JACKSON APPROVES MEMORIAL UPGRADE

JACKSON -- Handicapped citizens soon will have better access to the Veterans of All Wars Memorial in Jackson's Brookside Park.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen voted Monday to award a $40,466 contract to Fronabarger Concreters Inc. for construction of handicapped public access facilities at the memorial.

The work includes construction of a gravel road from the parking lot on the northwest side of the memorial to a new, paved parking lot east of the memorial.

The parking lot will have room for 20 cars and a bus. A concrete ramp with railings will extend from the paved parking lot to the memorial.

The work will begin in about two weeks, and should be completed in late September.

Currently, the memorial, and all of Brookside Park, is inaccessible to handicapped persons.

All of the improvements to the tract, except for the purchase of the property, have been made with private donations, and Mayor Paul Sander said it's time for the city to kick in to make the site handicapped accessible.

"We have developed a very fine park to be proud of out there in a very short time period," Sander said. "I feel the city should do what it can to make it accessible to all citizens."

Sander said the central site for the handicapped parking lot also will place the lot closer to future park development.

In other business Monday, the board rezoned property at 113 Morgan from single-family residential to general commercial district. The tract, owned by Cracraft Miller Funeral Home, will be used for additional parking and storage.

Also, City Engineer Rich Bowen said work on the city's new 300,000-gallon elevated water tower should begin this winter. The tower will be erected near Interstate 55, and will like an existing water tower in North Cape County Park.

Bowen also said the Missouri-Jefferson street paving project should be completed by mid-August, in time for the opening of Jackson High School.