COMMERCE MAYOR SAYS `NO' TO RIVER TRAFFIC

COMMERCE -- Roy Jones says he is probably the most powerful mayor in America, certainly the most powerful along the Mississippi River.

Jones, mayor of Commerce, refuses to give the U.S. Coast Guard permission to resume river traffic past his town of 173 people 16 miles south of Cape Girardeau.

Jones wants some assurance townspeople and their homes won't be hurt by the wake of passing boats or that a buyout offer is in the works.

"Until the river gets to 41.5 at the Cape Girardeau gauge, no boats," he said. "If they do, we will file suit against the Coast Guard." The Mississippi River was at 45.2 feet Friday on the Cape Girardeau gauge.

The Coast Guard has other ideas.

Warrant Officer Hugh Newsom with the Traffic Information Center in St. Louis said the Coast Guard hopes to have limited river travel in place within the next two or three days. Test tows will be run in the closed areas before the river would be opened to regular traffic.

"During that test period, levee observers will be posted to ensure wakes are not destroying levees during test tows," Newsom said.

Lt. Commander Eric Mosher with the Coast Guard in Paducah, Ky., said Friday the river was still too high to reopen for traffic.

The Paducah office will decide when to open the river from Cairo to Cape Girardeau. But decisions about the river north of Cape Girardeau are made in St. Louis.

In Paducah, Mosher said, "The river won't reopen without Commerce knowing about it. We'll be in contact with the mayor and he'll be in the loop in that decision-making. We really want to involve the communities in this decision."

Mosher said Commerce was one of the driving forces to close the river in the first place. The Corps of Engineers also approached the Coast Guard about closing the river because of saturated levees that could be damaged by wake from river traffic.

Barges are backing up at Cairo and St. Louis. About 72 tows with more than 1,000 barges are waiting near Cairo to travel upstream. Another 1,000 barges are stalled near St. Louis, waiting to move downriver.

Sitting on the recently flood-covered deck outside his Commerce home, Jones has daily telephone conversations with Coast Guard personnel in Paducah.

Jones said the Coast Guard proposed stringing a line of empty barges in front of Commerce to protect the flooded homes from the wake of river traffic. He said no, fearing one of those protective barges could break loose and crash into the houses of Commerce.

On May 21, as the river was being closed, a tow of barges passed Commerce. The wake from the boat damaged several houses, including knocking down a sandbag levee around one house, Jones said.

He plans to file suit against the barge company involved, which is another reason to stall barge traffic past the community. If other boats start creating wakes and damage, it would be impossible to determine what damage was caused by what boats.

The 205-year-old village of Commerce is among the hardest hit by this year's flooding. The water is higher than in 1993 because the Ohio River is flooding. The Ohio is open to river traffic.

Floodwater in 1993 covered two steps on Jones' deck. This year, the water lapped at his door. The deck was covered by floodwater.

In addition to his struggle with the Coast Guard, Jones has been telephoning and writing politicians from the Scott County commissioners to President Clinton.

"Yes, I wrote the president a letter," he said. "I told him we need help."

After the 1993 flood, three of the five members of Commerce's board of trustees voted against a federal buyout. The three people who voted against the buyout no longer serve on the board. The new board, Jones said, would welcome a buyout proposal.