PROGRESS: JACKSON TRADES SMALL-TOWN FLAVOR FOR GROWTH

JACKSON, Mo. -- Bernard Schaper was born in Jackson 84 years ago. He remembers when only the uptown streets were paved, and wagons pulled by teams of horses brought farmers to town. Through the 20th century, Jackson grew slowly but steadily until the 1990s boom times.

During that decade, the population of Jackson increased by 25 percent, making it the fastest growing city in Southeast Missouri and one of the fastest growing in the state. Census projections call for the city's population to reach 12,000-12,500 by the end of the year, a jump of as many as 3,000 residents since 1990.

Theories about why Jackson sustained such a bump in growth vary. Procter & Gamble's expansion brought many new residents to town. The high quality of Jackson schools often is cited as a reason families locate in the city, although that reputation recently was jeopardized by two straight school bond defeats before passage occurred Nov. 7.

City Administrator Steve Wilson moved to Jackson in 1980 as an employee of the Department of Conservation. Housing prices were cheaper in Jackson than in Cape Girardeau then -- they aren't now -- but Wilson says something else made him decide to locate his family in the city.

"The residents take pride in their property and their community. It's a thread that runs through the citizens of Jackson whether they've been here two years or two generations," he said.

Wilson sums it up in a term he didn't coin but subscribes to: Jackson pride.

"The kind of people that come to town have the same shared thoughts and values," Wilson says.

As a real estate agent and as mayor, Paul Sander often is asked by visitors to show them around Jackson. Afterward, they inevitably ask him to show them the slum.

"I tell them there isn't any part of this town I'd be ashamed to live in," he says. "...We don't have an area that is blighted."

Controlled growth

Jackson officials welcomed and sought the growth that came their way.

"For awhile, we were headed toward being a bedroom community," says Sander. "That wasn't where the council and I wanted us to go. A bedroom community does not create tax revenue."

Controlled growth is the city's mantra. "We have been able to maintain revenues because of our growth," says Wilson. Indeed, growth has enabled the city to reduce its tax rate from $1.05 in 1990 ($1.38 if adjusted for inflation) to the current $1 rate.

"If you're not growing you're dying," Wilson says. "And that's where you have the real pain."

The challenge has been to keep up with the growth. Passage of a $10.54 million sewer and water bond in 1997 was crucial to enabling the city's infrastructure to keep pace. Jackson also issued bonds to fund a $4 million upgrade of its electrical system, currently under way.

The city budgets exceed $15 million now, not counting bond revenues, compared to $9 million (adjusted for inflation, $11.82 million) in 1990. In 1990 the city had 81 employees. Now there are 112, including the addition of public works and parks and recreation directors, a K-9 unit for the police and a school resource officer.

Such rapid change does exact a price. Everyone acknowledges that something of Jackson's small-town atmosphere has been lost. "You don't know everybody," Sander concedes.

"... It's not a negative but it's a fact."

A little pain

The speed of change may be especially uncomfortable for longtime residents.

"People in my age group and somewhat younger feel it's too much," Schaper says. "We don't like to see more of the farmland utilized for industry and homes, and we're amazed at the traffic between Cape and Jackson."

Sander True Value Hardware, one of the uptown mainstays, moved out to busy East Jackson Boulevard because the traffic count is so much higher. Schaper, whose family long operated a grocery store in Jackson, remembers when there were six groceries uptown. Now the Food Giant in the shopping center west of uptown is the nearest one. No clothing store is to be found uptown either. "We miss the uptown merchants we used to have who were so strong in the Chamber of Commerce," Schaper says.

He can understand why younger people welcome speedy growth. "They want jobs," he said. "Growth in the entire county has been tremendous. People don't have trouble getting work. They don't have the experience of what it used to be like."

Even after 20 years, Wilson supposes he is still considered a newcomer to Jackson by the old-timers.

Direction for the future

With some anticipated improvements from the Missouri Department of Transportation, Sander says the East Main Street Extension and Highway 72 west of town will be the focus of retail growth in the next decade. The south side of town is expected to see most of the residential growth.

The pace has slowed some. The city will issue about 100 single-family housing permits this year compared to the record 169 in 1994. Many of the Procter & Gamble managers brought in for the expansion are leaving town now, their work complete, and the city has an overabundance of pricey housing for sale.

In 2010, Jackson's population is projected to surpass 14,000. That reflects a belief that growth will continue to be strong.

"If you're not growing, you're going backwards," Sander says.

JACKSON GROWTH

*1990 assessed valuation:

$51,667 (adjusted for inflation, $67,836,019)

*2000 assessed valuation:

$117,495,181

*1990 property tax revenues:

$525,590 (adjusted for inflation, $690,063)

*2000 property tax revenues:

$1,022,200

*1990 tax rate (per $100 assessed valuation):

$1.05 (adjusted for inflation, $1.38)

*2000 tax rate (per $100 assessed valuation:

$1