LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the editor:

Recent discussions about the pressing need to save the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railroad raise three sets of important questions: economic, environmental and pragmatic.

The train has never been economically viable. With costs going up and riders going down, what reason is there to believe that this venture will ever be financially successful?

The impact of the train on our environment is decidedly negative. It is noisy and dirty, spewing fumes and ashes directly onto the homes and people close to the tracks and indirectly on the whole area. Do we need a fuller environmental-impact assessment?

The pragmatic question is who really benefits from the presence of the train? Do the restaurant and shop owners of Jackson see many tourist dollars from the train? Not likely.

It seems that if people wanted to contribute to a really worthy cause, they could donate a little money to buy fans or air conditioners for our older folks who suffer from the heat and cant afford the cost. Lets give some careful thought before we waste any more money on a dubious venture.

BOB GOZA

Jackson

LOOKING FOR FORMER NAVY CHUM IN WWII

To the editor:

My name is Wyatt Needham. I am 76 years old. I now live in El Paso, Texas. I have a very unusual and probably an impossible request. Between the years of 1943 and 1946 in World War II I was in the Navy with a young man named Red Grubb from Cape Girardeau. I do not recall his real first name.We became good friends and wound up in the invasion of Okinawa.

After our tour of duty there, we went our separate ways and never stayed in touch.Now I would like very muchto get in touch with him and was wondering if anyone there in Cape Girardeau might be able to help me. It has been so long, and our bunch is beginning to thin out. Thank you very much just for reading my story. My address is 10245 Bayo Ave., El Paso, Texas, 79925. My e-mail address is wneedham@elpasonet.net.

WYATT NEEDHAM

El Paso, Texas