Steve Turner looks to the future as Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization executive director

After more than 25 years in the retail, marketing and media industries, Steve Turner has focused his attention on Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization as its first executive director.

Turner was hired earlier this spring to lead the organization, which is focused on promoting and developing Jackson's historic uptown area as a community anchor and destination. Uptown Jackson is generally defined as Jackson's central business district in the vicinity of the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse, Main Street, High Street and several surrounding blocks.

"The Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization focuses on economic development and I think we've made great strides so far," Turner said in a recent interview with the Southeast Missourian.

UJRO's membership includes merchants and business owners in Jackson's central business district and beyond as well as other local citizens who have an interest in promoting commerce and overall quality of life in the community.

Over the past six or seven years, the Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization has been in what Turner refers to as an "organizational phase" of infrastructure development and fundraising events such as the annual Oktoberfest, a harvest celebration featuring craft beers, German-style food and live music. This year's Oktoberfest is slated for Oct. 4 and 5.

Karl Lugar's hat, mustache and buttons are seen during Uptown Jackson Oktoberfest's opening night Oct. 5 in Jackson."A lot of [the buttons] are places I've been or places I want to go to," he said, adding he found the turkey feather in his parent's backyard. "In Germany, the longer your feather was, it meant you were more prosperous."TYLER GRAEF

"Now we've reached the point that Uptown Jackson can start finding its stride and begin to do bigger things," Turner said and explained during the second half of 2019 the organization will be rounding out its committees, which will focus on four aspects of downtown management strategy: Organization, promotion, design and economic vitality.

"Committee memberships are volunteer positions, but they're positions where you can really make a difference in the community," Turner said. In addition, he said in the coming months he would like to identify "sustaining sponsors or yearlong corporate sponsors" for the organization.

UJRO works closely with Jackson city officials and the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce. The Uptown Jackson offices are in the same building with the chamber's headquarters.

"We're not tied to the chamber, but we're on the same team," Turner noted. "We have a lot of the same priorities and we talk a lot since we're in the same building; we have a great relationship."

Turner said Uptown Jackson will be working to let the community know about its purpose and vision for the community.

"Events are not our main purpose," he said. "I think we need to make it more clear to the community as a whole that these fundraisers (such as Oktoberfest) support the work that we do. It's like Old Town Cape (in Cape Girardeau), which is not about Tunes at Twilight, but events like that help support the organization."

Speaking of Old Town Cape, Turner said he hopes there are opportunities when Uptown Jackson and Old Town Cape can collaborate on projects of mutual interest.

Before he became Uptown Jackson's executive director, Turner spent many years in retail management.

"I went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and got a job at Waldenbooks. They promoted me to an assistant manager position, then they wanted me to manage a store and that turned into a 20-year career," he said. "A few years after, that I moved over to Barnes & Noble and managed their stores all over the Midwest."

It was while he was working for Waldenbooks he met his wife.

"I came to Cape Girardeau for six months to open a store here and this is where I met her," he said.

In addition to his retail management experience, Turner also worked in print media for the Belleville (Illinois) News Democrat and briefly worked for rustmedia as a creative director.

Turner has also been involved in the production of documentaries and commercial videography and recently produced a documentary titled "The Past Is Never Dead," the story of David Robinson of Sikeston, Missouri, who was arrested and convicted of murder in 2001, sentenced to life in prison without parole, and eventually exonerated and freed in May of last year. The documentary is available on Amazon Prime.

More information about Uptown Jackson can be found at www.ujro.org.

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