LAKE: TALLY OF 500 VOTES SET TODAY

MARBLE HILL -- Bollinger County commissioners today will tally results of a straw poll to determine if county residents want a November election to decide the fate of a proposed recreational lake.

The $73 million project would create a lake that would span parts of Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties.

Response to the poll has been weak. Only about 500 residents had turned in ballots as of noon Saturday, said County Clerk Diane Holzum.

But Presiding Commissioner Elwood Mouser said Sunday that results of the poll will stand, even though few voted.

"I'd like to have (the lake issue) settled once and for all," he said. "There was never anything decided on the amount of votes needed, so whatever there is now, it will be final."

The county has a population of about 10,600, and a voter registration roll of 7,600. Officials have said the voter registration roll is high and needs to be purged of names that are no longer valid.

Mouser said he wasn't sure why more residents didn't vote in the straw poll. He said it's possible many residents just weren't interested in the issue. Ballots have been collected for nearly two weeks.

The commissioner said he wants the residents of the county to "call the shots" on the lake issue, and doesn't want the commissioners to decide the issue themselves.

"It should be decided by the people, not the commissioners," he said.

The commission plans to meet today at 9 a.m. at the courthouse to tally results of the poll. Mouser said the ballots have already been compared to the voter registration roll to determine validity. A few ballots were rejected because they were not submitted by registered voters, Mouser said.

It will probably take less than an hour to tally the votes, he said.

If a majority of the ballots are in favor of an election to determine if county residents want a sales tax to fund the lake, Mouser said county officials will schedule a November election.

If a majority are against a vote, the lake issue will be dropped, at least by Bollinger county officials, he said.

Mouser said he had expected between 2,000 and 3,000 residents to participate in the unofficial straw poll.

"It's lower than I figured, but whoever didn't vote can't complain (about the results)," he said. "They were given a chance."

The issue of whether county residents wanted the lake was dropped about nine months ago when the commission decided not to put a 1-cent sales tax, needed to fund the lake, to a vote.

Because of the action of the Bollinger County Commission, Cape Girardeau County officials did not proceed with a vote. The project has to be a joint one between the neighboring counties, officials have said.