County regains lost grant in hours

Cape Girardeau County saw $91,000 disappear and reappear -- at least tentatively -- all in the same day Monday.

At about 10 a.m., Stan Murray, the Hubble Creek project manager from the National Resource Conservation Service, walked into the commission chamber with bad news. As he handed each of the three commissioners a small packet of information, Murray told them a $91,000 state storm water grant for a crucial Hubble Creek erosion project was lost.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which OK'd the project in July, more recently determined its contracting procedures made it impossible to award a construction contract on the structure before February. But the county needs a contract in place by Dec. 31 in order to receive the $91,000 grant from the state Department of Natural Resources. The statutes, Murray says DNR officials told him, don't allow variances or extensions for grants.

As Presiding County Commissioner Gerald Jones listened, he grew angrier.

"This is not just bad news, it's devastating," he said. "I'm really, really, really unhappy."

Jones ordered Murray to talk to Tom Schulte at U.S. Sen. Kit Bond's office.

"Work a miracle," Jones told Murray.

'Tis the season.

By 2:30 p.m., officials from the Corps of Engineers said they could probably get the necessary paperwork done by the eve of 2005. The story shows how government works and sometimes doesn't.

The project hanging in the balance is the third of three Hubble Creek erosion structures. Work on the first of the three erosion-control structures began 3 1/2 years ago. The first two structures are completed but were built assuming a third structure would be constructed. If the third isn't built, the second structure and a nearby county bridge could be susceptible to storm water erosion, Murray said.

Over the decades, the creek has eroded at a rapid rate, and the structures were built to slow down the water's pace. The third structure, estimated to cost $259,000, has been in the works since May.

The project has two funding partners. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was to foot 65 percent of the bill. The state DNR, through a storm water grant, was going to cover $91,000.

Murray did the legwork for the county. He thought everything was on schedule until a corps official told him on Nov. 22 that a contract would be unlikely before the end of the year.

The corps said the acquisition process took longer than expected and conceded it had inadvertently omitted one of the required easements.

In a letter, the corps' project manager said the corps attempted to "mitigate" the mistake by recommending the use of construction rights of entry, which would take less time to acquire. However, the letter said, "once we reached the first of December, the requirements of our contracting procedures made it impossible to award the construction contract by the end of December. At this time, the earliest we could award the contract would be the first of February, 2005."

'Tremendously streamlined'

The corps' timetable changed sometime Monday.

"I tell you, there has been a big change here," Murray said. "I just can't believe how the events rolled out. It got tremendously streamlined."

Two conditions have not yet been met:

* Murray has to go to the landowners, explain what the "rights of entry" documents mean and get them to sign.

* The corps has to get a deal hashed out with a contractor.

Corps public affairs officer Alan Dooley said there is room for better communication and thinks the project can accomplished.

"I think perhaps maybe as late as last week, there was just not enough time, but based on conversations with the people we had today, we have every reason to believe it will all come together to prevent the loss of the state grant."

The project isn't secured yet, Dooley said. A lot of work has to be squeezed into 18 days.

But Murray was a whole lot happier by late afternoon than he was when he visited the commission a few hours earlier.

"Apparently it's Christmas Eve," he said. "Once we get the signatures, it'll be Christmas Day."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635