GROUP SEEKS INPUT ON STREETS

Cape Girardeau City Councilman Melvin Gateley will lead a citizens group to hold public meetings in April and May to determine the city's transportation needs and how to fund them.

The transportation steering committee of Vision 2000 will hold a dozen meetings from April 18 through May 13, followed by a town hall meeting that has tentatively been scheduled for May 22.

The group may recommend a transportation tax be placed on the Aug. 8 ballot.

Gateley said a recommendation could be made to the council June 5. The council would have to act quickly to meet the June 13 deadline for getting a tax issue on the August ballot, city officials said.

Gateley has pushed for public input on the transportation issue.

The council rejected on a tie vote Mayor Al Spradling III's proposal to place a seven-year, half-cent sales tax on the August ballot.

Gateley voted against putting the issue on the ballot, arguing that any tax proposal should be developed with citizen input.

Nine members of the transportation steering committee, chaired by Gateley, met at city hall Wednesday morning to plan for the hearings. The committee includes City Manager J. Ronald Fischer and Assistant City Manager Doug Leslie.

Tentative plans call for hearings to be held Tuesdays at noon, Thursdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 9 a.m. at churches, schools or other facilities around the city.

The first six hearings would focus on transportation needs, while the last six would look at how to fund the various projects.

"I think it is always good to take it to the public," Mary Spell said. Spell serves on the committee and heads up the overall Vision 2000 group.

Gateley said the transportation steering committee will have to publicize the meetings in an effort to encourage citizen involvement.

"It is difficult to really get them to come to a meeting," he said.

Gateley is the only councilman involved in setting up the hearings.

Later Wednesday, Spradling stressed that the council as a whole isn't involved in the public meetings.

"None of this is council run," he said. "The council killed any action by the city to be involved in any transportation sales tax. This is a Vision 2000 operation solely."

Spradling said he can't predict what the council will do with recommendations from the hearings.

"I don't think anyone should rubber stamp anything," he said.

Spradling favors a half-cent sales tax that would generate $24.6 million over seven years.

Some council members and citizens have suggested the city scale back the tax proposal. A quarter-cent tax would generate $12.3 million over seven years.

But Spradling said he won't support just any sales tax.

"I don't want a one-year or two-year transportation sales tax at an eighth of a cent or a quarter of a cent," he said. "It has to be long enough to make it worthwhile."