RESIDENTS OPPOSING KENT ST. EXTENSION

Years ago, the Cape Girardeau City Council received a petition asking it to extend Kent Drive in the Woodland Hills subdivision south to Lexington Avenue in the northern part of town.

Today, Richard Burns, who lives on Kent Drive, will present a petition to the city with the signatures of 22 residents opposed to extending their street.

Burns plans to address the council tonight. He said he collected most of the signatures in one day by walking down the street. "On that walk, every person with whom I spoke wanted to sign the petition," he wrote in a letter to the city council.

He said residents see no need for the outlet, so extending it would only waste taxpayers' money. "It's an expensive project that will solve a problem that does not exist," Burns said.

Woodland Hills has about a dozen streets and eight years ago had only one outlet. Today it has three, with a fourth -- an extension of Kenneth Drive to connect it with Route W -- under construction.

Extending Kent Drive would take it up a steep hill across a swampy area and would cost about $120,000, Burns said.

One person who does see a need for extending Kent is Fire Marshall Tom Hinkebein. Hinkebein said fire trucks coming up from Fire Station No. 4 will save about one minute of response time and a circuitous route through the subdivision if the city extends the road.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer said he remembers opposition to the extension from the police department because "there's a blind curve right there."

Neumeyer said the petition "would raise a lot of questions since the city's strapped for cash right now."

In other business, the council will hold hearings about its proposed annexation policy and about using its Community Development Block Grant money for a possible industrial project near the airport in the Greater Cape Girardeau Industrial Park.

The proposed annexation policy calls for requiring areas that are outside the city and want city utilities to petition for annexation.

Missing from the agenda are appointments to the city's new Ethics Commission. Councilman Melvin Gately said he intends to ask why those positions aren't being filled. At least 12 people filed for spots on the seven-member commission by the April 15 deadline.

"I thought by now we'd be considering them," Gateley said. He said it's possible the city staff is still checking out the applicants' qualifications and their disclosure statements.

Members of the Ethics Commission cannot be currently active in partisan politics or be employed by a government subdivision.