COUNTY WORKS TOGETHER

When anyone asks Gerald Jones how things are going, he answers "Fantastic!"

Jones, presiding commissioner for Cape Girardeau County says 1997 was perhaps the best year ever for the county and its two major cities Cape Girardeau and Jackson, and 1998 looks even better.

"I challenge anybody to find when we had a better year," Jones said.

Throughout the county, in Cape Girardeau and in Jackson, unemployment is down, while construction, housing starts and sales tax revenues are up.

The reason, Jones says, is unprecedented cooperation.

"When the two major cities in a county, along with the county commission, work together things are going to happen in a positive way," Jones said.

The Cape Girardeau City Council and the Jackson Board of Aldermen met in January for an historic joint meeting to look for ways to work together.

At the meeting, Jackson Mayor Paul Sander, "It's a beginning."

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III agreed. "Both of us coming together as a united effort is going to carry a lot more weight than Jackson wants East Main and Cape wants our road, and both of us fighting each other all the way."

Cooperation, Spradling said, is "the best remedy" for the shared issues facing the cities.

Proving that they were serious about working, both cities and the county government agreed to allocate money toward the development of an east-west interstate from Paducah, Ky., to Van Buren, Mo.

The cities are "making an investment in economic development" with the funding, said Sander. The route is vital to the region's economic growth, said Spradling.

"If it goes past us, so does growth, so does industry, and we will be on the back burner," Spradling said, saying the communities have to be "up front and aggressive" in lobbying for the development of the route.

Jones predicts the cooperative effort for highways is just the first of many cooperative ventures in the county.

"Look around, we have excellent schools, good cities and the quality of life here is good," Jones said.

Signs of progress are everywhere.

Cape Girardeau voters passed a public schools bond issue, the first time in 30 years. Two new school buildings are under construction.

Cape Girardeau city is improving sewers, streets and the water plant. The new Osage Center is open and doing lots of business. The Convention Visitors Bureau has moved to a new building.

Jackson voters passed a bond issue for sewer and water improvements. Streets are being improved and Jackson schools have another new building under construction.

Plans are being drawn for an expansion to the county jail in Jackson.

Voters in Fruitland formed a sewer district. Residents of Dutchtown petitioned and become incorporated as an official town.

"It's quality of life that business and industry look at when they look at a community," Jones said. "In Cape County, we have a tremendous quality of life, and it's getting better all the time."