You get what you pay for.

Too often counties have settled for cheaply built asphalt roads that have quickly crumbled into pothole pavement, says Wayne Muri.

Muri thinks privately guaranteed, high quality asphalt pavements funded through neighborhood improvement districts offer a better way.

Muri is executive director of the Missouri Asphalt Paving Association. The organization based in Jefferson City represents about 80 asphalt contractors, providers and equipment suppliers in the state.

Muri knows a lot about roads: He previously directed the operations of Missouri's Transportation Department.

Muri and officials of Koch Industries, an asphalt materials supplier headquartered in Wichita, Kan., pushed the paving program at a luncheon meeting Tuesday at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau.

About 20 area paving contractors and officials from Cape Girardeau, Perry, Bollinger and Scott counties attended. All three Cape Girardeau County commissioners attended.

Counties can't afford to pave more than a few miles of county roads at best in a year.

But Muri said a little-known 1991 state law, the Neighborhood Improvement District Act, offers a way for property owners to get their gravel roads paved. Two-thirds of property owners have to petition their city or county government to have a road improved. The governmental body then would hold a public hearing to decide if the project should proceed.

Property owners could pay for the work up front or such projects could be financed through the issuance of bonds that would be retired over a maximum of 20 years. The bonds would be issued through the local government.

Muri said the neighborhood improvement law has been used 40 to 50 times in Missouri.

But he said Koch Industries is offering local governments an even better deal by offering to guarantee asphalt pavements for 15 years.

Local governments wouldn't have to maintain the roads for 15 years provided they are built to Koch's specifications.

Koch would design the improvements and even handle the financing, if desired. Local contractors would do the paving. Such projects would be awarded by the local government through the bid process.

Koch is the second largest privately held company in the nation. It has 13,000 employees and $24 billion in sales.

The company has a number of varied operations, including Koch Materials that supplies a material used in asphalt paving.

Muri said a longtime guarantee assures that the work will be done right.

While it could cost more up front, counties could save money by not having to maintain the roads for 15 years, Muri said.

"I think most commissioners would be interested in this, but we need a price," said Gerald Jones, Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner.

Muri and Tom Texier of Koch Materials' office in St. Louis said they couldn't estimate the cost per mile. It would depend on each project, they said.

But county commissioners and asphalt contractors said it would cost more to put down the high-quality asphalt pavement that Koch would specify.

After the meeting, Mike Yamnitz, Perry County's Western District commissioner, estimated it would cost $60,000 to $70,000 a mile.

Standard asphalt paving currently costs about $50,000 a mile, he said.

Perry County has about 500 miles of gravel roads.

Yamnitz said residents of rural subdivisions might be interested in forming neighborhood improvement districts. But he said it won't appeal to farmers, who don't want to pay to pave rural roads.

Area officials said most property owners are concerned with how much it will cost them to pave the road, not how much it will cost to maintain it.

But officials said maintaining asphalt roads can be costly, particularly if the paving work was poor to begin with.

Over the past 25 years, Scott County has settled for lesser quality pavement because up-front costs were cheaper, said Bob Kielhofner, the county's presiding commissioner.

While less expensive to construct, the county has found they are costly to maintain, he said.

He said the county spends more than $100,000 a year on asphalt oil alone to maintain 140 miles of asphalt roads.

Like the other officials, Kielhofner said neighborhood improvement districts could pave the way for better and more road improvements.