Your Opinion: Boonville river port not a boon

Boonville river port not a boon

Bert Dirschell

Centertown

Dear Editor:

I recently wrote a LTE containing information about the Howard/Cooper County Port Authority, based on information I gleaned from online sources. Last week my wife and I drove over to Boonville to see the port. The information on the missouriports.org website, which I found from a link on MoDOT’s website, is incredibly misleading.

The current “port” is owned by Gavilon Fertilizer, which leases some space to the Howard/Cooper Port Authority and/or MFA.

I happened to meet a gentleman who works for Gavilon when I stopped at the “port.” He told me that the Howard/Cooper Port Authority does own 18 acres of unimproved property where they could construct a port. He further said that the cranes for unloading barges, noted on the previously mentioned website, had been removed because they were never used. Gavilon does have, and uses, port facilities on the Mississippi, though they very rarely ship anything up the Missouri by barge. They ship fertilizer in by truck. He noted that the Missouri is often too shallow for barges. The Corp of Engineers is “required” to release enough water from dams on the upper Missouri to keep it navigable from April - November, if possible. He also said that MFA does use the existing facility to load barges, typically five per year, during harvest season.

A July 27, 2017 MoDOT Facebook post stated that the Howard/Cooper County Port Authority was to receive $125,000 in improvement funds in 2017. The post stated that design work for the new port facility was complete and that the money would be used to begin construction of an access road and Phase I of the new port. Included was an artist’s rendition that appeared to show seven barges tied up at the proposed facility. I saw no evidence that work had started on an access road during my visit.

The gentlemen with whom I spoke gave me the distinct impression that local funding for a port would never be approved, and that such a project would only happen if funded with “free money” from state or federal sources.

Why aren’t those who will ship product by barge funding the construction a port? Highways and bridges are funded with “user fees,” fuel taxes. If a port is financed by user fees, with no taxpayer guaranteed loans, I would not oppose such a venture.

Better things for our kids?

Tom Ault

Jefferson City

Dear Editor:

As I was sitting on my back porch the thought came to me that perhaps we spend too much time on things we can’t do anything about. We vote for people we think will do what we would like them to do and discover they told us all the things we wanted to hear without caring at all about fulfilling them.

We have moved, during the last 40 years, or more, toward the desire to “get” rather than to “give,” to “hate” rather than “love,” and “talk” rather than “do.”

Am I preaching to the choir? Probably. That includes both people in and out of politics, those that have been raised to believe that all things will come to them if they just wait long enough. Of course, waiting means not planning for, or making strides toward, their goal. They are taught to believe that most things are free. Dad and Mom wanted better things for their kids than they had…right?

Many of us have spent a lifetime going through the actions of practicing our religion. We have gone to church faithfully every Sunday (or Saturday), joined this committee or that committee, or the choir, or became involved in some other opportunity offered by our church or synagogue, or wherever your belief may lead you, but it’s what we do, that is when we don’t have some other pressing thing to do…you know, like a sports activity, a special on television…we all have our weaknesses. We all have them! My excuse has been that after 40 years of serving, it is someone else’s turn.

In the past, tribes, cities, and towns were destroyed because of poor communication. Today we have more devices giving us more information than ever before, and yet we pay no attention to what is happening.

Is it better to pretend all is well and not worry about tomorrow, or should we try living right today? No more protests in the street is a good start! Let’s teach that greed, desire, lust, hatred, being exhibitionists to get attention, and joining things to get our names on the list, is not the answer!

Our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are receiving too much information on some subjects, and not enough where it would be meaningful. Our kids need to know right from wrong, and what a conscience is. We all need one!