FORMER COUNCIL MEMBER FILES AGAIN

Loretta Schneider, a former member of the Cape Girardeau City Council and unsuccessful mayoral candidate, Wednesday filed for election to one of three council terms that will expire next spring.

Schneider, 54, was the first woman elected to the city council in 1981. She was re-elected in 1982 to a four-year term, and in 1986 ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor.

Mayor Gene Rhodes subsequently won the 1986 election against former councilman Donald Strohmeyer.

Schneider said Wednesday she couldn't cite an overwhelming reason to again seek political office, but that she hopes to encourage cooperation among the city's education, business and government interests.

"I've been involved in education, business and city government," she said. "I've become very interested in studying the idea of the partnership that needs to be present among those three entities to bring about economic development for the community and region."

Schneider joins a field of four other candidates who have filed election petitions for the four-year terms now held by incumbents Al Spradling III, Hugh White and David Barklage.

Spradling has filed an election petition, along with Lawrence Godfrey, Melvin Kasten and Melvin Gateley. The filing deadline is Friday.

Schneider said she thinks economic development and community growth are key issues the city needs to address.

"I believe that we need to set some goals for the community and the region and make sound decisions about economic growth and development, and then get the entities involved with striving for those goals," she said. "Growth is a key."

Schneider said she'd like to see the city conduct another "community attitudes" survey like the one she instigated while she was a member of the council.

"I think we need to continue that so the council can be more in tune with what the citizens consider are priorities for the city," she said.

"We need to really know to what degree the voters want this community to grow and progress, and then make some decisions based on what the will of the people actually is."

Schneider said many of the issues the council now faces were conceived while she was on the council in the 1980s.

She said her past experience gives her a personal knowledge of such matters as the city's recycling program, the Cape LaCroix-Walker creeks flood-control project, and proposals for use of the city's tourism funds.

"There are many things that are going on right now that I was involved in the planning," she said. "I feel there's a great deal that I can contribute in making decisions in those areas."

Schneider was one of the first city officials to stress the need for recycling and this year a city-wide program was instituted.

"I know it's a difficult process in changing people's habits," she said, "but we still have to be concerned about finding a way of collecting and recycling as much as we can.

Schneider also said she thought efforts to determine the best use of the city's tourism fund, a topic that has been at the forefront of recent council discussions, will be an important campaign issue.

"We should make sure that it should be used for the best possible use for economic development," she said. "I certainly do favor getting all the input that we can possibly get.

"But there are many different and divided opinions on all topics such as this."

Schneider also has worked closely with the city's historic-preservation efforts and served on the committee that drafted the city's historic-preservation law. Her husband, John, is a member of the Historic Preservation Commission.

She praised the city for its long-range infrastructure planning efforts, work that she said must continue.

"Long-range planning of water and sewers are things we don't really see, but they're important to the economy," Schneider said. "Economic development takes a great deal of long-range planning to make sure that infrastructure is there so when we bring in business and industry they don't have to wait for that development."

A lifetime resident of Cape Girardeau, Schneider works in Southeast Missouri State University's career planning and placement services department. She also teaches a career and life planning course at the university.

She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in education at Southeast, and her husband formerly was chairman of the health, physical education and recreation department at the university.

They live at 3249 Lakewood and have four children: Ann, 34, John, 33, Joe, 31, and James, 27.

Prior to becoming assistant director of placement services at Southeast, Schneider was a sales counselor with Century 21 Key Realty for three years. Before that she was a high school teacher for 10 years.