SPEAKOUT

Another ordinance not to enforce

WELL, THE city of Cape Girardeau has added another page to the city ordinances. I read in the paper the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting putting yard sales signs and so forth on utility poles and stop-sign poles. If I'm not mistaken, there was already an ordinance on the books to prevent this, and they did not enforce it one bit since it was passed. Is that all our City Council has to do is to make redundant ordinances? It would be one of the easiest ordinances to enforce, because the address of the yard sale is on the sign. Wake up, City Council, and stop making ordinances you don't enforce.

And the little children shall ...

I'D LIKE to comment on the two girls who set up the lemonade stand that benefited the Humane Society. Come on, folks. If two girls can set up a lemonade stand and have enough conscience to send all the proceeds to the Humane Society, can't we adults do a little bit more? I think it's a shame that two adolescents have to show us what compassion and kindness and giving are all about. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

A prophet without honor

I'D LIKE to say I'm tired of reading in the paper all these cracks and digs at Rush Limbaugh. I grew up in a different city, and my mother and her friends went to high school with Dick Van Dyke. When I was growing up, they would occasionally see him on TV. They would always make a comment: Oh, he had acne. Or he wasn't popular with the girls. Or something like that. I really think it's just nothing but jealousy. A prophet is always without honor in his own country -- or hometown. I think we're seeing that with Rush Limbaugh. I wish people would just shut up about it.

Reagan cleaned up the mess

I WANT to comment about a caller who said Reagan left our grandchildren a mess. Reagan ended the Cold War by defeating the Soviet Union, and he left us in a good enough position where we have a balanced budget. If you do your homework, you'll see that all of this rise in the economy started in 1982 when Reagan cut the tax rate. What has happened is exactly what Reagan said: We would grow out of these deficits, which we did. He also said the Soviet Union would collapse if we just held strong. We did that. Everything he said worked.

Pledge will go to Humane Society

ONCE IN a while a letter to the editor rings a bell. In regards to Mrs. Welke's letter from the Humane Society, now that I know the United Way doesn't help the Humane Society, I will not make a pledge to the United Way. I will make a donation to the Humane Society. Remember, it took years for the Girl Scouts to get as much funding as the boys.

Fix potholes on bridge

IT SURE would be nice if the city would fill the potholes on the bridge floor over Sloan's Creek in the north end of Cape. This would be appreciated very much.

Cost overruns indicate time for change

ON AUG. 18, the Southeast Missourian reported the current status on city sewer projects as approved by a bond issue voted on in 1994 and being paid off by a sales tax to end in 2015. The vo-tech school bond vote of $14.1 million was approved in 1997. Let me address the sewer-tax bond and construction issue first. We have spent $21 million on the sewer construction to date, leaving $4 million of the bond issue left to complete work costing $10.3 million -- work that the citizens of Cape Girardeau were told could be done for the $25 million. This is a 25 percent overrun. Keep in mind the sewer work allowed for cost overruns due to inflation and unforeseen problems. Now the City Council wants us to vote another $8 million bond issue to finish the job. I say the mayor and the council members need to go. They are poor stewards of the public money. I'm for progress, but I don't like to be lied to. No more money should be approved for city bond issues until these people are out of office and the new council and mayor prove to be trustworthy and truthful. Now let me address the school board and bond issue of $14.1 million voted on in 1997. The Missourian has reported on cost overruns and unknown wetlands on construction sites in earlier issues. This Aug. 18 report gives more detailed information on the vo-tech school. The lowest bid originally was $10,991,000. That's 73 percent over the architect's estimate. Keep in mind that the architect had allowed at least 10 percent for cost overruns and other unforeseen costs. The bid then scaled back to $9,854,500 and now raised to $10,938,635. We're told state funds will help cover the extra cost and there's more money available due to higher interest earnings on the unspent bond money. Wow! Why didn't we know this in the beginning? Nevertheless, we're asking the state for $1.8 million, to leave a balance of $1.5 which we're going to spend down to $405,000. But we just got $650,000 from the state and another $1.8 million coming for a total of $2,450,000. Final cost of the vo-tech project will be $10 million to $11 million, with cost overruns by 58.7 percent to 76.6 percent. You don't need a degree in math to figure out that our school board members are incompetent, or they are just flat lying to us. Some of those members have doctorates. The whole bunch needs to go. Out with the city council and mayor. This board needs to be more than a rubber stamp. Let's vote down any new city and school bond issues. Vote for progress in Cape, and get people in there who know what they're doing.

Try gun locks for police first

I'D LIKE to comment about Janet Reno and BIll Clinton wanting all Americans to have gun locks on their guns. If they're really for that, then pass the law then make sure that every cop on a beat has gun locks. Then when they arrive on the scene of a crime, they can holler at the criminal, "Hold on, I've got to take my gun lock off." If it sounds good, let's have the police use it first.

We can't afford to bail out inefficiency

A FEW weeks ago we were at the office of a sharp business operator who had recently put in a hog-feeding operation in addition to his other agricultural businesses. He is feeding several thousand hogs at a time. This man said that because of his new facilities and the overhead associated with it, his cost of producing market-weight hogs was just under $40 per hundred pounds. The man who told U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson that he needed $47 per hundred pounds to break even had better improve his operation or get out of the hog business. The operator in the adjoining state will still be making money due to his production efficiency while Emerson's friend will be going broke. We can't afford to bail out inefficiency.

Ask Hillary the same questions

IF THE media and all the Democrats are going to keep pushing about George W. Bush's drug usage -- if he ever did use drugs, which is certainly immaterial to me -- then we're going to have to ask Hillary about her drug usage. After all, she was a hippie when she was in college. Ask about Hillary's drug usage and her extramarital affairs. I'm quite sure she wasn't a madonna, and I use that word loosely these days. Every other candidate for president or any other public office is going to have to be questioned about all of his life, his personal and private life especially.

It's all a communist plot

THINK ABOUT it. Republicans and Democrats are both scumbags. The Democrats for support of their lowlife predator leader, and the Republicans for releasing to our beloved country the most lurid and disgusting intimate details, exposing our children to such filth. And the media for going along with all these filthy details and showing it to the country and the children. Then all of them portraying all this filth as news that must be told. Has our country been taken over by lowlife communists out to destroy America and reverting us back to the animal jungle? Khruschev said they'd take America without firing a shot, and it looks like he was right. They've demoralized America with their filth. God help us all.