COUNTY ASKED TO PICK BETWEEN OAK RIDGE, JACKSON I-55 INTERCHANGE

JACKSON -- Two Cape Girardeau County towns along Interstate 55 want interchanges, but only one will get an interchange during the next 20 years.

Oak Ridge area residents say one was planned at Route E before the interstate ever was completed, but the plan was ignored. Now Route E runs over I-55 with no way on or off, and Oak Ridge residents wait to see if talk of inclusion in the state's highway and transportation commission's 20-year plan will hold true.

Meanwhile, Jackson city officials are busy with the East Main extension. Phase one, currently under construction, runs from Jackson's downtown to an outlying subdivision. Phase two, slated for completion in 10 or 15 years, would take East Main to I-55, but that portion would be worthless without an interchange once it got there.

Cape Girardeau County commissioners think they are being asked to make the call, deciding where the highway commission does its work.

At Thursday's meeting, Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said he had received a call Tuesday from District 10 Manager Jim Murray, who reportedly asked him to prioritize the Oak Ridge and Jackson projects.

"If we pick Jackson, they will take Oak Ridge off the plan, and it will be 20 years before Oak Ridge gets an interchange," Jones said. "If we do nothing, someday they may put one at Oak Ridge."

Commissioners Larry Bock and Joe Gambill said it was a move by the highway commission to abdicate responsibility, and Bock said the highway commission was in place so politics would be removed from transportation decisions.

A stack of correspondence on the issue showed past county commissions heartily endorsed both projects. In September 1990, the county commission sent a letter to Oak Ridge School Superintendent Roger Tatum expressing approval of the Highway E interchange.

Then, in September, Highway Commission Vice President John Oliver wrote a letter to Jackson's city attorney, David Beeson. The letter said the highway commission was stuck on the Jackson interchange project because the county commission wouldn't make it a priority over Oak Ridge.

Later that month, the county commission also endorsed the Jackson project, but didn't say it should have top priority.

Tatum, a longtime supporter of a Highway E interchange near Oak Ridge, wrote commissioners on Sept. 22 to remind them Oak Ridge's interchange had been promised from the start but never completed.

The matter was quiet for eight months, until Tuesday's call from Murray.

County commissioners voted to send him a letter saying the highway commission should continue to do the prioritizing.

Murray was away from the office for a family emergency Thursday, and a receptionist said he wouldn't be back until Monday.

Oliver said it wasn't unusual to ask for input from government officials before making decisions, and their comments would be vital to both projects.

"It is always possible the highway commission could take their lack of response as a lack of interest," he said. "If that is how it is perceived, whatever money might go to an interchange in Cape County might go someplace else."

The highway commission's next meeting will be June 5, but Oliver said the county commission could request more time to choose which interchange it feels is more important.

Jones and the other commissioners want to wait for more information about traffic counts, economic impact and other related issues.

"When we wanted something as simple as a light at County Park, they wouldn't give it to us," Jones said. "But then comes something where there is a lot of heat, and they say, `Can you sell out Oak Ridge so we can put Jackson on our 20-year plan?'"