COUNTY PAVING PROGRAM OFF TO GOOD START

Although Cape Girardeau County didn't pave as many gravel roads as it had hoped to this year, it embarked upon a paving program that should prove beneficial to those who must travel the county's unpaved roads on a daily basis.

The county paved only about half of the roads it had hoped to pave before the construction season came to an end. The reason that only four of the eight miles intended for paving was done was because of the amount of maintenance necessary on existing paved roads. That delayed the start of paving, and the weather finally brought what work was being done to a halt.

This was the first the year the county paid for the paving of gravel roads. Previously it provided equipment and labor, but property owners paid for the material to pave roads next to their property. The county approached the paving project logically: It decided which roads to pave first based on traffic counts.

The county is able to pay for the work with interest earned on its $4 million emergency revenue fund. Thanks to a county sales tax that was enacted a few years ago, the county has enjoyed an abundance of revenue, so much so that it alleviated its property tax some years ago. About 75 percent of the $250,000 in interest earmarked for road and bridge improvements was used this year.

The paving project is a way to provide better rural roads, many of which carry many more vehicles on a daily basis than they did 10 or 15 years ago. The county can chalk up this first year as a learning experience. As the interest from the emergency revenue fund grows, the paving program will grow, and the county should be able to make major inroads on county road paving.