MEETING ADDRESSES ROUTE E INTERCHANGE

OAK RIDGE -- If Bob Eisenhauer ever had any doubts that Highway E needs an interchange with Interstate 55, they ended a year ago when his daughter hurt her ankle in gym class at Oak Ridge High School.

The paramedics couldn't find a pulse in her ankle, so they called for a helicopter to take her to the hospital, Eisenhauer said. If there had been an interchange at Route E and I-55, two miles from the high school, the ambulance would have gotten there faster and not needed to call for the helicopter, he told more than 70 people assembled in the Oak Ridge High School cafeteria Tuesday night.

They were there for a meeting called by the Interstate 55-Route E Interchange Committee, a group Eisenhauer helped found a year and a half ago.

Eisenhauer, a letter carrier, member of the Oak Ridge Board of Education and committee member, plus two representatives from the Missouri Department of Transportation addressed the meeting.

Brenda Schoen, chairwoman of the committee, said the meeting was called to update the community on the status of the proposed interchange.

Lynelle Luther, project manager with the Missouri Department of Transportation in Sikeston, told the crowd that although people living near Oak Ridge first petitioned the government for the interchange in 1966, they won't get their intersection until at least 2000.

Luther said that all state-funded highway projects have been set through 1999. However, the state transportation department has not yet set priorities for 2000 and beyond. The department looks at safety and economic considerations and listens to other government officials in making its decision, she said.

If everything goes smoothly, it could be built in 2000, Luther said.

The best way to make sure this interchange is a top priority would be to lobby the Cape Girardeau County Commission and the Southeast Missouri Regional Economic Planning and Development Commission, she said.

The County Commission has already come out in support of the project.

Engineers at the department have already designed the intersection and estimated its cost at $2 million, Luther said.

"We know it's needed," Luther said. "You know it's needed. It's just an effort to fit it in with budgets."

Eisenhauer listed other reasons for building the interchange: It would aid economic development, cut travel times, ease congestion at the Biehle and Fruitland interchanges, and students at the local schools would spend less time on trips.

Everyone from the audience who spoke at the meeting supported the project. Most questions concerned how best to get the interchange built quickly.

Marvin McMillan, deputy chief of the North Cape County Volunteer Fire Department, asked whether distances between interchanges matter. "Most of them have six miles between them, while we have 12 miles," he said.

He said that makes response times 25 to 30 minutes longer than they need to be. "I've been there at accidents and I've waited a couple of times and I've seen what it can do," he said.

In an interview before the meeting, two audience members expressed some reservations about having a new interchange. Wendy Metzinger of Oak Ridge said she had "mixed emotions" because "I like the peace and quiet."

She said she fears the interchange could bring more traffic and development to the area. Her friend Marilyn Sedgwick added, "I'm afraid of the same thing that happened to Jackson" if the interchange were built.

But Stan Riehn said he wants the intersection "to go to Cape more easily. Everything you do for entertainment is in Cape."