Most folks are familiar with the story of how representatives from the chamber of commerce made an appearance before the Missouri Highway Commission (the governing body of MoDot is now known as the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission) back in the early 1990s. Their plea at that time, just like it had been for many years, was for a four-lane highway connecting Dunklin County to Interstate 55 in Hayti

The response from the commission at that time was something along the lines of "It's a great idea, but don't hold your breath."

Things changed in the mid-90s when local attorney Mark Preyer was appointed to the commission by late Gov. Mel Carnahan. The "great idea" actually became closer to a reality. Skeptics abounded still. One local fellow, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, was even overheard to comment, "I'll never drive on it in my lifetime. Maybe my grandkids will get to."

As anyone who has driven east of town over the last few years, I presume our local skeptic has taken advantage of the four lane from the county line road to I-55, can plainly see - we're close.

Several days ago representatives from the city and chamber met with representatives from MoDot and Illinois Valley Paving, the contractor on the project. Hornersville native Eric Krapf serves as MoDot's project manager for Highway 412 and Kennett native Brian Holt is the resident engineer. Mike Williams was the representative from IVP.

The news they had to share with us wasn't necessarily good. Our farmers are not the only ones who have reason to complain about the recent rains.

According to Williams every day of rain puts IVP three days behind in terms of completing the concrete paving for the last four-plus miles of the project from Highway NN (County Line Road to locals) into the Kennett city limits.

What these folks were telling us is that after this brief break we've had in the weather, IVP is going to shut every thing down until the spring. Williams said there is about two months of work left to be done and as things stand right now they're not optimistic about trying to get the project completed over the winter season.

That was not good news, obviously. However, when we look at where we were just a decade ago and where we are now, things look a lot better for motorists heading to the east. For the record, IVP has until Sept. '07 to complete the project..

Bud 11/22/06 One good thing about a spring completion will be the ceremony planned for the opening of those last few miles will be the ceremony planned to accompany that grand event. The chamber has been planning a ceremony since the late summer. Details were not yet finalized because a final date had not been set, but things were moving along. One big concern was the weather. As we've seen Mother Nature can be a little iffy this time of the year.

Hopefully, weather will be less of a factor next spring.

Then we can start planning the next big project - Closing the Gap - U.S. 412 will be a four lane road from Jackson, Tenn., through Greene County, Arkansas - almost to Walnut Ridge - except for the 22 miles or so from Kennett south to the Arkansas State line.

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Deer tale

Stories from our local hunters have been slow to trickle in this year. That may be because stories of deer being killed this year have been slow to come out. It seems like people are having better luck killing deer with automobiles than hunters have with guns. There have been three deer killed by people who work for the newspapers I manage.

One local guy is able to provide his family with a little venison steak for Thanksgiving, if that be their pleasure.

Marty Moore claimed a deer last weekend. The really interesting part of that story is that Marty had spent 10 days in the hospital just prior to the opening of deer season. Actually, I think he was still in the hospital on opening weekend.

The following Tuesday he was released and by Friday was in the deer woods, or "DEER WOODS" as deer hunters refer to their hunting grounds.

There's pretty solid evidence Marty really did suffer from an ailment that required medical attention and subsequent hospital care. However, there is another school of thought that all Marty really suffered from was a severe case of "buck fever" and the cure was in the deer woods when he got his first deer of the season.

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Taking time

Here we sit sated with turkey, dressing, cranberry salad, pumpkin pie and hopefully a lot of good memories from last week. The holiday season is upon us and as we move closer to Christmas time demands will undoubtedly be shorter and pressures will mount. Let's try to take a few minutes to slow down and remember just what it is we're celebrating.

One fellow that will be able to take a little more time this holiday season to relax is John McClellan. John made a lunch appearance at the re-constituted Quarterback Club on two consecutive days leading up to Thanksgiving. We're always glad to see him and attributed his sudden reappearance to the University of Kentucky achieving a rare event. The Wildcats actually won enough football games to qualify for play in a post-season bowl game. Shock and awe in blue.

As it turns out it was more than UK football fortunes which prompted John's appearance. Holiday decorations were going up at the McClellan household and even though he denied it to the QC members, we suspected John avoided going home for lunch because he didn't want to get stuck hanging Christmas lights or tinsel.