New Illinois village struggling to get census data, funds

McClure officials need the demographic data before they can apply for various grants.

McCLURE, Ill. -- Legally, it's only been a village for three months. But already its founding mayor and board of trustees have been swamped with governmental paperwork as they struggle to obtain census data essential to efforts to secure state and federal grants.

"There are piles of it," Mayor Cheryle Dillon said.

"It's really hard to get a census," she said. "We've never had boundary lines drawn before."

Officials in the Alexander County town of 350 people -- a few minutes drive east of Cape Girardeau -- have approached the U.S. Census Bureau for help.

The federal agency plans to work from a map of the town's newly incorporated boundaries and the latest census figures for that part of Alexander County to come up with some preliminary population numbers, she said.

But even that won't provide all the information McClure's fledgling city government needs when it comes to applying for various grants, she and trustee Rodney Brown said Friday.

Town officials hope to secure state funding to fix up the houses of low-income and elderly residents. But first they need to provide demographic data involving everything from ethnic information to the number of people in each household and household income.

'They get a little touchy'

To obtain that information, village officials are asking residents to fill out a survey provided by Illinois' Community Development Assistance Program.

But Dillon said convincing some residents of the town to disclose such information is a hard sell. "When you start asking for income information, they get a little touchy," she said.

Elderly residents often are skeptical of government grants, the mayor said. "They're not used to someone saying, 'I will give you something.'"

But if village officials can provide the necessary data by the August deadline, the Southern Five Regional Planning District and Development Commission in Southern Illinois could obtain state funding to rehab up to 40 or 50 homes in McClure, Dillon said.

When McClure was an unincorporated settlement, none of this government funding was available to the community, Brown said.

"That's what being a village has done," he said. "It's opened up access to money."

But all such funding comes with paperwork, Brown and Dillon said.

The village right now has no city hall, no sewers and no municipal services.

Town officials hope to eventually secure government grants to buy a police car, pay the salary of a police officer and construct a sewer system.

At this point, McClure doesn't even have a city hall. The seven-member board meets twice a month at the local elementary school.

But the mayor said she's talked to staff with the Illinois governor's office about getting a city hall. Dillon said the state likely will provide a prefabricated, commercial quality building the size of a double-wide mobile home that could serve as a city hall. The village just would have to provide the land, she said.

Income from liquor licenses

The village currently has limited income, all of it -- about $4,000 a year -- coming from the issuance of four liquor licenses. The village has a liquor ordinance, but has yet to adopt a comprehensive code of ordinances.

That's another task facing the village board which may turn to a company that creates codes of ordinances rather than try to write its own regulations, Brown said.

But Dillon said the board doesn't intend to implement zoning regulations. Dillon said she sees no need for such regulations in a town as small as McClure.

While the liquor licenses have brought in the town's first income, that's been eaten up by expenses including liability insurance and the cost of the town's membership in the Illinois Municipal League. "We had to borrow money," Dillon said.

It's actually a line of credit, she said, which will be paid back with future funds.

The town's main streets are state and county roads. The village only has side streets to maintain. "We have four miles of side streets," Brown said.

The McClure board plans to maintain those streets with state fuel tax money.

There also are plans to erect a large, landscaped sign identifying the new village. Dillon said that idea was proposed by a committee of residents established by the board to suggest improvement projects.

She hopes the committee can secure private donations to fund the project.

Brown said village officials aren't short of ideas. "You won't see a stagnant board," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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