MAPLE STREET PARKING CONCERN AIRED IN SCOTT CITY

SCOTT CITY -- The city council Tuesday night was presented with a petition signed by 73 residents who want parking banned on both sides of Maple Street.

"People can park in their back yards or use their driveways," said Bill Zimmerman, one of the petitioners. "The street narrows there at the end in the 400 and 500 blocks especially and people have to literally stop and wait for traffic to pass.

"Sometimes there are so many cars out there, if you went in fast at all, you'd end up matching paint with somebody," he continued. "It's been like this for years. It's time to do something about it."

Ward 2 Councilman John Rogers Jr. agreed with the petitioners.

"I used to live there myself I know how bad it gets," Rogers said. "But what we need to do is widen the street down there, and for that we'll need money. That's something we just don't have."

Rogers told the three presenters that the city had tried to pass a quarter-cent sales tax for road repairs a few years back, but voters rejected it.

Zimmerman encouraged the city to try that approach again.

"I bet there's a lot of streets in town here that need some work," he said. "I would vote for that sales tax thing, and so would 72 other people who signed this petition."

Betty Jackson, another resident of the area, said a neighbor backed his car out of his driveway and hit a car parked on the opposite side of the street.

"Next to Main Street, I think Maple is the second-most-traveled street in the city," Jackson said. "We can fix this it's just a matter of coming together and finding solutions."

The council agreed to pass the matter on to the Public Works Committee for study and a recommendation. The committee is meeting Tuesday and plans to drive out to the street and have a look around.

In other council business, Scott City Mayor Larry Forhan announced that the city's 911 system is installed and on line.

"For the next few weeks they will be `hot testing' in the area, making sure everything is working fine," Forhan said. "It looks as though we will go on line for real right on schedule."

Forhan also told the council that when representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency visited the Cape Girardeau County and Scott County areas last week, they did not stop in Scott City.

"This really concerned me, so I gave them a call right away" Forhan said. "I came to find out that we weren't on their computer.

"So (Fire Chief) Les Crump and I got some figures together and now we're on the computer, too," the mayor said. "They assured me that everything was all right."