CITY COMMITS FUNDS TO 8-66 LOBBY EFFORT

The federal government has no plans to build Interstate 66, but if it does, the Cape Girardeau City Council will commit $10,000 to lobby government officials to route the interstate through the city.

The council Monday night unanimously approved money for the lobbying effort.

Lobbyist Walter Wildman, Jackson Mayor Paul Sander and 2nd District County Commissioner Max Stovall had met with Mayor Al Spradling III, asking him to propose funding for the lobbying effort.

The proposal is for Cape Girardeau to give $10,000, Jackson $5,000, the county $10,000 and business $25,000, with the $50,000 going into a special city account for lobbying purposes.

Wildman has lobbied for 10 years to get Congress and state governments to endorse the proposed coast-to-coast highway.

Interstate 66 would run from Norfolk, Va., to somewhere in California, with its farthest west point so far as St. George, Utah. The largest city it would serve would be Wichita, Kan.

Wildman said if Congress decided to build the highway, it would be the first that doesn't connect any large cities.

Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Utah have all studied possible routes through their states. Wildman said possible configurations could cross the Mississippi River at Wickliffe, Ky., over the I-57 bridge or over the Bill Emerson Bridge now under construction in Cape Girardeau.

Spradling said the $10,000 would go to lobby for the last alternative.

"It's such an important issue for the future of Cape Girardeau to bring that road from Paducah through Cape Girardeau and Cape Girardeau County," he said.

Spradling had opposed committing money to the project years ago, but Wildman has brought the project farther than Spradling expected. He said I-70 and I-80 are overcrowded, and the federal government could build I-66 to divert traffic.

"I'd say there is a chance," Spradling said. "I don't know how big a chance. If we don't make the effort now, we'll lose."

In other business, the council gave first reading to a bill that shortens the length of time between a complaint about high weeds and when the city can cut them and make it easier for the city to charge property owners for its expenses in ridding a nuisance from the property, like high weeds.

It also passed a resolution accepting a $446,500 Community Development Block Grant to fix homes between Jefferson Avenue and Shawnee Parkway, east of Frederick Street. The money would pay for repairing 31 homes, removing lead paint from homes, building two new homes and helping one family buy a home. The city would make up its matching part of the grant by spending $92,594 on two-fifths of a mile in water lines, 980 feet of curb and gutter and 70 feet of sidewalk.