rogers said. "There has been a lot of time and consideration looking at all the different elements."

Each of the four wards must be within 10 percent of 4,238 residents as determined using Sikeston's 2000 census population of 16,954. Three out of the four proposed maps stay within 3 percent, Harris noted.

City officials agreed on the importance of using recognizable geographic barriers in addition to providing equal representations of the population.

"We learned from the city of Cape Girardeau, where people complained they didn't know which wards they were in," Boyer said. "Using major traffic arteries really simplified our ward system."

Another goal was to maintain existing voting precincts where possible.

Using census tracts to monitor how changes would affect populations in each of the wards, dozens of boundary options were tried as officials explored the options. These were ultimately narrowed to four by the council.

Maps of the four options are on display to gather public input at the city library, the Board of Municipal Utilities office, the Heritage House and in local bank lobbies in addition to city hall.

At a glance, the maps are all similar. But details by which the four maps differ, while small on a map, will affect several hundred residents.

Boxes to collect comments from the public accompany each of the displays, but city officials have yet to receive any feedback.

The lack of feedback may be "an indication that people are fairly well pleased with the proposed maps," Harris said. "Any of the four would work well."