TOWN WORKS TO BUILD NEW RIVER LEVEE

STE. GENEVIEVE -- November was a month of mixed blessings for those overseeing this city's $48.7 million flood control project.

First they discovered that a concrete pillar had been placed too close to the railroad track, leaving no choice but to move one or the other. Then they happily learned the Federal Emergency Management Agency had restored $300,000 to pay for taking down the temporary sandbag and rock levee that saved Ste. Genevieve during the great Flood of 1993.

Despite the mistake, Joint Levee Commission Chairman Vern Bauman thinks the initial phase of the project has gone well. "We're real happy. The first problem wasn't a real serious problem and it wasn't hard to correct."

Work on the five-phase project began in August, the ground breaking coinciding with the city's Jour de Fete. The entire project, which will protect the town with a 3 1/2-mile earthen levee, is scheduled to be completed in the year 2000 or early in 2001.

The construction phases are:

-- North closure, which could be completed by early spring.

-- Highway 61 overpass, which will go to bid Jan. 8, 1998. At the south end of the project, Highway 61 will go over the levee. Until completed in November 1998, vehicles will use a temporary bypass.

-- South closure, to be completed sometime in the year 2000. Railroad tracks also will run through this closure. A date has not been set for bidding.

-- Gravity drain and pump station in central part of project, to be completed in 2000.

-- Dredging of channel and clay cover for levee, with completion in the fall of 2000 or early 2001. This includes construction of the 3 1/2-mile earthen levee.

Work on the north closure, a structure composed of three metal gates and concrete that will prevent Mississippi River floodwaters from entering Ste. Genevieve from the north, is running ahead of schedule. It could be finished as soon as early spring, said Alan Wahlman, foreman for Bloomsdale Excavating, the prime contractor.

In fact, most of the work could be completed by January but the application of dirt fill and seeding will have to wait until spring. The phase is not scheduled for completion until July.

The mispositioned concrete pillar cost an extra $102,000 to adjust, City Administrator Gary Edwards said. At this point, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be paying 75 percent of the extra cost with the city shouldering the rest.

But Edwards said the cost could be recouped if the Corps decides to take legal action against a subcontractor the agency believes is responsible for the error. The crew lost three days work adjusting the pillar.

They have a 40-day window to finish construction of the gates. During that time, Burlington Northern and Missouri Pacific trains are running on a "shoo-fly" track built as a detour.

When completed, the trains and vehicles will pass through the gates unless they are closed due to high water. The gates rise 19 feet above the road surface.

The city has acquired 90 percent of the land for the project, which has meant dealings with more than 100 landowners. Edwards said those negotiations have been the most difficult part of the project so far.

When completed, the levee will be maintained through a tax to be levied on property owned by those residents it protects.

Dean Surface of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Cape Girardeau, is in charge of maintaining all the levees between the two cities. He is pleased with the project's progress but said the wild experiences of 1993 and 1995 are not forgotten.

"We have no guarantee what the Mississippi is going to do," he said.

If he has his way, Bauman says, the temporary levee will stay up until the permanent levee is complete. When the 500-year flood of 1993 was followed by another 500-year flood in 1995, townspeople credited the temporary levee with keeping the city safe. "We're fortunate to have what we have in place," he said.

FEMA twice denied the city's appeals to restore $300,000 allocated for dismantling the temporary levee. FEMA wanted to remove the levee within six months of the flood but the city wanted keep the protection in place.

FEMA subsequently withdrew the money. Appeals by Missouri legislators directly to FEMA Director James Witt changed the agency's mind, Edwards said.

In 1995, a group of citizens who called themselves the North End Group spearheaded an unsuccessful petition drive to recall then-Mayor William Anderson. They claimed the north end of town was being short-changed in the cleanup effort after the flood.

Last year, they gathered enough signatures to require a state audit of the town's finances. The audit turned up only procedural mistakes. But Edwards says the group did have an effect, including convincing the Board of Aldermen not to build a bridge over Third Street.

He defended Anderson's handling of the crisis. "With the turmoil this community went through, you have to make enemies," Edwards said. Anderson did not seek re-election when his term was completed.

Ste. Genevieve Mayor Michael Jokerst, who was elected in April, says most of that discontent has disappeared since construction began. "We're pretty optimistic about it going on and coming to completion," he said.