STRIPING OF CROSSWALKS IS DELAYED

Cape Girardeau street department crews are a little tardy getting all the safety lanes and crosswalks repainted near neighborhood schools this year. But they have a good excuse: the Flood of 1993.

"Yes, we are a little late this year," said Kevin McMeel, assistant public works director. "Normally we would have had all of this done before the opening of school, but with the flood emergency work during August we didn't have time to get it all done.

McMeel said the city also has been waiting for a new striping machine to arrive.

During July and August street crews ordinarily begin to repaint all crosswalks and safety lanes in front of each school and at the busy intersections students must cross to get to and from their school. Some work began in July but was stopped as the flooding worsened.

In the past, McMeel said, the city has used a self-propelled striping machine that looks like a dune buggy. Although it worked the results were sometimes less than satisfactory.

The striping operator had to start and stop the spray guns manually as the unit moved along the street, which meant some stripes were longer or shorter than others.

"The advantage of our new striper is that it is mobile," McMeel explained. "It can be mounted in the back of a pickup truck or one-ton truck. That means if the crew has to pick up and go somewhere else, they can get there faster than they could with the old self-propelled unit. All they have to do is turn the new unit off and go."

McMeel said the new striping machine is automated to the point that the spacing between the stripes can be pre-set without having to turn the spray guns on and off manually.

"That means we have a much more professional appearance to our work, cleaner lines. And what I like best, the unit has a bead tank, so we can put down reflective beads at the same time we're striping the pavement."

Besides painting crosswalks and safety zones, the striper is used to paint the center lines on designated city streets to help motorists at night

The city did a test strip with the reflective beads on Mount Auburn Road in the area around Breckenridge. "At night the striping really jumps out at you in the headlight," McMeel said.

The city started painting the safety lanes and crosswalks in July, but had to stop when the river came up again because the striping crew also takes care of the barricades. "Now we're busy with the cleanup work," McMeel said.

The flood also forced the street department to postpone its normal summer street-crack repair and asphalt overlay work until next summer. "We're too busy cleaning up from the flood, and by the time the work is done it will be too late in the year," said McMeel.

The city does have one asphalt overlay job that will be done this fall by a private contractor on Brink and Spring streets, just south of the Cape La Croix apartment complex.