MAYOR AGAINST `NO PARKING' ON KAGE HILLS DRIVE

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Mayor Gene Rhodes said Monday he believes parking should not be prohibited on Kage Hills Drive.

Eleven of the street's 16 residents last month sent a petition to City Hall asking that a law prohibiting parking on the street be repealed. The council gave final approval to the no-parking law at its Dec. 19 meeting.

But at Monday's study session, Rhodes said some of the residents have told him the parking ban prevents them from entertaining friends and family members.

"I have to say I agree with them," the mayor said. "They paid for the dog-gone street."

But City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said the street is too narrow to allow for safe traffic flow when cars are parked there.

Assistant City Manger Al Stoverink said residents of the neighborhood met before the street was built and decided to save money by building a more narrow route.

"The decision to go to a narrower street was to keep costs down, and to do that you have to restrict parking," Stoverink said.

Fischer said Police Chief Howard ("Butch") Boyd Jr. is investigating to determine whether parking could be allowed on one side of a portion of the southern end of the street that's wider than the rest.

The council also discussed whether to return to two meetings monthly instead of four. The council last year agreed to conduct, on an interim basis, study sessions on the first and third Mondays of each month and regular voting sessions the first and third Wednesdays.

Councilman Al Spradling III said Monday he favors a return to combined study and voting sessions on the first and third Mondays of each month. He said the interim agreed to last year will expire in February.

"I don't think we've had any substantial benefit or detriment between two meetings every two weeks and one meeting every two weeks," Spradling said.

Councilman David Limbaugh said he favored going back to two meetings a month.

But Councilman Mary Wulfers said there sometimes is too much material to discuss in a two-and-one-half-hour study session.

"There's times when there's so much on the agenda that it's almost impossible to start the (regular meeting) at 7:30," she said. "Is there any way to just go through the study session and start the regular meeting afterward (regardless of the time)?"

But Councilman David Barklage said the City Charter requires that regular council meetings be held at an established time.

Rhodes said reverting to combined study and voting sessions might be a problem when controversial items or those that warrant considerable deliberation are on the agenda.

Spradling said when those types of issues arise, special council meetings could be scheduled.

Limbaugh said, "At least then we're meeting out of necessity and not just because it's scheduled."

The council told the city staff that if the meetings are combined they should try to keep late "add-on" items off the agenda.

"We don't always have the time to consider it, and we just fly over them," said Rhodes. "Haste makes waste."

In other business, the council discussed the city's asphalt overlay project for gravel streets. Rhodes told Fischer that the city in the past "couple of years" hasn't used the full $150,000 it has allocated for the overlay program. He said that only about $80,000 to $90,000 of overlay work was done last year.

Fischer said the city each year plans for $150,000 in overlay projects, but on some streets a majority of residents aren't willing to be tax-billed for the improvements.

City Engineer J. Kensey Russell said last year's overlay work was less expensive than first anticipated.

Rhodes suggested the staff include alternates in the program each year to assure the full appropriation is used.

Also at Monday's meeting, Chief Building Inspector Steve Williams presented a report on the city's latest Community Block Grant Development Program application. The program provides grants to eligible cities for renovation of older homes and neighborhoods.

Williams said the city previously qualified for four projects as part of the program in south Cape Girardeau and the Red Star area. He said the latest application is for southeast and south-central Cape, in the area of College and Jefferson streets.

The total grant application for the program is for $800,000, which includes $570,000 for housing rehabilitation and $230,000 for sewer improvements. The city's funding match for the program will be $330,000, of which $270,000 will go toward the sewer improvements.