SPRADLING: PROGRESS IS ABUNDANT IN CAPE; STATE OF CITY UPDATED

Things are a little disrupted in some parts of the city these days, but that is a sign of progress, the mayor of Cape Girardeau said Wednesday.

"Over the next several months we're going to be really torn up," Mayor Al Spradling III said. "We've been torn up for a while, but it's progress, and it's progress that you've had a hand in by voting for the transportation sales tax and the water bond issue."

As residents see streets torn up or closed to traffic, they must remember they are seeing progress "and the mess that goes with it," he said.

Spradling gave his state-of-the-city update to the Cape Girardeau Lions Club Wednesday at the Holiday Inn.

The city is in pretty good shape, he said.

"Really, right now, this community is in probably the best condition that it's been in in several years," Spradling said.

Sales tax revenues are up in the last several months, commercial and industrial development is increasing and capital improvements are under way.

"People want to live in Cape Girardeau and work here, and it has become a very strong and very growing community," Spradling said.

Crime is down in the city, he said, and morale is "at an all-time high" in the city's police and fire departments.

"I really don't have any bad news to tell you," Spradling said.

A portion of West End Boulevard and other streets in the central part of the city have been closed to traffic as the city's sewer segregation project continues. Voters approved a 1996 bond issue to fund the work, which entails installing separate lines for sewage and storm water.

The project is "moving quickly ahead," Spradling said. "We've done quite a bit as we move from the east to the west."

The project could be finished this year, he said. "It has been a very successful project. It has been a very needed project," he said.

The micro-tunneling process the city is using has been less intrusive and less costly because streets don't have to be torn up as much to lay the new sewer lines, Spradling said.

Residents should see work starting any time on the Perryville Road upgrade, he said. The first step will be relocating utilities, and heavy equipment is already on the site to start moving sewer lines.

The $1.7 million project will improve Perryville Road from Meyer Drive to the city limits. The road will be widened and straightened, intersection sight distance and turning will be improved, drainage will be improved and sidewalks will be added.

The project is slated to be completed in December, Spradling said.

"It's a terrible street now, and we all know it," he said.

The Hopper Road extension and Bloomfield Road upgrade are also on the calendar for this fiscal year, Spradling said.

"We're going to be tearing up a good portion of the town, so bear with us," he said.

The major road projects, as well as regular street maintenance and paving of gravel streets, are funded through the city's transportation sales tax.

"We'll probably be coming back to the city before that expires and asking for a five-year extension to do more roads and streets in the community," Spradling said.

The sales tax expires in 2000.

In April, voters will be asked to approve a package of user fees increases, Spradling said. The increases are being asked for to offset increasing expenses.