JACKSON -- Residents of Dutchtown will weigh the benefits of town incorporation against formation of a levee district in the next step of a process they hope will result in construction of a flood-prevention levee.
Initially, residents were leaning towards forming a levee district. But Bud Obermann and Bob Moss, spokesmen at Dutchtown, said Tuesday that incorporation as a town may be more advantageous.
Dutchtown residents interested in building a levee met Tuesday with the Cape Girardeau County Commission.
A town meeting will be scheduled in the next few weeks for residents to express their opinions.
"There are so many things out there, funding possibilities, that you don't qualify for unless you're incorporated," Obermann said.
Moss and Obermann said they have been in contact with an attorney who is investigating the pros and cons of both possibilities. But they aren't rushing into a decision.
"We have no interest in incorporating if there is not a levee," Moss said. "If there is not a levee, there is not going to be a town."
Gerald Jones, presiding commissioner of the Cape Girardeau County Commission, said he was confident that a levee was possible. But questions remain about who will pay and where the money will come from.
The Corps of Engineers has received go-ahead for a feasibility study for a levee at Dutchtown, but it needs $8,000 in local money to continue.
The cost of the study, which would include examination of environmental and economic impacts, is $116,000. Federal regulations call for half the cost above $100,000 to come from a local sponsor that has taxing authority and can maintain a flood-control structure.
The local share of the completed structure would cost a minimum of $93,000. The Corps would pay the majority of costs with federal flood-control money.
Dutchtown residents and the Cape Girardeau County Commission are looking for ways to fund the local share.
While Dutchtown residents receive a direct benefit, Moss and Obermann said the entire region would benefit if highways 74 and 25 could remain open during floods.
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.
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