Dear Editor:
I was in another state the day the May tornado hit Jefferson City but the first thing I did on my return was to drive through as much of the tornado's trail as was open.
I later told the Historic City of Jefferson that if I won one of the ultra-big lottery jackpots then available, I'd write a million dollar check to HCJ that would be used to save damaged buildings in the East Capitol Avenue area in danger of demolition. I didn't win but I sent the group a check - minus several zeros.
HCJ recently told me that it is working to buy two buildings from owners who don't want to rebuild or rehab them.
As you have reported, HCJ also is paying for all building permits needed for dealing with damaged buildings throughout the tornado area, regardless of the historical significance of any of those buildings.
I suggest others in the greater, undamaged, parts of Jefferson City join me in helping HCJ save East Capitol Avenue and in serving the rebuilding needs of those elsewhere in the tornado's path. So consider this something of a challenge.
I am about one forty-thousandth of the population of this city. If one-fortieth of the population of this town were to match or exceed the donation I have made to HCJ, the organization would have the amount I wish I could have provided. Too much effort has been made to save this important cultural and historical area to let all that work be simply blown away.
We cannot, of course, lose sight of the help and hope that we as individuals and as a community are offering to those in less prominent and affluent areas and this proposal is not, I hope, taken to minimize the need for our continued response to them. Rather, it is to increase our awareness of the need to save an area that is a major part of the story of the growth from a small town of mud streets in the 19th century to the beginning of the modern city it became in the first part of the 20th century.
I'm still going to buy a lottery ticket and hope for the best. But until I - or you - hit the big jackpot, I hope HCJ sees checks like mine from one-fortieth of my friends and neighbors.