COUNTY OFFICIALS, OTHERS TO VISIT POWER PLANT

JACKSON, Mo. -- The Cape Girardeau County Commission says its scheduled tour of a Kinder Morgan power plant in Colorado this week isn't a junket or a bribe.

"If I can be bribed for $400, then I am pretty damn cheap," said Gerald Jones, presiding commissioner.

Kinder Morgan Power Co of Lakewood, Colo., is footing the bill.

"It's not going to cost the county one cent," Jones said.

The company will fly all three county commissioners, two members of a group of concerned residents who live near where Kinder Morgan wants to build a power plant in Cape Girardeau County, and Mitch Robinson, the director of the Cape Girar-deau Area Industrial Recruitment Association, to the Denver area to tour the company's power plant at Fort Lupton, Colo.

The 272-megawatt, natural-gas- and steam-fueled power plant, built in 1992, is about half the size of the plant the company wants to build along Route U south of Crump, Mo. The plant would generate electricity that would be marketed to utility companies and distributed via a nearby AmerenUE substation.

The delegation will fly out of Cape Girardeau Wednesday, spend the night in Colorado and tour the Fort Lupton plant Thursday before returning home later in the day.

Jones said no one should mistake this trip as a junket. "It's out in the middle of the prairie. I don't get a ballgame or anything." he said.

Pollution worries

The proposed project has come under fire from Cape Girardeau County residents who worry that the plant could pollute the air and dry up their wells.

Cheryl Kieffer and Sharon Hanning live near the proposed plant and are members of a loosely knit group known as Cape Citizens Against Pollution that has been formed in response to the proposed project.

Both women are among the delegation that will tour the Colorado plant.

Kieffer said she and Hanning welcome the chance to see a Kinder Morgan plant in operation.

"There was a lot of mistrust. There are a lot of rumors and a lot of fears," she said.

But Kieffer doubts the trip will answer the concerns of area residents, particularly those worried that the proposed plant will drain their wells and force them to spend thousands of dollars to dig deeper wells.

The county commission is considering issuing bonds to construct and equip the $250 million power plant. Kinder Morgan would receive property tax breaks while paying back the bonds over 10 to 15 years.

John Gibson, Kinder Morgan's site development director, said the trip will help the commissioners better understand the power plant project.

Jones said it makes sense to see a similar plant in operation before making any decision about issuing bonds for a plant in Cape Girardeau County. He said they plan to photograph and videotape the Fort Lupton operation. Jones wants to see firsthand if the plant is noisy.