REGIONAL PLANNING: SOUTHEAST MISSOURI COMMISSION HAS SERVED THE AREA FOR 26 YEARS

PERRYVILLE -- Most people in Southeast Missouri know something about the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, most likely through the news media.

But with the exception of its members and the agencies it serves, the general public is not aware of the enormous role this quasi-governmental agency headquartered in Perryville plays in their lives.

The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission was created in 1968 by local counties and municipalities in cooperation with the state of Missouri. It's mission is to provide coordinated planning services and technical assistance within the seven counties it serves: Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Iron, Madison, Perry, Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois.

The commission's first and only executive director, Tom Tucker, said: "The commission was created in response to the increasing migration of young, high-school graduates out of Southeast Missouri to find good-paying jobs and a chronic unemployment problem in the region caused by a lack of jobs, which in turn was due to a lack of new or expanding business and industry. That also resulted in a large number of low- and median-income families."

The commission is made up of the chief elected official or his designate of local units of government that join the commission. In addition, there are designated low-income and minority members of the commission, and all state senators and representatives within the seven-county region are members.

Through state law the commission is authorized to make and adopt plans "for the physical, social, and economic development of the region." The commission's functions are solely advisory; local units of governments that receive assistance from the commission may adopt all, a portion, or none of a plan the commission presents, but few refuse adoption.

Although it does many things to promote economic development in the region, the commission probably is best known for helping counties, cities, and private enterprises apply for grants for improvements in infrastructure such as water or sewer lines, waste-water treatment facilities, streets and highways, or in the case of business and industry, facilities expansion.

"You have to have the infrastructure in place before you can have economic development," said Tucker. "You must be able to take a client to the industrial park or site and show them that the streets and utilities are in place.

"When the commission was created, a lot of municipal industrial sites in the region were undeveloped farmland.

Said Tucker: "We provide counties and cities the planning and technical expertise to plan for infrastructure improvements, and then help them apply for state or federal funds to pay for the improvements. We know how to write federal and state grant applications and justify them. We are also just a part of the overall team."

Many of the projects for which the commission provided planning and technical assistance can be seen today in Cape Girardeau County.

Tucker said the commission staff worked with the city of Cape Girardeau in the early 1970s to obtain federal and state funding for the city's waste-water treatment plant in the south end of town. The commission also has helped Cape Girardeau write a number of other grant applications for sewer projects over the past 25 years.

"We wrote the Housing and Urban Development grant application for the development of Shawnee and Cherokee parks in Cape," Tucker said. "Right now we're playing a supportive role with the city of Cape on the South Sprigg Street improvement project."

In Jackson, the commission has been involved in assisting the city in a number of projects over the years, including the Jackson Trails Street extension between Highway 25 and Lee Avenue Industrial Park.

Right now Kathy Mangles of the commission staff is helping Jackson prepare its application for a Community Development block grant for street and housing improvements along each side of Greensferry Road.

The staff is also helping Jackson prepare a grant application for a water main and water tower that will serve two industrial parks in the city.

One of the commission's first major projects in this area was for the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority. The commission staff helped write the successful $1 million grant that was used to build the slackwater harbor. More recently, the staff has worked on the port authority's grant application for construction of a rail spur into the port and purchase of Union Pacific Railroad's branch line between Cape Girardeau and Scott City.

Tucker said many smaller cities do not have the staff or technical expertise to prepare grant applications, or the money to pay private consulting firms to prepare them. That's why they are members of the commission.

In addition to writing grant applications, the commission offers a full range of community planning services for those smaller cities that do not have planners. Those services include assistance with zoning and subdivision ordinances and preparation of environmental assessments.

Tucker's assistant for 16 years, Kent Bratton, is now a planner for the city of Cape Girardeau.

Other services provided by the commission staff include community and economic development plans and printing of brochures of those plans for communities and counties.

The commission offers a wide range of business and industrial services, including a regionwide marketing program in five national publications. The commission staff can assist businesses in preparing applications for loan packages and financing, individual business plans and small business consulting, and with on-the-job and customized training for new employees.

"In fact, our job training program has grown so much that we are planning to open an office in Cape Girardeau," said Tucker.

A recent example of the commission's job training program is assistance it will provide to the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council to help employees of Brown Shoe Co. of Charleston and Caruthersville. Both plants will close this year.

The commission is also working closely with the Region 8 Solid Waste Management District Committee for continued planning and technical assistance.

The commission recently released population projections for cities and counties in its seven-county area. This is the third time it has developed population projections for the area. These projections provide valuable data for planning future growth and development plans.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development and Community Development block grant program have asked the commission and other regional commissions around the state to assist in compiling a rural-water-system strategy for the state.

The commission does its work on limited funds. It receives $25,000 -- next year $30,000 -- in dues from its members. It also receives a $5,000 grant from the state, which will be reduced to $2,000 next year, and $61,000 from the Economic Development Commission.

Tucker said all studies, planning and technical assistance are provided to commission members on a cost-reimbursable basis. It does not make a profit from the work.

"We try to keep the cost as low as possible because that is one reason why we are here -- to help improve the economic status of our region by assisting organizations that usually do not have a lot of money to spend on economic development planning," said Tucker.