OFFICIALS WEIGH I-66 GIVING

Local officials haven't decided if they will pay $25,000 to Walt Wildman to lobby for an east-west interstate route that the state's top transportation official doesn't support.

Cape Girardeau County's presiding commissioner and the mayors of Cape Girardeau and Jackson said they don't know when they will act on the issue.

Wildman has been lobbying for a proposed Interstate 66 for years in his role as head of I-66 Project Inc. He runs the lobbying effort out of his Cape Girardeau home.

The Cape Girardeau City Council voted in August to contribute $10,000 to Wildman's efforts, provided the county puts in $10,000, Jackson allocates $5,000 and private donations total $25,000.

Wildman said I-66 supporters have raised $28,700. All but $1,000 of that has been put into a fund administered by the city of Cape Girardeau. The $1,000 has been kept by the I-66 task force in Illinois to pay for expenses associated with the highway effort in Illinois, Wildman said.

But even with the private donations, the top officials in the Cape Girardeau area aren't ready to write any checks to Wildman.

"We haven't done a thing," Gerald Jones, Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner, said Monday. "I think everybody is approaching this with a great amount of caution," he said.

Jones said he favors the state's plan to improve Highway 34 to a "super two" lanes and would like to see a highway constructed that would provide a direct route from Cape Girardeau to Paducah, Ky.

But he said he doesn't know if the proposed I-66 is the answer.

Like Jones, Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Jackson Mayor Paul Sander welcome highway improvements for the area. All three said their focus is strictly local; they have little interest in the concept of I-66 as a coast-to-coast highway.

"I am not interested in what happens in Virginia. I am not interested in what happens in California," Sander said. "I don't think there is a more progressive city around than Jackson."

He said Jackson city officials want road improvements but don't want to waste taxpayers' money on lobbying for a project that has little or no chance of success.

Sander said some funding decision needs to be made by the three local governments.

Spradling said his city won't commit to the lobbying effort unless Jackson city officials and the Cape Girardeau County Commission put up their share of funds.

Still, Spradling feels the lobbying effort has merit. He said local officials shouldn't give up on the highway project just because it doesn't have the support of state transportation officials.

Spradling said the area would benefit from an east-west highway to Paducah, Ky., that would make use of the Mississippi River bridge under construction at Cape Girardeau.

"We certainly should be out there trying," he said. "If we don't try something we can guarantee we won't get it."

But Joe Mickes, chief engineer of the Missouri Department of Transportation, said in September that the state has no plans to route an interstate through Cape Girardeau and down the Highway 34 corridor to Van Buren.

He said his agency found the Cape Girardeau route would be the most expensive of several possible interstate routes. Highway 60, much of which is already four lanes, offers the most likely route for an interstate from Paducah to Springfield, Mo., Mickes said.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission in September expressed support for a Highway 60 route for I-66.

Wildman asked to appear before the commission to urge the state to keep an open mind about the possibility of constructing an interstate along the Highway 34 corridor. But the commission refused to put him on the Nov. 7 agenda.

In an Oct. 9 letter to Wildman, Commission Chairman Tom Boland said Missouri has limited funds for highway projects and "we see no benefit in pursuing this issue further at this time."

Wildman said he had decided to withdraw his request to appear before the commission prior to receiving the letter.He said he had decided against speaking to the commission in the absence of Mickes, who has been ill.

Wildman said he wants Spradling or other local officials to carry the cause before the highway commission. "I am looked at there as a hired gun and I understand that," he said.

DONATIONS FOR I-66 LOBBYING EFFORTS

Donations for lobbying efforts in support of the Interstate 66 project total $28,700. All but $1,000 is in a fund administered by the city of Cape Girardeau; the $1,000 is in an account for the I-66 Illinois task force administered by Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Ill.

The donors, amounts and dates given:

--Southeast Missouri State University, $1,000, March 26

-- Health Services Corporation of America, $5,000, March 26

-- Delta Asphalt, $3,000, March 26

-- Ford & Sons Funeral Home, $250, April 1

-- Southeast Missourian/Concord Printing Services, $1,000, April 16

-- Drury Management Group, $1,000, April 16

-- Rust & Martin, $250, April 23

-- Boatmen's Bank, $1,000, April 28

-- Union Planters Bank, $1,250, April 29

-- Rust & Martin, $250, May 5

-- Crader Distributing Co., $200, June 6

-- Southeast Missouri Hospital, $1,000, July 16

-- First National Bank, $500, Aug. 5

-- Union Planters Bank, $1,000, Aug. 27

-- Players Riverboat Casino, $5,000, Sept. 3

-- Delta Express, $1,000, Oct. 6

-- NationsBank, $1,000, Oct. 6

-- Southern Illinois local of Laborers Union of North America, $5,000, Oct. 31