Figure out road priorities

The Veterans Memorial Drive extension project should not be a priority for the City of Cape Girardeau when we have numerous roads that need resurfaced and repaired.

I attended one of the TTF-6 meetings back in September where we "voted with dollars" on which road projects we wanted the city to take up as priority. One of the projects the city seemed to be pushing was extending Veterans Memorial Drive.

During the meeting, we were given a budget of $13 million, while the combined total of all the proposed TTF-6 projects was $40 million. We were told to pick which projects we felt were most important, and which roads we felt needed improvement the most. The total for both Veterans Memorial extensions was $9 million, which would nearly eat up all of our $13 million budget. Now, I see the city has decided to apply for state aid to complete the extension project.

We have other roads that should be the priority.

Conveniently, we seem to be able to find potential funding to complete the projects for more affluent neighborhoods, but when we need funds for flooding and other needs, we're strapped for cash.

I'm ashamed of our city representatives that would push a selfish agenda by applying for state aid to complete a project for the wealthier neighborhoods, rather than prioritizing the other projects that the city will benefit from as a whole.

Remember, Cape City Council members, you are elected officials, and we are your boss.

Aaron Lerma, Cape Girardeau