BOLLINGER COUNTIANS BEGIN LAKE POLL

MARBLE HILL -- Bollinger County officials have begun collecting ballots that apparently will decide the fate of a proposed Cape-Girardeau-Bollinger counties recreational lake.

An informal straw poll, being conducted at the suggestion of Presiding Bollinger County Commissioner Elwood Mouser, is asking county voters if they want the lake issue to be decided in a November election.

Results of the poll will be tabulated in about two weeks by county commissioners, said assistant Bollinger County Clerk Teresa Johnson.

If a majority of respondents vote no, the lake issue will not be pursued further in Bollinger or Cape Girardeau counties, said Lake Committee Chairman Charles Haubold.

"The issue will be dead again, according to my understanding," Haubold said.

Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep agreed.

"The fact remains we're at their mercy," Huckstep said. "Both parties from day one have had to agree, and in this case both counties have to agree."

Ballots were available beginning Friday at the Bollinger County Courthouse, said Johnson. She said about 10 people came in to fill out and submit a ballot Friday.

A copy of the ballot also appeared in Thursday's edition of the Marble Hill Banner-Press, a weekly publication. All ballots are to be turned into the county clerk, Johnson said.

The ballot reads: "Should Bollinger County put the sales tax-lake question on the ballot in November 1991?"

Voters are required to sign the ballots before they turn them in and signatures will be compared to the county's voter registration roll, Johnson said.

There are about 7,600 voters listed on the county's registration roll, which represents about 72 percent of the county's total population, according to County Clerk Diane Holzum.

Holzum told the Southeast Missourian last week the roll hasn't been updated for at least four years, and Mouser said the roll was inaccurate and names need to be removed.

While Huckstep and Haubold declined to predict the outcome of the straw poll, both said there is no way to ensure the poll's accuracy, especially because the county's voter registration roll is incorrect.

"It's hard to imagine that 7,600 people out of a little over 10,000 really should be registered to vote," Huckstep said. "There is no system of checks and balances to this poll. I don't think it will be accurate, but we don't have a say in that."

Haubold said all the lake committee ever asked for from Bollinger County officials is a fair and accurate count of how many county residents favor and how many are against the lake project.

"If they feel it is fair and accurate, then they will be satisfied. But there will be no way to tell" if the poll will accurately reflect county residents' opinions about the lake, he said.

One member of the lake committee, Kenneth Englehart of Bollinger County, fears the straw poll will mean the death of the lake.

"I feel the people have the right to vote at an election," he said. "That's the way to decide things. Not by straw polls.

"I'm so disappointed that they're using this technique," Englehart said. "It's just apparently our commissioners are not willing to make a difficult decision. They wanted to get it off their back."

He believes the poll will not accurately reflect the feelings of Bollinger County residents.

"Opponents of the lake regard this as a victory. People opposing the lake are more apt to respond," he said. "Naturally I don't think it will have any high degree of validity."

In a June 25 meeting of the lake committee, officials originally decided the poll would ask if the lake issue should be put on the November ballot, and also if the respondent is in favor of a 1-cent sales tax to finance the $73 million project.

Huckstep said that because Cape County officials had no say in the way the poll was conducted, and don't have the power to accept or reject its results, their hands are tied.

"This is not a bona fide process where they will be able to find out who is against it and who is for it," he said. "I think frustrating is about the best word you could use."

He said if Cape County Commissioners had sensed opposition from Bollinger County concerning the lake issue two and-a-half to three years ago, the county would have never invested so much money into feasibility studies and planning measures for the lake.

So far, Cape County has spent about $80,000 on lake project planning while the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson have contributed about $20,000 each. The city of Marble Hill has contributed about $3,000.

"If we had had this indication of a negative opinion from county officials back then, we probably would have never gone to the expense we did," he said, adding that there was no organized opposition in Bollinger County to the lake project until about 18 months ago.

Huckstep said the straw poll likely "won't resolve anything.

"They should have had an election; then it would be legal," he said.