Paying for paving

Cape Girardeau County's road and bridge advisory board is pushing for a hefty paving program in 2009, suggesting that additional funding can be mustered from a variety of sources.

For example, the county sales tax for roads and for the sheriff's department is expected to generate about $1.5 million of the estimated $2.5 million cost for paving (asphalt and chip and seal) 14 miles of county roads. The board suggests using another $305,000 in FEMA funding following last winter's ice storms, $225,300 in interest from roads/sheriff sales tax funds and $340,000 in excess sales tax funding for the sheriff's department.

There may be other creative ways to finance more paving projects, and all of these ideas should be considered as the county commission works on budgets for next year.

One factor that is likely to have a significant impact on paving costs is what happens to the world oil market. This year's higher oil costs were factored into some of the budget forecasting, but those costs have dropped dramatically in recent weeks, pushing fuel costs, for example, to their lowest level in years. The big unknown is whether oil prices will remain low or spike again, possibly to the record levels this summer.

Finding ways to stretch every dollar has been a hallmark of Cape Girardeau County government for years. Let's hope these same creative thinking can be applied to paving county roads.