CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: LOCAL WEBSITES OFFER VALUABLE INFORMATION ABOUT AREA'S NIGHTLIFE, GOVERNMENTS, ACTIVITIES (COLUMN 60)

Cybertip: Believe or not, our November day and night classes are already full. We didn't advertise; that was just overflow from October signups. There are still plenty of openings in December. You can register now for Dec. 8, 7-9 p.m., or Dec. 11, 1-3 p.m. at Dempster Hall. Cost is $10. Call Joni or Peggy at 335-611 for more information.

OK, we lied. We're not touring local business sites just yet. We decided to devote this edition of Click and Double Click to local government and organization sites.

There was so much information, we decided to delay local business sites.

Let's begin at the web site of the growing city of Jackson.

Peggy: The site looks very professional. Don't let the "import movie" message throw you. It's just the little theme song loading up to greet you.

Joni: There are six areas to choose from: the City of, Business and industry, Sites to see, Information and events, The five Ws of Jackson, and About Jackson web. They also have search, guestbook and Jackson chat. The site's been up since May.

Peggy: Let's check out Jackson chat. You need Netscape 3.0 or Explorer 3.0 to participate. We highly recommend both. The program takes four or five minutes to load initially.

Joni: Be patient, it took a while to get going and we have a fast connection. Uh-oh. We were alone. Not much fun to chat with yourself, unless you have a multiple personality. We'll check back some evening.

Peggy: The site also explains Jackson's slogan, "City of Beautiful homes, churches, schools and parks." You can also find a calendar of events for November and December.

Joni: You can find the names of Jackson physicians. There are also pages for a number of non-profit organizations on the site. There's also a local business directory along with Jackson Chamber of Commerce, including a membership listing. All in all, the site provides a comprehensive look at the city of Jackson.

Peggy: The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce also has a nice web site.

www.capechamber.com

Joni: Let's browse the membership. Most have a business name and contact person. You can click for more data such as phone numbers and addresses. You can also look at the calendar of chamber activities, such as First Friday Coffee, workshops and committee meetings.

Peggy: You also can find out more about economic development on the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association's page. There's such topics as demographics, transportation, development incentives, education and job training. You also can see a photograph of the spec building.

Joni: There's a nice map about Cape Girardeau's relation to the Midwest, and a map of Cape Girardeau. It also links you to Missouri's Department of Economic Development cyberspace showroom. You can find road miles and days by railroad or motor freight from Cape Girardeau to 16 major U.S. cities. It's interesting reading.

Peggy: The community link takes to the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau page.

www.CapeGirardeauCVB.org

Joni: It's a nice clean site with attractive icons for lots of useful information such as calendar, attractions, hotels and motels, nightlife, dining, tours, etc.

Peggy: You can view October and November calendar events. The Christmas Parade of Lights is Nov. 30. I wanted to know that.

Joni: There's a nice restaurant listing as well, under the Eat @ Joes icon. It's listed by category. Let's check out desserts. The businesses are listed by name, address and phone number. That's good information.

Peggy: You can find out about local convention facilities and hotels and motels. It tells you how many rooms, capacity, etc. Under nightlife, you can find out about Cape Girardeau's bars, billiard parlors, country music halls, theatres and dinner theatres.

Joni: You can find a lot of valuable information about Cape Girardeau County government off the Show Me Net site.

www.showme.net/CapeCounty/

Peggy: Many of the different offices for county government can found on this site. Not all are operational, but there's still a lot here. It's almost brand new -- debuting Sept. 30, 1997. Not quite 80 have visited.

Joni: Let's check out the county clerk section. You can find phone numbers, fax numbers, office hours and a list of the services the office provides. They also have a list of the records available for genealogy research. That should prove popular.

Peggy: There's election results, information on how to register to vote, a listing of precincts and much more.

Joni: I like the fact this site includes phone numbers for all the county offices. That's one of our big complaints on web pages. Look at that, the Cape County Health Department has a program called "Daughter's." It provides care for clients age 60 and over. It's not housekeeping or respite care. Sometimes you just need a surrogate daughter to come in and check on you. How true. Can working moms get that treatment too?

Peggy: In the parks area, you can find photographs of the county parks. Plans are to add online shelter reservations. I think that's a good idea.

Joni: Other offices plan to post valuable information online as well. The Recorder of Deeds is planning to put warranty deeds and marriage licenses online each week. The county Highway Department also plans to run dates and locations of road repairs. We're glad to see the county is jumping aboard the information highway.

Peggy: What's your favorite local site on the Internet? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams and Peggy Scott are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.