HIGH-WATER INSPECTION TRIP SET

Happenings along the lower Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans over the past six months will be discussed during the Mississippi River Commission's weeklong high-water inspection trip March 25-29.

Brig. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' lower valley division, will deliver a state of the valley report aboard the Motor Vessel Mississippi during four public-hearing stops between Cairo, Ill., and New Orleans.

During each hearing, commission and Corps members will meet with citizens, elected officials and members of levee, flood-control and drainage districts to discuss planned or ongoing projects in their areas.

The first public hearing will be held at Cairo at 8:30 a.m. March 25. A year ago the high-water inspection trip started at Cape Girardeau.

A number of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois representatives will be on hand for the Cairo hearing, which will be held aboard the vessel at the foot of the 8th Street levee downtown.

Other meetings scheduled include an 8:30 a.m. session at the Memphis, Tenn., riverfront March 26; a 9:30 a.m. meeting March 27 at Vicksburg, Miss., and the final meeting March 28 at Baton Rouge, La.

District engineers will report on the river and tributaries projects in their respective districts following presentations by public participants.

The Mississippi River Commission, organized in 1879, is composed of seven members, each nominated by the president of the United States. Three of the members are officers of the Corps, one member is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and three are civilians, two of them civil engineers.

The commission makes recommendations of policy and work programs, studies and reports on modifications or additions for flood-control and navigational projects, and makes two inspection trips each year.

The low-water inspection trips will be conducted in the fall.

The purpose of the public hearings are to keep an exchange of viewpoints and ideas flowing from the public to the Corps. Presentations by the public are made orally during the hearings, but a copy of the remarks must be presented to the commission for the official record.