OPPONENENTS HOLD MEETING ON STRATEGY

MILLERSVILLE -- Opponents of a lake project hope to kill a bill in committee today before it reaches the state Senate floor and gives new life to the project.

About 120 people, many of them property owners who live on the site of where the 7,700-acre Cape Girardeau-Bollinger counties lake would be put, planned their strategy Monday night at the Millersville School.

Led by a 13-member board of directors, the group is sending about 20 people to Jefferson City today to a hearing of the Missouri Senate's Local Government and Economic Development Committee.

A part of the committee hearing will discuss Sen. Peter Kinder's amendment to a 1990 law that would allow a proposed lake project to bypass the county commissions and go on the ballot if enough names can be gathered on a petition.

When the lake project and a 1-cent sales tax to support it was first proposed it never made it to the ballot because the Bollinger County Commission refused to endorse it in 1991.

Because proponents of the lake project will be speaking at the hearing, lake project opponent and property owner Ed Sebaugh said it is important that the committee hear both sides of the issue.

"It looks better," Sebaugh said. "It gives the committee a sense that there are a lot of people opposed to the legislation. They will decide if it is voted out of committee and if it is voted on by the Senate."

Sebaugh's wife and fellow group director Joan Sebaugh said even those who can't attend the meeting can contribute by calling the senators and voicing their opinions. She handed out the names, addresses and phone numbers of all the state senators.

"You can start calling tomorrow morning," she said. "We're trying to stop this thing in committee, but you might want to write all 34 senators if it gets out onto the Senate floor."

Jim Roche, opposition group president, told the gathering that it was time they made plans for the future. "Democracy starts right now at this school," he said. "It doesn't get anymore grass-roots than this."

The group opposes a number of issues associated with the lake project including: the power of eminent domain the lake authority would have to take land for the project and the potential loss of school revenue that would occur when property taxes drop.

Opponents also said the estimated $84 million project would cost more than the 1-cent sales tax that is included in the law to cover expenses.

Additional taxes would have to be raised to cover the cost of additional roads and bridges. Farmers in the area would also come under stricter Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, group members said.

State Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, sent out survey forms to property owners in the area. Since his congressional schedule does not allow him to attend the community meetings, he said he is trying to get information this way.

"Since the bill was up here I wanted to get some input from the people in the area," Schwab said in an interview Monday. "I thought this would just give me a little more of an accurate feel of how the people in that area actually feel about the lake."

The surveys were sent out last Monday and the returns are coming in "pretty hot and heavy," he said. "I'd say within a week and a half we should have a pretty good read."

"I don't know that I'd want to say that I'm opposed to the project," Schwab said. "I do have a concern about taking the property by eminent domain for recreation purposes.

"If everybody was willing and supported the lake, definitely I think there would be financial gain to the county," he said. "It would be quite a draw for us in this area."