Rich in good people: The residents of Delta have plenty of pride

No mansions stand along the streets in the city of Delta.

The small homes nestled just off Highway 25 range from well-kept to shabby.

Some would like to see more homes added to the community, where the sign greeting visitors boasts that the population is 517.

Jackie Jackson, who served as police court judge for 14 years, and briefly as the city's mayor more than 25 years ago, recalls a time when the city was a stopping point for three railroads and families could shop at three grocery stores.

Now the city has a car wash, the Jax Bar & Grill, TriCounty Auto and the Delta Quick Mart, among other small businesses. Median wages are, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, $25,400 -- or, as Jackson puts it, "not enough for a man to make a living."

Most people find better jobs in Scott City or Cape Girardeau, he said.

"We're too small to be big and too big to be small," he said, sitting in a chair near the Delta Quick Mart's door, sipping coffee.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Former Delta mayor Jackie Jackson, 70, sat down for coffee Friday at the Delta Quick Mart.

Delta is 15 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau. Jackson defines city limits as Highway 25, Route P, an old gravel road by the Whitewater River and the railroad tracks. It encompasses less than a half-square mile.

"We live in the back of beyond. We're not in the 21st century," Mayor Bonnie Bradshaw said.

The city has no postmaster, no letter carrier. It does have a good water system, but the water tower leaves a lot to be desired.

Harold Looney, Ward 2 alderman, jokes that he used to "get mad and just move away from any town I didn't like" but his wife won't let him do that any more. He's running for mayor now, against Bradshaw. He wants the water tower painted.

AARON EISENHAUER ~ aeisenhauer@semissourian.com Upkeep of the water tower is one of the issues facing the city of Delta.

Everyone in town talks about this problem -- water is a recurrent issue, dating back to the early 1970s.

Now the city has a decent water system, but paint is peeling from the tower.

It will cost thousands of dollars to fix; for more than a year, city officials have tried to craft a grant proposal. The process was upended when then-mayor Carol Collins resigned; Bradshaw was appointed to replace her.

Then, according to city collector Kay Keesee, the consultant working with the city took another job, stalling the process again.

"There's so much paperwork you have to do it step by step," Keesee said.

Bradshaw hopes to see the process through to completion.

"On the good days, it's OK and on the bad days, you think, 'Why am I doing this?' but I think every mayor experiences that," she said.

Bradshaw, who moved to Delta 42 years ago, wants to find a way to annex land and help the city grow. On Thursday she began chemotherapy to treat recently diagnosed pancreatic cancer.

Delta's strength, she said, in a sentiment echoed by everyone interviewed for this story, has nothing to do with the buildings or businesses inside city limits.

"The people in this community are just fantastic. ... This is a good, solid community to live in," Bradshaw said.

Watson Hester, 65, who was drinking coffee at Quick Mart, agreed.

"I've been around, but I haven't seen anything better," Hester said.

Hobert Kight Jr. jokes, "There's not enough money to move away."

He's also the first to say Delta's pride is the high school girls basketball team. The Lady Bobcats finished this season with a 25-3 record and as state Class 1 runner-up.

Keesee, who lives in a house built on land her grandfather farmed, would like to see Delta resume some of the old-time bustle.

"It always helps to be able to grow," she said.

Dale Hobeck, Ward 1 alderman, is running against Keesee for the collector's job. He could use the $500-a-month paycheck, he said, but more importantly, voters should have a choice.

Winning an elected office, he said, "shouldn't be automatic."

He'd like more people to run for collector, mayor and alderman, as a matter of pride.

Hobeck also wants to see the city's water systems improved and said he'd arrange regular office hours at city hall, which is in the Delta Community Center.

Mike Platt took over running Delta Quick Mart on Highway 25 more than a decade ago. It was, he said, a matter of being ready to buy when the previous owner was ready to sell.

"This country could not survive without small towns," he said, between trips to the register to serve a steady stream of customers.

Platt, who lives in Jackson, said he'd stopped at the shop to get his coffee for years. He's worked as a meat buyer for large corporations, as a stockbroker and as a truck driver.

Whoever wins April 8, he said, needs to focus on getting the water issues resolved as quickly as possible.

He said they'll need to practice compromise.

"There's always somebody with a different perspective," he said. "We compromise every day of our lives."

Delta resident Ron Fowler hopes that whomever gets elected will hunker down and focus on the water system and, maybe, finished the job on the half-demolished old church on Route N.

The Delta board of aldermen meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Delta Community Center.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127