CAPE SALES TAX FOR STREETS PASSES

Cape Girardeau voters paved the way for continued road improvements in the city when they approved a half-cent sales-tax extension for the Transportation Trust Fund Tuesday.

The measure passed by a 7 percent margin but only needed a simple majority for approval.

Voters cast 2,011 votes in favor of extending the tax and 1,739 votes against extending it.

Revenue raised by the tax, estimated at $20 million, will be used to fund a continuation of the existing Transportation Trust Fund program as outlined by the Cape Girardeau City Council.

The new program includes 13 road construction and improvement projects. The tax extension will pay for general street and curb repairs, paving, sidewalk repairs and new sidewalk construction, installing new street lights and upgrading existing street lights as well as eight specific projects.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the city will continue a program that already has been successful. "The people requested this, and we will be able to accomplish it," he said.

The projects will be completed on a pay-as-you-go schedule, not in any priority listing. One of the first projects to be completed is likely the Silver Springs Road extension from Southern Expressway to Kingshighway. That project will provide access to the city's new high school and Career Center.

Residents who attended public meetings were able to "let us know the projects that impact them the most," Spradling said. "That's why we wanted the input. Sometimes we were educated."

Vision 2000 hosted several public meetings in April so that residents could offer suggestions on the proposed projects and list their concerns.

Many residents listed better street lighting as a concern for safety along city streets and neighborhoods, so the tax extension includes $1.5 million over the five years to pay for upgrading lighting and adding more street lights, the mayor said.

"It's an important part of safety and being able to get around the streets," Spradling said. Hearing resident concerns made the issue a priority for the council, he said.

The city is in the final months of the Transportation Trust Fund program that voters approved in 1995. That tax expires Dec. 31, so the city asked voters to consider extending the tax for another five years to continue road projects.

The current program included 20 projects like widening or redesigning road intersections, widening sections of city streets and paving residential gravel streets. Most of those projects are either completed, under construction or under final design. All the projects should be under way before year's end, city officials have said.