CITIZENS COMMITTEE SUGGESTS PRIORITIES FOR COUNTY ROADS, BRIDGES

JACKSON - A citizens committee that has been meeting since March 9 has presented the Cape Girardeau County Commission with a set of recommendations and suggested priorities for dealing with county roads and bridges.

The committee was appointed at the request of First District Associate Commissioner Larry Bock, who took office in January and oversees county roads for the three member commission.

Said Bock: "I think they did a good job and put a lot of time and effort into it. They made some good recommendations - not that they can all be funded immediately, but it does give us something to look at."

Glen Birk was chairman of the committee and said he too was pleased with what was accomplished. "We think we studied it pretty thoroughly, and spent a lot of time and effort on this. Besides several meetings, we spent two days out touring roads and bridges, trying to evaluate what we had, what was there, and figuring out how to see it improved," said Birk.

"We realize all we can do is make recommendations, but we felt like we studied it thoroughly enough where we could give the commission some well-studied recommendations."

Both Bock and Birk agree that to significantly upgrade county roads and bridges additional funding would be needed, however, the committee stopped short of recommending any type of tax increase.

Instead, the committee stressed that future tax increases "should come as a last resort after taking other budgetary restraints and after working out a detailed plan as to how the additional funds would be used." If additional revenue was looked at, the committee suggested the commission look at replacing the road and bridge property tax levy with a sales tax.

"We felt like there was a lot of potential for improvement on roads and bridges, but felt like the county wasn't ready for any additional taxes right now," explained Birk. "But if there is a need at some point to raise taxes, we felt like the sales tax would be a good source to consider."

Another recommendation is that the county commission should establish a minimum standard for new roads for a 24 foot road bed, with a 20 foot driving surface; 18 inch ditches, with a 50 foot right of way.

Said Birk: "We felt like there are a lot of roads that could use a substantial amount of improvement, but we can't go out and bring them all up to these standards at one time. But by working at it over time, we feel like we can bring the most heavily used roads up to these standards."

As part of its evaluation process, the committee had road traffic counts conducted which Birk feels will be helpful in setting priorities.

The committee also recommends that the county not take on any new overlay projects until the budget is in good enough condition to resume the program. The report states: "the emphasis for new overlay projects should be placed on road improvement rather than dust control, and the overlay should be built-up to a thickness of two inches."

Birk added that if properly managed, the overlay program can lead to some good long term improvements.

Another suggestion, that there be written agreements between the county and landowners for all future overlay projects, has been implemented already, Bock said.

Other recommendations include: studying requests for utility right of way usage to keep them to a minimum so they do not interfere with road maintenance; any county road annexed into the city limits should be maintained by the city; and safe guard rails should be installed on all new bridges, and on existing bridges that have defective guard rails.

The committee also recommends the replacement of 15 bridges over the next five years. Recommendations for 1994 are to replace bridges on County Roads 535, 606, and 268. Some of the bridges will be replaced with county funds, while others will involve the use of federal Off Systems road money.

Birk explained that at meetings, the committee also received input from Auditor H. Weldon Macke about county finances, and from ex-officio members that included: Carl Talley, city administrator for Jackson; Ken Eftink, from the city of Cape Girardeau; and Ralph Phillips, from the Cape Special Road District.

Other members of the committee were: Carl L. Penzel, Lawrence McBryde, Jr., Jim Wallis, Eugene Eftink, Jeff Preusser, Ken Friese, Larry Quade, George Hathhorn, Dr. John Holcomb, and Charles Peters.

The county commission accepted the committee's report and took it under advisement. Bock said the committee has finished its work, but could be called back if necessary.