CAPE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INTRODUCES QIP PROGRAM

"Quality Indicators of Progress," a plan to measure and monitor the quality of life in a community, has been introduced by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

"This program is designed to monitor quality of life in a number of areas for the community," said John Mehner, president of the chamber, "It has worked in more than 200 communities across the nation, and we're excited about it."

Kim Kurka McDowell, Dr. Keith A. Russell and Doug Groesbeck, members of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors are heading the project here.

McDowell and Russell were on hand to discuss the project at the chamber's First Friday Coffee, held at the Show Me Center.

"Our program is being patterned after a program at Jacksonville, Fla.," said Russell.

The Jacksonville program covers nine indicators, ranging from education, economics and public safety to health, environment, government and recreation.

"Each indicator includes a number of facets, or elements, which will be determined by public input," said McDowell.

The idea of the project is to determine trends, establish desired and obtainable goals for each indicator.

In the case of Jacksonville, it was found the public high school graduation rate for students starting in the ninth grade was 72.6 percent in 1989-90. The goal of the QIP program is to get the graduation percentage to 90 percent by the year 2000.

One means of this was the startup of a program to recruit high school dropouts to obtain a high school diploma, encouraging the use of GED programs. This contributed to an increase of 7 percent in one year.

Economically, the Jacksonville program established a goal of adding new job growth in the community, from 331,428 in Duval County in 1990, to about 400,000 by the year 2000.

"This basically demonstrates what the Jacksonville community is doing to improve quality of life," said Russell. "Trends and targets are established and graphs are prepared each year, with reports to be issued to each household."

Information from the annual reports, said McDowell and Russell, can be used "like a report card," highlighting the positives and identifying areas of concern. It can be used as an economic development tool.

"We have been meeting with various groups and business concerning the QIP programs," said McDowell. "We want to hear from everyone during the infancy period of the program."

Indicator forms and more information are available at the chamber office, 601 N. Kingshighway.

"We want to prepare our first report by the end of the year," said McDowell.

Indicators for the Cape Girardeau area and some of the topics include:

-- Education (graduation rate, teacher salaries, higher education).

-- Economy (job growth, retails sales, housing starts).

-- Public safety (crime, rescue and fire-call response time).

-- Government/politics (rating the quality of local government, percent of population over 18 who are registered to vote).

-- Culture/recreation (city parks and recreation, public libraries, museums).

-- Mobility (commuting times to work, flights in and out of the airport, in-city transportation).

-- Natural environment (air quality index, stream and water standards).

-- Health (medical facilities available, percentage of people with no health insurance).

-- Social environment (discrimination complaints, contributions per capita to Untied Way and other agencies).