Tax fuels city's efforts to improve storm drainage

Cape Girardeau’s municipal government was awash in stormwater problems. The city could do little more than routine maintenance on the storm-drainage system.

That was before voters approved a half-cent parks/stormwater sales tax in 2008.

Since then, the city has tackled more than $3 million in storm-drainage projects, including a $1.6 million project near the Mississippi River floodwall.

Stan Polivick, assistant public works director, said that before the tax the city had limited funds to address the drainage problems.

“The bigger stuff wasn’t getting done,” he said.

“There were half-million-dollar projects that were out there, and those weren’t getting done because there was no revenue to do it,” Polivick said.

“If something needed to be upgraded from a 36-inch pipe to a 60-inch pipe, we weren’t doing that,” he said.

Since passage of the tax, the city has completed more than a dozen storm-drainage projects, and funding is in place to do several more, Polivick said.

When all those projects have been completed, the city will have spent about $4.5 million improving drainage, according to Polivick.

One major improvement is along Melrose Avenue. Before the tax, the Melrose neighborhood experienced severe stormwater flooding, with the street sometimes covered in water 3 feet deep, he said.

The tax initiative allowed the city to address the stormwater issue.

“We also fixed a big problem on Howell Street,” Polivick said.

The tax also provides about $300,000 a year for maintenance of the storm drainage system. That tax money covers about half of the city’s stormwater division operating budget, according to Polivick.

Without the tax dollars, the drainage problems would have worsened, he said.

Polivick said the drainage improvements may not be noticeable to those who don’t live in the affected neighborhoods, but they are important to those residents and help address drainage throughout the watershed.

When those neighborhood drainage issues are addressed, “quality of life is a lot better,” he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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