City council to vote on annexing property

If no one objects, the city of Cape Girardeau could expand by 135 acres this month. The city council will vote Tuesday night to annex Earl and Ruth Norman's property between Benton Hill Trace and Kensington Lane, east of Bloomfield Road.

Earl Norman said he was impressed enough with city services to want to pay taxes for them.

"We've got a fire station a mile away and relatively instantaneous response," said Earl Norman. He said the move puts the city in a good position to annex two nearby subdivisions, Windwood Estates, a 22-home subdivision, and Windwood Lake Estates, now in its third phase of developing 51 lots, of which 38 are done.

Norman said he has offered an easement to the city to develop a hiking-biking trail and hopes the Dalhousie developers will do the same. Minimizing the cost of a sewer system will make the difference to residents in the hilly Windwood neighborhoods.

"That's what kind of kills the deal, or what has, in the past," said Chris Wheeler, a two-year resident of Windwood Lake Estates. Wheeler, one of the neighborhood's three trustees, represents the subdivision's builder, McLane Development.

Leon Eftink, president of Windwood Estates, which is situated between Norman's property and Wheeler's neighborhood, also cited the sewer system cost. Eftink, who has lived in his home for 14 years, is building a home in the nearby Dalhousie subdivision inside the city limit.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127