HIGHWAY'S RESIDENTS WANT ROAD RAISED TO ELUDE FLOODS

Residents who live along Highway 177 are tired of taking detours because of flooding.

They want the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department to raise two short sections of the road high enough to keep the state route open when Mississippi River floodwaters back up into area creeks.

Concerned residents like Leta Bahn plan to discuss the issue at a meeting Tuesday night with area lawmakers and highway department officials. The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. at Nell Holcomb School.

The school is several miles north of Cape Girardeau, along Highway 177. Bahn lives just south of the school.

State Reps. David Schwab and Mary Kasten are expected to attend, along with State Sen. Peter Kinder.

"We are looking to make the best case we can and keep the heat on until we can get the improvements made," Sen. Peter Kinder said. "It's a shame it wasn't built higher, but we're trying to correct it."

Highway commissioner John Oliver Jr. of Cape Girardeau also has been invited.

Bahn said area residents have complained privately about the road problem for years. But she added, "This is the first time there has been any kind of organized group that says, `Hey, we are tired of this.'"

Highway 177 has been closed nine times in the past 23 years, Bahn said. Floodwaters closed the road for 54 days in 1993, three in 1994 and 24 days this year.

The highway reopened to traffic about a week ago.

Bahn said that only short sections of the highway flood. The largest section extends about a quarter of a mile, just north of the Cape Girardeau city limits. Another section farther north near Rolling Hills Subdivision extends about a tenth of a mile, she said.

The state route serves as a "life line" in the rolling hills north of Cape Girardeau, she said.

Many people use it to get to and from the sprawling Procter & Gamble Co. plant, one of the area's largest employers.

The highway is used by Nell Holcomb school buses and the fire trucks of the East County Fire Protection District.

Bahn wants a good turnout Tuesday night. "I hope that the people who travel the road will speak up," she said.

Just holding the meeting is something of a victory, she said. "We feel, at least, people are going to listen and study the situation."

The meeting is just the first step on a very long road, Kinder said. The project may be dependent on federal disaster money, he added.