COUNCIL TO TAKE UP EDA GRANT AT MEETING TODAY

The Cape Girardeau City Council will hold an emergency session at noon today to meet a deadline for flood project assistance from the Economic Development Administration.

The project involves upgrading a water-intake structure and providing an emergency power supply for Water Plant No. 1. The EDA will pay $729,750 and the city will provide $243,250 to complete the project.

The emergency council session is necessary because the EDA requires city council approval within 45 days of the time the application was signed.

The next council meeting is not scheduled until Oct. 10. The EDA application was signed in August. Thus the emergency meeting was deemed necessary to meet EDA requirements.

The EDA has already approved a project that will elevate the access road to the waste-water treatment plant. LaCruz, Third and Cooper streets would be elevated from South Sprigg 350 feet above sea level for a distance of about 2,000 feet.

This project costs $522,600. The EDA will fund $392,000 and the city will pay $130,600.

Waste-water treatment plant manager Steve Cook said the elevation of the access road will eliminate a problem he had to deal with during the flood of 1993. "It should make the road accessible during most flood situations even when the river gets as high as 41 feet," said Cook. "Our workers won't have to worry about going to work in boats the way they had to during the flood last summer."

During the spring and summer of 1993, there were three periods of major flooding on the Mississippi. The river was above flood stage from March 6 through Oct. 12. During a period of 103 days, the river was 6 feet above flood stage in Cape Girardeau. On Aug. 8, the river reached a record crest in Cape Girardeau of 48.5 feet on the local gauge.

A diesel-powered generator will be installed at the treatment plant along with the necessary circuitry to supply electrical power to the flood pump when the primary source of electrical power is not available.

Getting the grant money for emergency power and backup power should keep the treatment plant from being shut down during flood conditions.

"Now we've got plenty of standby power for the treatment plant, which is important during a flood," said Cook. During power outage situations the plant operators immediately shut and open valves that bypass as much of the effluent coming into the plant as possible.

An electric generator had to be rented to power the flood pumps. If a generator was not available, diesel pumps had to be rented.

However, the diesel pumps are not as efficient as the flood pumps and do not keep up with the flow coming in unless several pumps are used.

"Availability of the pumps is always a concern," said Cook. "Now we won't have to worry about that."