TOP 10 STREET PRIORITIES CARRY $12.7 MILLION TAB

After 12 public meetings on transportation needs, including Monday's town hall-type gathering cast to reach a consensus on street priorities, Hall Green still isn't convinced he and his neighbors will get what they want.

"We don't want a street that will cost each property owner $14,000," Green said at Monday's meeting at the Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant at the West Park Mall. "All we want is to have Magnolia Street finished the way it was started."

Green lives at the corner of Rampart and Magnolia.

City engineering studies show the best way to pave streets with steep grades like Magnolia is with concrete. Magnolia is only partly paved, with a gravel surface past its intersection with Rampart.

"It took the city a year and a half to do the study on Magnolia and only a day and a half to pave part of the street," Green said. "People who live on my street are nervous about those kind of numbers."

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Surface and Transportation Committee, Vision 2000 and the Planning and Zoning Commission will meet Wednesday to discuss projects that drew the most attention during the transportation meetings.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will then recommend to the city council the projects commissioners think deserve immediate attention after 1995.

Citizens who were polled at the meetings on various transportation projects made paving gravel streets their fifth highest priority.

A series of six public meetings were held on transportation needs. Six more meetings dealt with financing for the projects.

A total of 192 residents participated by providing their recommendations for transportation projects.

The price tag on the top 10 projects identified is estimated at $12.7 million.

Improvements to Broadway would cost $934,000; Perryville Road $2,154,000; Hopper Road $1,981,000; gravel street $1,100,000; Independence Street $2,131,000; Bloomfield Road $1,648,000; New Madrid Street $714,000; and William $446,000.

Street priorities

The top 10 projects as polled at the public meetings with vote totals in parentheses:

Widening and reconstruction of Broadway from Clark to West End Boulevard, including signal improvements, curb, gutter and sidewalk improvements from West End to Main Street. (301 points)

New pavement and widening of Perryville Road from near Meyer Drive to Route W and Cypress Drive. (275 points)

New alignment of Hopper Road from Mt. Auburn to Kage; new pavement and widening from Kage to 1-55 and improvement of the existing Hopper road. (243 points)

Widening of Mt. Auburn Road from William to Independence, signals at Independence and extension south to the new Highway 74 and Southern Expressway. This would include Southern Expressway extension to connect to Mt. Auburn. (221 points)

Paving 2.5 miles of remaining gravel streets after 1995-96. (169 points)

A public transportation system that would complement the taxi coupon program, which costs $165,740 and provides for 94,680 coupons per year.

Widening and reconstruction of Independence Street from Kingshighway to West End, general improvement from West End to Water with reconstruction from Pacific to Sprigg including intersections.

Widening and reconstruction of Bloomfield Road from Christine to Spring and from Kingshighway to Benton Hill Road.

Widening and reconstruction of New Madrid Street from Perry Avenue to the Show Me Center.

General improvement of William Street and/or widening from Sprigg to Main Street.