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NewsJanuary 31, 1995

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III told fellow council members Monday night that they should put a transportation sales tax on the ballot even if it is scaled down. Spradling, who had earlier called for a 10-year, half-cent sales tax, said it might be wise to seek a five-year tax and then ask the voters for an extension, if necessary...

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III told fellow council members Monday night that they should put a transportation sales tax on the ballot even if it is scaled down.

Spradling, who had earlier called for a 10-year, half-cent sales tax, said it might be wise to seek a five-year tax and then ask the voters for an extension, if necessary.

A 10-year tax would generate $35.8 million.

Fellow council members reacted to the whole tax issue with total silence at a city hall work session on the proposed five-year capital improvements plan.

Spradling said after the meeting that he still hopes the council will decide soon to put the issue on the ballot.

Councilmen Richard Eggimann and Melvin Gateley said they wish the council had been given a chance to provide input before the city staff drafted the capital improvements plan.

"I think maybe we are starting at the wrong place," Eggimann said.

"There is nothing wrong with the projects here. My only quarrel is with the priorities," he said.

During its hour-and-a-half work session, the council recommended the city staff move up planning for improvements to Perryville and Bloomfield roads and Kent Street.

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The council said it wants some planning work done on the Perryville and Bloomfield projects in the next fiscal year.

The Perryville Road project involves reconstruction and widening of the street from north of Meyer Drive to the north city limits.

The Bloomfield Road project calls for widening and reconstruction from Kingshighway west to Interstate 55.

That project hadn't been included on the five-year plan drafted by the city staff. Council members said increased development on the city's west side will dump an increasing amount of traffic on the east-west street.

"Bloomfield Road is a narrow road and it is in bad shape," Councilman Jack Rickard said.

Eggimann and Gateley said the city needs to fix existing streets.

The two councilmen suggested putting off the final phase of either the Lexington Street or North Sprigg Street extension projects, or both.

The money saved could be spent on other street projects, including street repairs, they said.

But Spradling and the other council members said the city should tackle the last phase of the Lexington project and the North Sprigg Street extension in the 1996 fiscal year.

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