East Main Street, interchange dedicated in pair of ceremonies

He's been out of public office since May, but former Jackson mayor Paul Sander's name was among the most-mentioned at two transportation dedications Monday.

Jackson Mayor Barbara Lohr said she kept her remarks and thanks brief to give Sander, her predecessor, the stage at the East Main Street ceremony.

"This was his day," she said, the culmination of hundreds of hours of meetings over 14 years. Immediately after the East Main ceremony, city officials traveled on the newly dedicated road to attend a ribbon cutting for the East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue interchange at Interstate 55.

Sander started the drive to extend East Main Street to I-55 as soon as he became mayor in 1993 after being an alderman for seven years.

"At times during the whole process, I wasn't sure it would happen at all," he said. "I didn't understand how much it would cost, really. I'm thankful the other partners emerged."

Those other partners included MoDOT, the city and county of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri State University, U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and former senator Jim Talent. McCaskill, Bond and Emerson sent representatives to Monday's interchange dedication.

Big plans

What started as a $1.2 million project to extend East Main Street to I-55 drew an additional $10 million, which paid for the $8 million interchange and will pay $1.2 million to the cities of Jackson and Cape Girardeau to build streets paralleling I-55. City engineers are already working on initial planning for Jackson's Orchard Road and Cape Girardeau's Lewis and Clark Parkway.

Dumey Contracting Inc., which won the $8 million contract to build the East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue. interchange at exit 102, was praised for rapid work. The original contract provided two years for the work; Dumey will finish months ahead of the June 2008 deadline, despite a series of weather-related delays. MoDOT engineer Mark Shelton praised the company for "focus, intensity and desire" in beating the deadline.

Fronabarger Concreters Inc. of Oak Ridge, Mo., and Kluesner Construction Inc. of Kelso, Mo., were hired to extend East Main Street, a $1.2 million project that included foundational work, clearing land, excavating rock, constructing a box culvert and installing storm-water controls, water and sewer lines, in addition to concrete paving of the four-lane boulevard roadway and sidewalks.

'A historic day'

Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson, in his remarks at the MoDOT interchange dedication, acknowledged that his city "was a little bit behind" in seeing the value of a new interchange. As he spoke, a water truck rumbled by on the pavement outside a red-and-white tent set up to shelter attendees from the chilly weather.

Without Jackson's foresight, he said, "we would not be here today. It's a historic day for our entire region."

Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner Gerald Jones echoed many speakers in praising the hard-won cooperation of all the entities involved.

"We think this is going to improve the quality of life for the people of Cape Girardeau County, and that's the bottom line," he said.

Sander, Lohr, Knudtson and others said the roads and freeway access are critical to the area's economic development.

Bob Burns, speaking for McCaskill, told the crowd of more than 50, "20 years from now, this place will look like St. Louis."

Knudtson later said he didn't necessarily agree with Burns' "rather bold statement."

"We want to be progressive. We want to maintain ourselves as a regional hub," he said.

Up to developers

John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, said providing an environment for future development is critical.

"What you need for economic development is the infrastructure," said Mehner after the dedication. "That's what this interchange represents."

Lohr called the day "a wonderful Christmas gift" to the community.

She said the next step is up to developers.

"The property owners, I think, are ready and anxious for them to get started," she said, adding that the city's job will be offering support. What form the support will take, she said, depends on negotiations with individual developers.

Megan Jansen, a second-grader who missed school to watch her grandmother, Lohr, speak at the dedication, left clutching a scrap of the red ribbon officials cut to dedicate the interchange.

The day was, she said with shining eyes, "awesome."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127