UPDATED CITY MAP AVAILABLE AT HOME SHOW

The Cape Girardeau City's Division of Planning Services will release updated maps of streets and their names at the SEMO Homebuilders' annual Home and Garden Show today and Sunday.

The new maps can be purchased at the Division's booth, which will be near the exit from the main floor.

City Planner Kent Bratton indicated the map is useful for a multitude of reasons. "Aside from being useful just to find your way around town, we have been especially pleased to see that a number of businesses are using them for their own operations as well as posting them for the benefit of their customers," said Bratton. "It's the main geographic directory to the city and has many uses, from ambulance to garage sales to pizza."

With the growth of the city comes an increasing need for up-to-date geographic information. "City growth and implementation of the Emergency 911 calling system have created a greater need for these maps," said Bratton. "The city encompasses almost 24 square miles in area, with nearly 200 miles of public streets. Police, fire and ambulance service personnel can all attest to the problems they face because many residents still neglect to post their address numbers. This problem is compounded when they cannot tell emergency services which streets to take to reach them."