TINY COMMERCE HAS SOME BIG IDEAS FOR DRAWING TOURISTS TO THE BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI

Some people in Commerce, the small, Scott County community that is repeatedly ravaged by Mississippi River flooding, have come up with an idea that will allow them to get something back from the river that has taken so much from the community.

Dixie Jane Johnson is heading up an effort to build a riverboat landing in hopes of attracting tourists. Johnson also plans to build a three-story building along the shore that would resemble a lighthouse. She would operate a restaurant on one floor and have a dance floor and pictures of old Commerce on another. The lighthouse would be on the top floor.

In addition, Joannie and Jerry Smith, who own a winery and Christmas store near town, are planning to open a restaurant in an arts and crafts house in the fall a block from the river. The Smiths also are interested in opening a jelly factory.

Another new business being planned is a restaurant and bar to be called Velma's Place. Kay Workman's mother and father had a place by the same name that burned down in Commerce in 1982.

Despite flooding, Commerce has the river in its favor. It sits right on the Mississippi and is unprotected by a levee or floodwall, the way all river towns were in years past.

That seems an ideal draw for river tourists.