HIT THE TRAIL: BICYCLE SHOP OWNER VOICES ANTICIPATION FOR FITNESS COURSE

When Cape Girardeau officials in 1988 began a campaign to garner support for a sales tax to pay for needed flood control, local recreation enthusiasts heartily supported the effort.

Eric Gooden, who owns Cape Bicycle on Broadway, was one of many local cyclists and runners who were attracted to a recreation feature of the planned flood-control project here.

And when voters approved a tax for it, he began to work in earnest with city and Army Corps of Engineers officials to assure plans for a nine-mile hiking and biking trail were realized.

"When I got involved in the project, I looked at Davenport, Iowa, which is part of the Quad Cities, where they have recreational trails along a creek almost exactly like what we're looking at for Cape," Gooden said.

"They've had the trail for years, and the coordinator there said the trail gets more recreational use than any other recreational facility in city."

A $1.23 million fitness trail is part of the Corps' $35 million flood-control project in Cape Girardeau, which involves channel realignments and other construction along Cape LaCroix Creek and Walker Branch.

The trail will be built adjacent to Cape LaCroix Creek. A proposal to build a trail along Walker Branch was dropped because of its cost.

The city is responsible for paying for bridge replacements and much of the fitness trail that will run from Shawnee Park, in the south end of Cape Girardeau, through Arena Park, to a dry detention basin north of the city.

Money for the city's share of the project will come from the quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1988.

Although the city has scaled the plan back considerably since its inception, city officials have assured Gooden and other recreation enthusiasts that the nine-mile trail eventually will be completed.

That suits Gooden just fine. He said he thinks the trail will get a lot of use.

"It's going to provide safe access to ride and exercise," he said. "I think more and more people are wanting to get outdoors and exercise, either through walking, jogging or bicycling."

Gooden has often been at the core of various controversies involving the trail system and the flood-control project. But through it all, he says the city and Corps have been receptive to his ideas.

"Most of my input has been from the idea that if we're going to do it, let's do it right," he said. "We're not going to spend a phenomenal amount of money, but let's do it right the first time."

Some of the items successfully contested by Gooden and others include the Corps plan to narrow the trail's width from eight to six feet and plans to use crosswalks for the trail's intersections with congested streets such as Independence, Route K and Kingshighway.

After consulting with Davenport officials, Gooden suggested the Corps instead construct underpasses at the busy intersections to assure safety and convenience for motorists.

The most controversial underpass was for the Bloomfield Road bridge. The cost for a Bloomfield Road underpass will be particularly high because of a steep grade of the creek channel, and the city had recommended a signalized crosswalk instead.

But Gooden and a host of others successfully lobbied for the underpass, citing the need for a safe intersection at Bloomfield.

"I think the primary benefits of the trail in the first place are the safety for the cyclists and runners and safety and convenience for the motorists," he said.

"I drive through town too, and nobody wants to be inconvenienced by more crosswalks and stops. The Bloomfield bridge situation is a classic example."

Gooden said he also would like to see the city add trails to at least a portion of Walker Branch. He said a trail from Cape Rock Drive to Broadway would be ideal.

Even if the Walker Branch trail is never built, Gooden said the fitness trail along Cape LaCroix Creek, connecting Shawnee Park and Arena Park with a detention reservoir site north of the city, will greatly enhance the city.

"Anything they will do will be a vast improvement for the walkers, runners and cyclists," he said. "So many people are walking now for exercise, and this would be something that a lot of people will benefit from.

"It's going to be such a long run north to south that you'll pretty much get through the city on the trail."

Some of the groups that also have been proponents of the trail system are the Velo Girardeau Bicycle Club and the Cape Road Runners.

Now that construction on the flood-control project has started, Gooden said people who voted for the sales tax are able to see their tax dollars at work. The project is expected to be completed within three years.

"It's nice for people to see," he said. "All of us who voted for a tax increase, it's nice for everybody to see that the project's under way."

The trail portion of the project will put Cape Girardeau at the forefront of a move nationwide of what Gooden calls "linear parks."

"Recreation people will tell you that the largest growth area in recreational facilities is in what they call a linear park," he said.

"The significance is accessibility. The more linear feet you have, the more people can get to it. I see more and more of this kind of park being developed, and Cape Girardeau's getting in on it ahead of a lot of other cities."