Road panel wants to get beyond gripes at upcoming meetings

The Cape Girardeau County Road and Bridge Advisory Board doesn't want upcoming public meetings on its road plan to be purely gripe sessions for people dissatisfied with past county road building efforts, leaders of the board said Thursday.

The board will kick off a series of four meetings at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Delta Community Center on Highway 25. The meetings will begin with presentations detailing the work done since the board was appointed in October. After the presentations, board members will answer questions about their plans and listen to concerns about the proposal.

The meetings are being held before the 11-member panel submits a report to the county commission. If adopted, the proposal will guide county spending to put hard surfaces on county roads in coming years.

"What happened in the past we have no control over," said chairman Larry Payne, the board member for Randol Township. "There is not a thing we can do about it."

Vice chairman Ken Evans, board member for Apple Creek Township, agreed, adding that one issue the board is trying to address involves questions of trust in the fairness of road decisions. "We feel like we have a responsibility to be responsive to the public and that is one of the things that has been lacking in the past. The procedures were not very transparent, and that is what we hope to gain."

The other three scheduled meetings will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Daisy Coonhunter's Lodge off Route B; at 7 p.m. April 25 at the Fruitland Sale Barn on U.S. 61; and at 7 p.m. April 26 at the Burfordville Baptist Church.

The board includes one member from each of the county's 10 townships and one at-large member. County highway administrator Scott Bechtold is a nonvoting member of the board.

The board was appointed following the narrow passage of a half-cent sales tax in August. The tax will provide money for paving county roads, as well as funding to increase salaries in the sheriff's department and replace property taxes dedicated to roads and bridges.

The board appointed subcommittees that compared past road building practices to county road policies and examined methods for dust control. Their report sets priorities for roads to be paved. The report also designates roads that will be recommended for a test of chip-and-seal paving methods as a cheaper alternative to asphalt and as a way to implement long-term dust control.

The top priorities for paving are the roads where the county has promised a hard surface this year, where the county has spent money to prepare a road for paving or where the county accepted money to move a road up the list, Payne said.

"That group one is where, for whatever reason, we feel that there has been a commitment made to get those roads completed," Payne said.

The next two priority groups include roads with complete or nearly complete easement packages and roads designated for chip-and-seal paving.

While the lists may not mesh exactly with promises made before the August vote, Evans said that significant progress, not adherence to a list created without in-depth study, should be the measure of progress.

"The most important thing for myself and others is to show the money is well-spent," Evans said. "We have an obligation to show real progress and get things done."

After the series of public meetings is complete, the report will be revised to reflect public input and submitted to the county commission, Evans said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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County road priorities

The Cape Girardeau County Road and Bridge Advisory Board is recommending the roads be classified into four priority groups, based on considerations ranging from previous spending for preparing the roads to completeness of easement packages. Groups 2 and 3 in some cases include the same stretches of a particular road.

GROUP 1 -- TOP PRIORITY

County roads 271, 361, 364, 365, 422, 425, 324, 327, 419, 435, 450, 411 and 381: 8.65 miles total.

GROUP 2 -- ROADS WITH COMPLETE OR NEARLY COMPLETE EASEMENTS

County roads 436, 381, 451, 250, 244, 440, 361, 501, 422, 405, 439, 522: 18.4 miles total.

GROUP 3 -- TEST ROADS FOR CHIP AND SEAL PAVING

County roads 436, 440, 422, 439, 419, 316, 273, 380, 607: 15 miles total.

GROUP 4 -- INCOMPLETE EASEMENT PACKAGES

This group is 42 roads where landowners have requested paving but too few landowners have signed easements to be included in the above groups.

The advisory board's complete list, with explanations for each stretch of road, is available on the Internet at www.showme.net/~capegadm/. Follow the link for County Road and Bridge Advisory Proposals.