LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: CAPE COUNTY'S P&Z INFORMATION DOESN'T ADD UP

To the editor:

By reading state statute 64.211 (the statute that authorizes county planning and zoning to be put on the ballot), I find that our Cape Girardeau County commissioners have spent $22,000-plus on this plan that they are proposing and were only to do this after approval by a vote of the people of this county. The reason they took this off the April ballot is that this could, by state statute, only be on a general election ballot. Next we are told how little this will cost city and county voters. They say they are looking at around $60,000 to do this.

Let's look at the past P&Z budget when it was in effect in 1991. The P&Z board's budget then was $127,734.

Let's also compare this with present county government.

They say P&Z will have two or three employees. The County Commission has three employees, and its tab is $222,826. The county auditor has three employees, and its tab is $123,689. And the emergency preparedness office has one employee, and its tab is $85,444. Unless we set a precedent, I don't see that this $60,000 estimate can hold up much past the election.

As for the two or three employees, the state mandates that the County Commission shall appoint an enforcement officer to go along with the planning director, planning assistant and secretary. We are already up to four employees, all on $60,000.

Even the chairman of the temporary board will admit that this plan will not stop a $2,000 mobile home from being placed next to a $100,000 home. After the election it might, because of the little-known clause that allows for changes to be made by an appointed few at any time.

The most interesting thing that I have learned from all of this is exactly how self-centered some have become. Just because my neighbor and I don't see eye to eye on how each should maintain or build on our own property, should our unhappiness or distrust of one another cause laws to be enacted on a family on the other side of the county? I think not.

People today are looking for government to solve their every problem and give them a guarantee that everything will always be rosy. We all know that this can never be achieved and should never be attempted.

DOUGLAS FLANNERY

Whitewater, Mo.