GRAVEL STREET-DWELLERS SET TO REAP TAX REWARDS

The new half-cent transportation sales tax, barely noticeable at city cash registers, is attracting much attention from some Cape Girardeau residents.

Voters overwhelmingly passed the tax in August after months of planning and community meetings. City officials promised much of the burden would be paid by out-of-town shoppers, but that Cape residents would reap the benefits in improved streets.

So far, officials are sticking to a priority list outlined by voters. They were most concerned with paving busy gravel streets, making Perryville and Bloomfield roads safer and widening Broadway. Numerous other projects made the list.

The sales tax started Jan. 1, and some of the first money collected will be spent on paving Brucher Street, Dixie Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue. A project update released last week by City Hall showed ASA Asphalt received the contract for Brucher, which is just southeast of the intersection of West End Boulevard and Bertling.

Magnolia and Dixie, both northeast of the intersection of North Kingshighway and Lexington, likely will be bid out next. Only a block or two will be affected in each case.

It was good news for Donna Plumb, who has rented a house on the corner of Butler and Brucher for more than two years. When she moved back to Cape from California, rental housing was scarce due to the flood. Her home on a gravel street was the only thing suitable for Plumb's family.

"We've had health problems," she said. "There's a lot of dust in the house, and my younger daughter is asthmatic. This street is busy -- a lot of people go up and down it."

Brucher isn't only busy, it's extremely steep. Plumb watched a neighbor carefully back out of his driveway on a snowy morning, only to slide several yards backward into a ditch.

Plumb said she also welcomes a paved road where children can ride bicycles under their parents' supervision.

"This is a nice neighborhood," she said. "This will make it even nicer."

A few miles northwest of Brucher, residents of Dixie and Magnolia are awaiting updates on street improvements. They will pay $10 per foot of road frontage for concrete streets, curbs and storm sewers. Transportation sales tax dollars will pay the rest.

Steve Nesler moved to a house on Dixie 13 years ago and watched city crews dump gravel in front of his house time after time. Paving the street long ago would have saved money, he said, but city officials wanted a sewer extension out to Dixie first. That project was completed last year.

Sick of "eating dust," Nesler voted for the sales tax in August.

"We have had two new houses built on this street, and traffic is increasing," he said. "The more traffic, the more dust."

Although he isn't complaining, Nesler said, some neighbors feel their street will be widened too much. Discontent is most audible around the corner on Magnolia, where residents bought property for beautiful trees and quiet seclusion.

When Barbara Evans moved to her home in 1992, she routinely spotted deer in her yard. They're scarce these days, and Evans said she fears the quiet she once enjoyed will be gone. She and her neighbor across the street only wanted blacktop to cut down on the dust, not wider, concrete streets with curbs and gutters.

"In winter it will be great for us, but if I could change it I would," Evans said.

Not everybody will be happy with the order of the projects or how they are engineered, said Councilman Melvin Gateley, a strong proponent of the transportation sales tax. However, the tax should make a positive impact by the time it expires at the end of 2000.

"I am really excited about it," Gateley said. "Over the next five years, I can envision Bloomfield, Perryville and Broadway completed and really looking good.

"Our streets should really be in good shape by then."