CORPS OF ENGINEERS CONSIDERS NEW LEVEE

Hopes for a levee to protect Dutchtown from flooding have been rekindled by the Corps of Engineers.

The Corps has received the go-ahead to do a feasibility study for a levee, but it needs $8,000 in local money to continue.

Cost of the study, which would include examination of environmental and economic impacts, is $116,000. Federal regulations call for $8,000 from a local sponsor, which must have taxing authority and be able to provide maintenance of the completed flood-control structure.

The local price tag for the completed levee is estimated at $400,000.

Members of the Cape Girardeau County Commission will meet Sept. 29 with representatives from Dutchtown, highway departments, existing levee districts, state and federal offices in hopes of finding a way to fund that $400,000.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said: "This needs to be done. Now we have to figure out how it can be done and how we can all participate."

County commissioners heard Monday from a representative of the Corps, Larry Sharp. Two Dutchtown residents, Bob Moss and Bud Obermann, also attended.

Jones asked Moss and Obermann if residents of Dutchtown have considered incorporating or forming a levee district.

"What are the residents willing to do?" Jones asked. "Are they willing to form a levee district? Maybe it would generate enough money only to do maintenance. I don't want to be in the levee ownership business."

Moss said such discussions would have been premature if the project wasn't moving ahead. They said a meeting will be scheduled with Dutchtown residents before Sept. 29.

Highway 74 has been closed by flooding four times in the past three decades: 1973, 1983, 1993 and 1995.

In 1993 and 1995 temporary gravel and sandbag levees were constructed in the middle of Highway 74 at Dutchtown. In 1995 the levee extended about 2,000 feet east of the Highways 74-25 intersection and cost about $45,000.

Following the 1995 flood, the Cape Girardeau County Commission said constructing the temporary levee was too expensive to do again and requested the Corps consider a permanent flood-control project for Dutchtown.

About 44 residences, a handful of businesses and some farmland would receive direct benefit from a flood-control project. But Obermann said the region benefits by keeping Highway 74 and Highway 25 open during flooding.

Moss predicted that the future will see increased traffic on Highway 74 as it ties in with the new Mississippi River bridge route in Cape Girardeau.

"The future lies west," Moss told the commission. "And 74 is a major corridor."

Already traffic along Highway 74 is increasing. In 1993, daily traffic count for eastbound traffic was 6,317. In 1996, the traffic count was 8,107.

"There is no practical detour for 74," Moss said.

A preliminary look at the project calls for a levee tying in with an existing levee west of Highway 25, crossing the highway and continuing east through farmland parallel to Highway 74. As few as three property owners could be involved, Obermann said.

Sharp said if the project gets local funding within the next few months, construction could begin in 2000.

TRAFFIC COUNTS

Daily traffic counts for Highway 74 eastbound:

1993 -- 6,317

1994 -- 6,570

1995 -- 8,059

1996 -- 8,107