JIM MAEVERS INSTALLED JACKSON CHAMBER HEAD

JACKSON - New officers of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce were installed Monday during the chamber's annual installation banquet.

Jim Maevers will lead the chamber as president, assisted by Vice President Steve Elefson and secretary-treasurer Larry Hall.

Serving on the chamber's board of directors this year are Jeff Moore, John N. Thompson, Ted Williams, Brent Wills and Paul Sander.

The incoming president of the Jackson Industrial Development Co. is David Hoelscher. Don Sievers will serve as vice president and John M. Thompson as secretary-treasurer. Other members of the JIDC board include Kent Puchbauer, Gene Penzel, Maevers and Jackson Mayor Paul Sander.

The new officers of the Jackson Industrial Development Authority this year include David Beasley as president and board members: Kent Puchbauer, Tim Schwent, Vernon Werner, Mysie Keene, Arnold Strickert and Larry Nowak.

New officers of the Jackson Merchants Association are Steve Blackman, president; Jeff Moore, vice president; Vanita Jones, secretary; and Judy Leist, treasurer.

In his remarks, outgoing chamber president Steve Popp expressed his appreciation to those who have supported the chamber in its effort to retain the license fee office. "Thanks to all of you for your response to our request for support in keeping the license bureau in Jackson," said Popp. "Now it is up to Gov. (Mel) Carnahan."

Popp also introduced members of the newly-created Jackson Board of Tourism that will begin its work July 1. The board members are Max Prill and former mayor Carlton Meyer, who will serve one-year terms; and Mary Strong and Kirk Williams, who will serve two-year terms. The fifth member of the board will be the chamber vice president, who will serve for one year. Elefson will fill that spot for the coming year.

Popp explained the tourism board will operate under an agreement with the city, which will provide a two-year grant of $20,000 ($10,000 per year) in "seed money" to get the tourism board in operation.

The new chamber president said the No. 1 priority for the chamber this year is to continue an all-out effort to maintain the license fee office in Jackson.

"We plan to follow up with an even more aggressive effort at the local and state level," said Maevers. "The license fee office is vital to the operation of the chamber of commerce. A large portion of our operating funds that we use for various community projects are derived from the license fee office. It also allows us to keep our membership fees in line."

Maevers also announced the July 1 start-up of the Jackson Tourism Committee that will be operated by the chamber of commerce. "The city has agreed to fund the operation for two years. The ball is in our court. We have a good group of people well informed about tourism," he said. "They have a lot of good ideas about promoting tourism, so we're already headed in the right direction."

Although the committee will focus on tourist attractions in and around Jackson, Maevers said in order to promote tourism properly Cape Girardeau will also have to be involved. "We need to rely on our good neighbors to the east," he said.

Guest speaker at the banquet was Gerald Jones, publisher of the Jackson Cash-Book Journal, who cited numerous examples of innocent but humorous gaffes that have appeared over the years in the CashBook because of proofreading snafus and other mistakes.

"You've always heard it said you can believe what you see in the newspaper; well, that's not so," Jones quipped, pointing out mistakes in news stories and ads where the omission of one or two figures made a significant difference in the price of the item.

"It was wrong, but it sure got the readers' attention," said Jones.