Five seek two Cape ward seats

Voters in two Cape Girardeau city wards will vote next Tuesday in contested races to fill vacancies on the city council.

Three candidates will square off in Ward 3, located in the central part of the city, including a last-minute write-in candidate. City clerk Gayle Conrad said there hasn't been a write-in candidate for city council in at least 14 years.

In Ward 4 on the city's north side, two former council members are seeking to get back on the board.

Much of the public attention has focused on two of the candidates in the Ward 3 race: businessmen Stan Wicks and R. Todd McBride. Both were prosecuted for felony crimes in the past 15 years.

Wicks served two years in prison on a drunken-driving charge. McBride, charged with conspiring to commit arson, received a suspended imposition of sentence and ultimately no criminal record or conviction.

Both men said they now operate successful businesses and are running to improve the community.

The third candidate in the Ward 3 race, Debra Tracy, filed Friday as a write-in candidate. She insists her opponents' past legal problems didn't prompt her to run but rather the encouragement of family and neighbors who said they wanted another choice.

As a write-in candidate, Tracy's name won't be on the ballot. Voters will have to write her name on the blank line provided on the optical-scan ballots.

In Ward 4, the race has familiar names: Loretta Schneider, who served on the council from 1981 to 1986, and J.J. Williamson, who served on the council from 1994 to 1998.

All five candidates in the two races said they support the measure to extend the transportation sales tax to fund road improvements.

"The money is needed for infrastructure improvements," McBride said.

Wicks said the city needs to do a better job of meeting public needs. "I would like to see faster response times to calls for police, potholes, street lines that are fading and snow on the streets," he said.

Tracy has complained in the past to the council about the traffic congestion caused by Southeast Missouri State University students parking on residential streets bordering the campus. She said maintaining the integrity of her neighborhood is a personal concern.

Williamson said the city needs more public transportation. He also wants to help build relationships between different cultures and ethnic groups.

Schneider said the city charter, under which Cape Girardeau city government operates, has worked well. But she said the city council needs to create a commission to review the charter and see if any changes are needed.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123