COMMERCE AWAITS WORD ON BUYOUT

COMMERCE -- Mayor Roy Jones can see some irony in the consequences that befell the town of Commerce in the wake of the 1995 flood.

The new board of trustees was making plans to give the third oldest town west of the Mississippi River, established in 1790, a face lift a few months before the third flood in as many years nullified that decision.

"After years of trying to stay the same, this town was finally going to build a volleyball and basketball court in the park," Jones said.

"The Women's Club was going to donate playground equipment. It would have been the start of trying to make this place nice enough to look at when you sat out on your porch at night."

Jones said a town can never stand still. It either progresses or withers. "I'm afraid by trying to stay the same, the people have let things deteriorate over the years," he said.

Mother Nature has forced citizens of Commerce to face the hard truth, Jones said. The damage from this year's flood has been so extensive that a buyout from the Federal Emergency Management Agency seems imminent.

A buyout is the most practical, and likely the most economical solution.

"The government isn't going to spend $4 million to build a levee when it can buy the whole town out for $1.5 million," Jones said. "I don't see how it can go any other way, unless there were some way to build a levee," he said.

Jones expects to hear from FEMA in the next week or so.

Thus the town rich in history could very well be history in a matter of a few months.

Jones said barge companies, which lost an estimated $1.2 million each day floodwaters prevented them from using the river, might be willing to finance a levee to protect Commerce.

"The towboats had to sit for 24 days, so the barge companies lost around $30 million," Jones said. "I tried to get somebody from the barge companies to tell me why it wouldn't be smart to spend $4 million instead of $30 million, but I never got an answer on that."

Jones said a levee would enable Commerce to capitalize on its history the way Hannibal uses the notoriety of Mark Twain to lure tourists.

"It should have been done a long time ago," he said. "If you ask me this town wasn't destroyed overnight by a flood. It waited too long to move forward.

"People say they love this town too much to want to leave it," Jones added. "Well, if they love it so much, why did they let it deteriorate so much?"

The Commerce mayor, who has held that office for only three months, said he is ready to retire. The stress from the 1995 flood caused Jones to suffer a mild heart attack two weeks ago.

"It's just been too much in a short period of time," he said. "I just got my garden back to where it was one of the prettiest around, and then the water came up to my porch and wiped all of the flowers and things out."