NO RUSH FOR LOCAL REDISTRICTING

Cape Girardeau city and county officials won't have to rush to redraw boundaries for city wards and county commission districts.

Each must redraw boundaries based on the 2000 census before the next elections for councilmen and county commissioners. Cape Girardeau will hold elections in 2002 in wards 1, 2 and 6. The next Cape Girardeau County Commission election will be in 2004.

The three-member county commission expects to redraw its boundaries to better equalize the population of its two districts. But any boundary changes won't take effect until 2004 when the four-year terms of commissioners Larry Bock and Joe Gambill expire.

Cape Girdeau expects to shift its ward boundaries to the west where recent growth has occurred, said Kent Bratton, city planner, but he doesn't know how far.

The Cape Girardeau City Council has a tighter schedule for redistricting, but a September deadline is really self-imposed, said Bratton. The council expects to approve any boundary changes before October when filing opens for the 2002 elections.

The six wards in the city were established in 1994, two years after voters approved changes to the City Charter. The wards are used as the basis for representation on the city council.

Some wards adjusted

As the city has annexed to the west, the ward boundaries have been adjusted to include those additions, Bratton said. The wards were adjusted using data from the 1990 census and have about the same populations, he said.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission hasn't discussed what changes its two districts might need. In November, voters re-elected Bock as 1st District commissioner, and Joe Gambill was elected as 2nd District commissioner.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said District 2 could be expanded to include all of Cape Girardeau as a result of the 2000 census.

Bock currently represents all of rural Cape Girardeau County, Jackson and precinct 17 on the west side of Cape Girardeau. Gambill represents the rest of Cape Girardeau.

"We just have to look at the possibilities," Bock said.

He doesn't anticipate any political battles over redistricting the commission seats. All three commissioners are Republicans, and the county as a whole is predominantly Republican.

Gambill said it would make sense to put all of Cape Girardeau into a single district. "Personally, I think it would help the person running for District 2 commissioner. You would pick up a whole lot of votes at Chateau Girardeau," he said. The retirement home currently is in Bock's district.

According to the 2000 census, the county has a population of 68,693, the majority residing in District 1.

The population of District 2 dropped by 2,186 people over the past 10 years. That leaves the district with a population of 29,291, about 5,000 fewer than are needed to equalize the districts.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller said the districts don't have to be identical in population. A 10 percent variance would be acceptable, he said.