BRIDGE LIGHTS WILL BE A GREAT ASSET

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce has its work cut out in its campaign to raise more than $122,000 toward the cost of putting aesthetic lighting on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.

The lights, which the Missouri Transportation Commission approved for the bridge last month, will cost $432,000. The Federal Highway Administration will provide $310,810, and the chamber is responsible for the rest.

The chamber's Beautification Committee is handling the fund-raising effort and plans to ask for contributions from businesses and individuals. It has about two years to collect the money, and with such an ambitious undertaking from the start, should have little difficulty doing so.

The project in itself shows how the chamber and city can work together for the betterment of the community. Since the chamber couldn't get the federal money, city government handled the federal grant application. No city funds will go toward the lights, which will number 140 -- 32 on the bridge towers and the others on cables that will lead up the towers.

The four-lane Mississippi River bridge, scheduled for completion after the turn of the century, will be a great asset to the region and a showpiece when it is topped off with the lights.