GROWING PAINS: JACKSON ADJUSTS TO INFLUX OF PEOPLE

JACKSON -- Charles Sander was 11 when his family moved into town. His father didn't want to have travel the 10 miles from their farm into work every day.

His grandfather and uncle ran the old W.A. Sander and Brother Hardware Co."Most of the business was in the uptown area," he said. "We don't have as much there as we used to."He didn't know everyone in town when he was growing up, "but I knew a lot more then than I do now," he said, adding, "That's the burden of having 80 years on your back."When he moved to Jackson, there were fewer than 3,000 people in the city. Now there are more than 11,000.

A population growth of 8,000 over 60 years may not seem too impressive. But most of Jacksons growth has come since the beginning of this decade, and while city officials are happy to see the increase, they're also wondering how they're going to keep up with it.

Several properties along Highway 61, or East Jackson Boulevard, have recently been rezoned to allow for commercial development.

City administrator Stephen J. Wilson said he expects new business to begin going up this construction year along that strip."Jackson's residential growth is what seems to be consistently growing," Wilson said.

The 1990 census put Jacksons population at 9,256 and in 1994, it was at 9,661, an increase of 4.4 percent.

Cape Girardeau County overall increased 4.7 percent in population in that time period, and the city of Cape Girardeau's population went up 4.4 percent.

That growth rate has remained steady, Wilson said, which has allowed the city to keep up somewhat."If you're not growing, you're dying," he said. "However, the growth is not painless."It is expensive. Building new roads, paving existing roads, installing new water and sewer lines and increasing city services all add up."I think there's a misconception that anytime there's growth, people feel there's some stream of money flowing into the city," Wilson said. "That's not the case."The cost for increasing services and capital expenditures for new residents is initially paid out by the city, he said, "and it gets recouped way down the road" in increasing property and sales tax revenues.

In the first quarter of 1996, the city issued 30 permits for new residential buildings, including 28 for single family homes.

In 1995, 177 permits, including 116 for single family homes, were issued.

But the peak was in 1994, when the city issued 207 building permits, including 145 for single family homes."That's a lot of houses for a town our size," Wilson said.

New construction was valued at $18.5 million in 1994 and $13.6 million in 1995. So far this year, new construction has totalled $3.6 million."Things need to slow down just a little bit," Wilson said. "We've really been in a spiked increase."Mayor Paul Sander -- who is, incidentally, Charles Sander's nephew -- said the effects of growth can be seen in his list of goals for the city, which include extending sewers to the newly annexed Grandview Acres, extending East Main Street to I-55, running a new water line to the citys industrial park, finishing the new east side water tower, building a new electric substation and numerous road and bridge upgrades.

In response to the citys building boom, aldermen have toughened up the citys street, zoning and subdivision codes, Sander said."These are three things that directly related to the planned and orderly growth in the city," he said.

The city's population increase has put "a tremendous strain" on the city's infrastructure, Sander said."We've tried and continue to try to keep up with the community's needs," he said.

Sander said he doesnt foresee the growth rate slowing or stopping any time soon. "We're on a course to be at 14,000 by the year 2000," he said.

The city isn't the only entity experiencing growing pains. The Jackson R-2 School District -- which includes the city of Jackson and several smaller communities in the surrounding area -- has also seen an influx of new faces, said Dr. Howard Jones, superintendent of schools.

For the 1985-86 school year, the district's total enrollment was 3,137 students. This year, it's 4,040 students, and by the 1999-2,000 school year, enrollment is projected to push the 4,800 mark.

Not all of that growth will occur in the city of Jackson, Jones said. Development in the unincorporated areas of the district is also on the increase."The district is such a large geographic area that you can have a salting or smattering of houses and have a lot of kids in those houses," he said.

School officials are studying how to match that growth with the necessary new facilities, Jones said.

What both city and school officials would like to see move into Jackson is an industry -- or two -- that produces lots of high-paying jobs and tax revenues with no nasty side effects, like noise, pollution or unhappy neighbors."That's a dream," Wilson said, but city officials do work closely with industrial recruiter Mitch Robinson to bring business and industry to Jackson.

Jackson's proximity to Procter and Gamble, Lee-Rowan and other local industries is its primary draw for new residents, Wilson said, and if those industries expand, even more people will be heading into town.

City and school officials are happy with the type of residential growth the community is experiencing: mostly middle-class, single family homes, rather than high-density multi-family housing.

Most of the people Gerald McElrath, the broker for Heartland Realty, sees moving into Jackson are in their 40s and younger."There's a lot of people that live here that work elsewhere in the area," McElrath said, adding Jackson is in a good spot to be a bedroom community."We're right here on the highway," he said. "You can see them at 7, 8 o'clock in the morning, and the roads are just crowded with people going to work, and at 3:30, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, they're coming back."Charles Sander said he doesn't much miss the good old days when he was growing up. Jackson has most of the conveniences he needs, and if he needs more, it's only a few minutes to drive to Cape Girardeau."It doesn't really make any difference whether you live in Cape or Jackson now," he said.

Mayor Sander said he's also glad to see a strong spirit of cooperation between the Jackson and its neighbor."We know that what's good for Jackson is good for Cape Girardeau and what's good for Cape is good for Jackson," he said.