`UNECONOMIC REMNANTS' ALL ALONG BRIDGE ROUTE

MAP - BRIDGE ROUTE

Dawn Evans' house on Asher Street will be leveled to make way for the new Mississippi River bridge. She and her husband have already sold the house to the state and have found a new place to live.

But they still hold the title to the property where their garage sets and a lot adjacent to the house. The state doesn't want it because it isn't in the way of the bridge route.

"They only want my house," Evans said. "They don't want my garage or part of my yard. What am I supposed to do with it?"

The Evans family and others who live along the bridge route have been left with what the state calls "uneconomic remnants," portions of property adjacent to their homes that don't lie along the bridge route but are located next to it.

The Evans family has the option of selling the property to the state, but for now, they're hesitating. It's possible that someday the property will be worth much more than it is now. It will be located adjacent to the bridge and Highway 74, the connecting highway between the bridge and Interstate 55.

But, Evans said, if the family keeps the property, it will have to continue paying taxes on it and will have to maintain it.

"It's going to be full of construction equipment for the entire time they're building in here," she said. "I guess (the state) just wants to use it for a while for free."

Evans said she and her family regret moving from their south Cape Girardeau home, but knew it was inevitable. The fact that the family still owns the two adjacent lots just adds to her frustration.

"I feel like (the state) just came in and moved us out," she said. "We had to accept their offer. It was the best we were going to get."

Evans said she hopes the family can one day profit from the move through the sale of the adjacent lots.

Leroy Nunn of the Missouri Highway Department's Sikeston office said landowners whose property is adjacent to the bridge route do have the option of selling the property to the state.

"We offer to buy it from them, but if they don't want to sell it, they certainly don't have to. They can keep it," Nunn said. "If they sell it to us, we'll pay them for it, take title to it and then try to sell it at a later date."

Nunn said the state would sell the property for the same price for which it was purchased.

"We're not in the real estate business or trying to make money," he said.

The main reason the state offers to buy the property is so the landowners aren't stuck paying taxes on what they consider a useless piece of property.

"We try not to leave people high and dry," he said. "If they have no earthly use for a piece of property, we'll buy it from them."

But unlike property that's along the bridge route itself, the state does not have the right to condemn property adjacent to the bridge in order to take title to it.

Nunn said situations like what happened to the Evans's have occurred frequently along the bridge route. Some residents have been told only a few feet of their property has been labeled a remnant and therefore has to be turned over to the state.

At least 12 remnants have already been sold to the state along the Cape Girardeau bridge route, he said. Some are as small as a few feet, and others are entire lots.

Nunn said not everyone who lives along the bridge route has been told yet if the state plans to acquire all of their property or just part of it. Because the relocation process will not be completed for at least another year, some people are still in the dark.

"We get calls every day asking `When are you going to buy my house?'" he said. "We just have to tell them we'll get to them as soon as possible. The best thing for them to do it stay put until we contact them."

On Wednesday: Why the College Street route for Highway 74 would not have been picked had the neighborhoods been lined with expensive homes.