LETTERS: LAKE AREA HAS OWN BEAUTY

To the editor:

Regarding the Bollinger-Cape Girardeau counties lake issue: Voters of both counties must know the true facts before voting themselves another tax burden to finance this project.

Anyone who is unfamiliar with the countryside that would be destroyed by this project needs take the time to drive through this area and see the handiwork of Mother Nature the way it is today. This is not an abandoned strip mine hole. It is beautiful streams, valuable farmland and the homes of people, deer, wild turkey, rabbits, squirrels, bobwhite quail, many other species of birds, wild dogwood and redbud trees and other trees that are used in the building an furniture industry.

In its present state, the land can by used by anyone who chooses to do so for fishing, canoeing, camping, hiking, swimming and horseback riding, just to name a few forms of recreation this area is suited for. We can do these without any tax from Mother Nature.

Be aware when you build dams across these streams that they will be altered completely, and they become the source of water that would make the proposed lakes -- two dams across two streams connected with a ditch excavated through the hills to connect the two bodies of water which will build up and create backwater that will flood the smaller streams that flow into the Little Whitewater and Big Whitewater streams.

Look at the map of the finished project and judge for yourself what the proposed lake would be. We have several manmade lakes in our area. Check those out for revenue and opportunity at their sites.

I do not own land in or near the proposed lake site. I was born and reared to age 13 near the proposed lake site in Bollinger County, and I have lived in central Cape Girardeau County for 41 years. My concern in this issue is how, as human beings, we are best served by our actions as well as being good stewards of our gifts from Mother Nature and in our dealings with our fellow men as we would have them deal with us.

JUEL D. MAYFIELD

Jackson