MARBLE HILL -- In an effort to gather more support for the rejuvenated Cape Girardeau-Bollinger counties lake project, the Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce offered its endorsement Thursday.

The lake proposal never went to a vote five years ago because Bollinger County commissioners refused to place it on the ballot.

In a prepared statement, Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce President Bob Clubb said there is enough interest in the project to warrant placing it on the ballot now. And with the potential for 12,000 new jobs, a lake could boost Bollinger County's economy, the statement said.

The Regional Commerce and Growth Association helped with the feasibility studies for the project. It helps promote economic development in the area, said Stan Crader, a Bollinger County native and business owner who is heading the petition drive.

Supporters of the lake project are circulating petitions with the hope of collecting 750 signatures. That would amount to about 10 percent of Bollinger County voters.

Regardless of the petitioning effort, there is no legal provision that requires the measure to be placed on a local ballot.

Presiding Commissioner Elwood Mouser said the law has to be changed before the petitions would have any legal effect on the commission.

In 1990, Missouri law was amended to give both Cape and Bollinger county commissions the power to let voters consider a 1-cent sales tax to fund the lake. Now supporters want to change that law to require the Bollinger and Cape county commissions to put the proposal to a vote with petitions containing the signatures of 750 people.

Crader said the proposal is different from the one presented in 1990. This time Crader would like to have more cooperation from area landowners.

"What I'd like to see happen is to work with the landowners to make the majority happy and then present it to the commission," he said.

The lake, which would cost $73 million to construct, would be situated on 7,700 acres between Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties. The Whitewater and Little Whitewater rivers would be dammed to create two bodies of water connected by a channel.

The lake would be similar to Wappapello or Clearwater lakes' recreation areas with a few exceptions. The Army Corps of Engineers has control of those lakes, which are used for flood control. The proposed lake would be managed by a lake authority.

Cape-Bollinger Landowners Association Inc. is a group of about 100 landowners who don't want to lose their land to a lake. Although the group isn't meeting presently, its members still keep in touch, said member Steven Sebaugh. The group has adopted a wait-and-see attitude, he said.

Sebaugh opposes the law of 1990 that allowed for the creation of the lake. "It's still a bad deal," he said, adding that there is no accountability in the law.

The law is open-ended and allows the lake authority to have more power than the federal, state or local governments, he said.

Crader said changes to the law would be made before any vote is taken.