COUNTY ROAD PLAN

With traffic on Cape Girardeau County roads increasing because of continued rural growth, the County Commission's decision to embark upon a program of improvements to selected rural roads comes at a good time.

Although not a lot of money is being earmarked for the improvements, the county can at least get an early start on paving of some unimproved roads that already are or will be carrying heavier volumes of traffic as the rural growth continues.

The commission hopes to be able to complete about eight miles of paving every year under its new long-range road improvement plan. Its three members elected last year to earmark interest money earned each year off the county's emergency fund, which currently totals a hefty $4.5 million or so. That gives the county about $240,000 in interest earnings to spend on road paving this year.

The county's frugal financial ways led to elimination a number of years ago of Cape Girardeau County's personal property tax. A 35-cent road-and-bridge levy remains in effect. Revenue from the road and bridge levy coupled with the interest-derived money from its surplus fund gives the county a substantial sum to carry out not only road maintenance, but the improvements the commission wisely envisions.

The commission's approach is logical: It has established a paving schedule based on roads that carry the most traffic, spending money as it is available over the next five years.

The county should keep in mind that with paved roads come significantly higher maintenance costs, and too many miles of paved roads will put a burden on the county's road-and-bridge maintenance budget. Chipping away at improving roads the way it plans is the best way to give rural residents better roads without over-committing the county to hundreds of miles of costly paved roads.