GROUP CONSIDERS HIGHWAY 60 PLAN TO LINK PADUCAH

A group of interested citizens calling itself the Close the Gap Committee met in Sikeston recently with lawmakers from Missouri and Kentucky to discuss improvements to Highway 60. Their ambitious plans would extend eastward as far as Paducah the four-laning of Highway 60 currently under way in southern Missouri. Necessarily involved would be the construction of a new bridge spanning the Mississippi River near Wickliffe, Ky., south of its confluence with the Ohio. This is certainly an ambitious goal. The motto of the Close the Gap Committee might well be "Make No Small Plans."

Completion of such an ambitious plan will be no easy task, a fact well known to committee members. They are aware of the fact that state and federal highway funding is scarce and, in most cases, already committed and over-committed to other worthy projects. Accordingly, promoters are asking that a feasibility study be undertaken that could answer whether construction and operation of a toll bridge would be feasible. Thus the presence of state lawmakers at last week's meeting: the creation of some form of bi-state compact to build such a bridge would probably require the passage of enabling legislation in both Kentucky and Missouri.

Speaking with characteristic bluntness, A Missouri Highway and Transportation Department commissioner from Cape Girardeau, John Oliver, said, "Great project, bad timing." He was referring to the scarcity of funding and the huge number of worthy projects to which the commission is already committed across the state.

Neither Oliver's comments nor anything said here should be taken as denigrating this project. Rather, promoters, who appear to have fastened on a worthy goal, should have no illusions about how difficult it will be to close the gap they have properly identified. But then, everyone knows that nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Citizens of both states can wish the promoters well and applaud their efforts.