COMMUNICATION AT HEART OF REGIONAL COOPERATION

A perfect example of a lack of regional cooperation occurred in Scott City Monday night. Cape Girardeau Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink approached Scott City aldermen and the mayor about extending water service from Scott City to the municipal airport and Nash Road industries. The reception - to say the least - was cool.

Stoverink asked that the Cape Girardeau city staff be allowed to sit down with Scott City officials to formally study the possibilities. Scott City leaders hesitated to even talk. The fact that Scott City leaders were hesitant reveals a real problem that both cities need to address.

One Scott City leader indicated part of the problem was that Cape officials didn't go through proper channels. Instead of approaching the entire council, the Scott City mayor should first have been contacted, and then the matter would have been discussed by the public works committee. Another problem was that Scott City leaders feared that they might have been pressured into doing something not beneficial for their city.

We understand Scott City's reluctance to "give away the store." It has made a considerable investment of extending water and sewer to its industrial park. Meanwhile, Cape Girardeau's Nash Road Industrial Park lacks such city amenities.

Certainly, Cape can proceed to provide for Nash Road without Scott City's help, by extending its main Ramsey Branch plant water line or by drilling an additional well, but the fact one of Scott City's water lines dead ends at their industrial park - just across the highway from the Nash Road development - makes cooperation between the two cities at least worthy of investigation.

There's no way to say at this point whether this project is feasible. But the two cities will never find out if they can't even sit down at a table and talk.

Securing water for the airport and industrial park would benefit Cape Girardeau. But a partnership would also benefit Scott City, which would gain additional revenues from the airport and Nash Road industries as paying customers. Secondly, the project could provide additional water for firefighters in the Scott City Industrial Park.

Apparently, however, hard feelings exist over the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association. Yes, it's true several Cape Girardeau council members felt the office should be located at the chamber office in Cape, which Scott City leaders didn't particularly appreciate. But when the money was approved by the Cape Girardeau Council, there were no strings attached.

The fact Scott City has a lesser voice in that organization has less to do with size than financial participation. Scott City has pledged $5,000 out of the organization's $150,000 budget. That's much less than the other participants. And the fact of the matter is Scott City has yet to pay its share.

Scott City has a record of cooperation with Cape Girardeau - especially in the area of police and fire. Last Thursday, while Cape Girardeau firemen were fighting a blaze in the Town Plaza area, a Scott City fire truck manned a Cape Girardeau fire station.

That's why the reception at Monday night's meeting was so surprising. If leaders of the region are truly interested in regional cooperation, we must put suspicion and old baggage aside. If communities aren't working together, they are ultimately working against each other, and that benefits no one. Open lines of communication are the only way we can work together.