DORMANT LAKE PROPOSAL TOPIC OF RCGA MEETING

Seven years ago, a Bollinger-Cape Girardeau counties lake project would have created 12,000 jobs in the region and added $330 million to the local economy. The proposed 7,700-acre lake would be situated between Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties, near Millersville.

Supporters of the Bollinger-Cape Girardeau County lake project want to revamp the proposal for a 1996 lake project. However, all the information is still based on 1989 figures.

Ron Lemons, whose Texas-based company compiled information for the original report in 1989, will explain how the area would benefit from a lake at the 8th annual Regional Commerce and Growth Association banquet tonight at 6 p.m. at the Drury Lodge.

No updated cost estimates, revenues or operating costs have been determined, said Stan Crader, a lake supporter and Bollinger County business owner. But those figures and another feasibility study are expected later.

Support for the lake project resurfaced in August 1995 with a petition drive spearheaded by Crader.

Neither the size of the lake nor the jobs it could create have changed during the past few years, but the $73 million price tag may have.

"To make an informed decision, you have to know all the numbers," said Greg Williams, RCGA executive director.

Supporters want to put the issue to a vote sometime next year. However, before the lake proposal reaches a ballot, some legislative changes must be made, they say.

"It's a several-steps process," Williams said. "We need to address as many concerns as we can in order for it to be successful."

Landowners have voiced concerns about the 1990 legislation that gives voters an opportunity to create a lake authority to govern the land surrounding the lake. The suggested legislative changes include amending the controlled boundary of land surrounding the lake to a minimum of 15 feet instead of the original 200 feet area and reorganizing how the lake authority board is formed, Crader said.

Even though the lake proposal has been dormant for some time, interest has not died completely, Williams said. Petitions that circulated last fall didn't gather enough signatures. Only 100 people signed the form; the goal was to gather about 850 signatures.

"It did not go over because there was not enough interest but because many of the people want to make sure the law changed," Williams said.

When the lake was first suggested, the Bollinger County Commission failed to put the issue on the ballot because of problems with the legislation. Missouri law required that both Cape Girardeau and Bollinger County commissions approve the issue before it reached voters.