Cape County slows paving progress as maintenance, lower revenue create speed bump

More than 12 years after voters approved a sales tax to, in part, pave more than 300 miles of county roads in Cape Girardeau County, more than 100 miles are paved, but funding issues and maintenance of roads paved early on mean paving pace has slowed considerably.

"The longevity of the roads is 10 to 15 years," said Allen Friedrich, Cape Girardeau County highway administrator. That means county roads paved in 2007 are nearing the end of life and will need to be repaired or laid again.

The waiting list has 37 miles of gravel roads, Friedrich said.

The county has budgeted for 3.6 miles of those gravel roads to be paved this year, he said.

Last year, 3.7 miles were newly paved.

In July 2018, Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy told the Southeast Missourian that Prop 1 sales tax revenue has allowed the county government to pave and resurface 123 miles of county roads, leaving the county with 214 miles of gravel roads, including 42 miles scheduled to be paved.

In 2018, Proposition 1 generated $1.5 million toward the hard-surface project, according to data provided by county treasurer Roger Hudson. In 2017 and 2016, totals were $1.6 million, down from 2015's $1.7 million.

The cost per mile for paving is about $250,000, which includes road-bed preparation, grading, base rock and the pouring of hot mix 3 1/2 inches thick. Overlay of 1 1/2 inches costs about $50,000 per mile, Friedrich said.

At the Dec. 17, 2018, regular county commission meeting, three residents spoke to the commissioners about County Road 244 in western Cape Girardeau County, near Dutchtown.

Tom Obermann, Glenn DeBrock and Betty DeBrock asked why their stretch of CR 244 had not been paved.

Obermann said the dust on CR 244 is "unbearable" at harvest time, when heavily loaded trailer trucks travel the road.

He added smaller vehicles will cut down CR 244 to County Road 245, which connects back with Highway 25, to avoid the roundabout.

Obermann said he'd been trying to get CR 244 on the to-be-paved list since 2012. At that time, he said, he'd been told the order was determined by the amount of traffic, but that policy has changed, he said.

Now, said Tracy, the queue is determined by which roads have easements in place.

That way, Tracy said, the queue self-regulates to an extent. If a landowner doesn't want the road paved, roads with all landowners having granted easements can take priority.

And money is an issue, Tracy said.

"We have Proposition 1. That revenue isn't growing," Tracy said. "We have been paving roads for many years, and we're at the point now where we can't just continue to pave new without taking care of the old. They'd turn back into gravel, and we'd have lost our investment."

In the case of CR 244, the easements were turned in but not recorded at first. The road is on the list, but it could be several years before the stretch of road is paved, Obermann said.

Obermann asked about county roads 346 and 347, near Millersville. Those roads lead to Capital Sand Company, an industrial sand-mining operation, and were paved before CR 244.

Tracy said those roads did move up on the list, but noted the company and federal grants contributed financially to the project.

Tracy said it's a fair question to ask how county money is allocated.

"Moving forward, if we want to pave 6 miles and take care of what we have, we need more revenue," Tracy said.

That means either bringing in more people to spend money in retail shops, which would be great, Tracy said, or raise taxes, which the county is reluctant to do: "Nobody likes to pay taxes."

But, Tracy said, there are things the county needs, including law enforcement, roads, courthouses, schools, and "that's what you're supposed to pay taxes for."

"We would like to pave more roads, but the checkbook's only so big," Tracy said.

Proposition 1 was passed in 2006 as a one-half cent sales tax, and revenue was meant to replace property tax levies -- those funded Cape Special Road District and the Road and Bridge Department.

Any excess would be split between the Sheriff's Department and the hard-surface project, Hudson, the county treasurer, said.

In the past, Hudson said, the Sheriff's Department would sometimes have an excess of funds, and that money went to the hard surfaces project.

But now, the sheriff budgets all of the Proposition 1 funds, so there is no carryover this year, Hudson said.

Sales tax numbers have dropped in recent years, owing largely to online sales -- and while the county has a use tax, or sales tax on out-of-state purchases, those funds don't apply to Proposition 1. Use taxes are being used to fund the new courthouse.

Several factors affect the paving price, said Koeper: the price of oil can affect the baseline cost of asphalt, for example, and if the economy is doing well and contractors are doing more work, asphalt prices go up too.

Asphalt prices have remained mostly consistent, Friedrich said, but there's no way to accurately predict the future.

Another factor is land -- specifically easements, which the county needs to pave the road.

Koeper said by statute, the easements needed for an overlay to be placed on a gravel road should be 30 feet from fence to fence. If a road is narrow, or steep slopes are present, more land must be ceded to the county.

And if neighbors want a road paved, but even one landowner isn't interested in allowing the easement, the road doesn't get paved.

Regardless, "The easement process has worked very well," Koeper said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630