MOTORISTS GET DIM VIEW OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER BRIDGE

Motorists traveling from Illinois get a dim view of the city at night.

Only one light burns on the west ramp of the Mississippi River Bridge at the end of Morgan Oak Street.

Seven other lights don't work.

One fixture is completely missing. The outside glass is broken around most of the old mercury vapor lights while pigeons have made homes in one or two of them.

Union Electric sends the monthly electric bill to the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department office in Sikeston.

Mike Perry, district maintenance and traffic engineer for the highway department's Sikeston office, said the department is paying the bill probably because it was originally done that way and never changed.

He said the department has not maintained the lights and has "no intention of doing so."

The problem is, no one seems willing to maintain the lights.

Steve Chapman, owner of Shawnee Electric in Cape Girardeau, roughly estimated repairing the lights at $14,000.

This would include the time, the eight light fixtures, poles, wiring and other materials with two men working three days and a boom truck for two days.

Additional costs could be incurred if the state demanded engineering plans.

Chapman said lighting the "Welcome" sign on Morgan Oak would probably be a simple project if the electrical wiring could be run above ground to the island. He expected that to cost about $1,100.

Perry said he knew the department was being billed for the navigation lights on the bridge. The meters for the bridge ramp lights and the navigation lights are on the same pole at 2 Morgan Oak St.

The ramp lights were on the bridge when the state took over its maintenance in 1957, Perry said, but he thought Cape Girardeau may have had an agreement with the power company to maintain the lights at one time.

But Emmett Baker, project coordinator for the Cape Girardeau public works department, said his department has never done anything with the lights. He thinks that anything on the bridge or the ramp wouldn't be the city's responsibility.

Perry said the department would work with groups, such as the chamber or city, to light the bridge ramp, but it wouldn't want to plan, design, build or maintain such a project.

"We would let someone else do it, but that means the whole thing," Perry said.

Kim Groves, group tour planner for the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau, said working lights on the bridge ramp would be a good idea.

"It would be very inviting to have a well-lit entry into the community," Groves said, adding that lights would also improve safety on the bridge.

Mary Spell, chairman of the Cape Girardeau chamber beautification committee, agreed the city's entrances should be well lit to make visitors feel welcome. Lighting would also add to motorists' safety and information, she said.

Spell said her group has recently discussed the possibility of lighting the "Welcome to Cape Girardeau" signs at four of the city's entrances. One of the signs sits in the island dividing Morgan Oak at the foot of the bridge.

Spell said lighting the signs will be discussed again at the March meeting. That fits into the goals of her committee and those of Vision 2000, she said, and is something they may be able to work on together this year.