Construction won't affect viewing of park lights display

A new entrance road at Cape Girardeau County Park North should be completed in time for motorists wanting to view the approximately 200 lighted displays that will once again decorate the park this Christmas season, county officials say.

The Holiday of Lights will be displayed nightly until 11:30 p.m., beginning Wednesday and running through Dec. 31. This marks the 16th year for the Holiday of Lights, sponsored by the county park board and county commission, which features lighted displays around the county park lake.

Businesses, organizations and individuals erect the lighted displays which range from Nativity scenes to Santa and his reindeer.

As for the county's Holiday of Lights, sightseers can look forward to traveling on the new entrance road on U.S. 61, across from Memorial Park cemetery.

Construction workers are finishing the road as part of the on-going, $4.89 million construction of a Missouri Department of Conservation nature center at the park.

Bruce Watkins, county parks superintendent, said the concrete work has been completed on the road and the shoulders paved in asphalt. "They are making every effort to get the new entrance road opened by Wednesday," he said.

If it's not, motorists will have to use the old entrance road to the east on U.S. 61, Watkins said. But even then it would only be a few days before the new entrance is completed, he said.

Construction of the nature center has forced the relocation of 26 Christmas displays and eliminated the official lighting ceremony featuring singers and a local dignitary to throw the switch that turns on the holiday lights.

Watkins said the ceremony was scrapped several months ago when the park board and county officials discovered they couldn't plan around the uncertainty of construction on the nature center project.

The new two-lane road will improve traffic safety along busy U.S. 61, Watkins said. The old entrance road sits atop a hill on U.S. 61, making it difficult for motorists trying to cross into and out of the park. "It is kind of a blind spot," he said.

That's been a major concern in past years when as 50,000 cars traveled around the lake and the lighted displays, Watkins said.

Some groups already have put up displays for this year and others are expected to go up this weekend, he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123