MISSISSIPPI RIVER: CORPS OF ENGINEERS PLANS FALL LOW WATER INSPECTION

The Corps of Engineers' inspection boat and towboat, Mississippi IV, will make its final annual low-water inspection trip from St. Louis to Morgan City, La., next week.

The boat will make two stops at Cape Girardeau: the first on Friday on the way to St. Louis and the second on Sunday as it heads downstream.

The Mississippi IV is scheduled to be retired early next year when its successor, Mississippi V, is commissioned by the Corps' Mississippi River Commission. When commissioned, the Mississippi V will be the fifth in a line of Corps inspection vessels bearing that name. They date to 1882.

The Mississippi V is now under construction at a Moss Point, Miss., shipyard. It is scheduled to be launched in October, said a commission spokesman at Vicksburg, Miss.

The Mississippi IV will leave St. Louis Sunday for the daylong trip to Cape Girardeau, arriving here at approximately 5 p.m. It will leave Cape Girardeau later Sunday for Cairo, Ill., where the first of four public meetings will be held by members of the Mississippi River Commission.

The Cairo meeting will be held Monday at 9 a.m. aboard the boat. Later meetings also are scheduled at Memphis, Vicksburg, and Morgan City, La.

There will be no public hearing at Cape Girardeau this year. The last public meeting held here aboard the Mississippi IV was in April 1990.

The series of public meetings are held twice each year, in the spring high-water and fall low-water seasons, so members of the commission keep in touch with people on Corps projects.

Each meeting will include a State of the Valley Report and presentations. In addition, district engineers will report on Mississippi River and tributaries projects in their respective districts.

The commission was organized by an act of Congress in 1879. It is composed of seven members, each nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate.

The commission is charged by Congress with making recommendations of policy and works programs dealing with flood control and navigation on the Mississippi River and its major tributaries.

The commission's area of responsibility is the valley of the Mississippi from Cape Girardeau to the Gulf of Mexico.