Turning around a town

CAIRO, Ill. -- The candidates for mayor in this struggling river town are both old enough to remember when downtown was alive with people on the weekends and almost anyone could find some sort of job if they looked.

Judson Childs, 64, and Karl Klein, 71, can pinpoint where Woolworth's, J.C. Penney and a host of other stores conducted business in now-crumbling buildings.

On Tuesday, Cairo voters will select one of the two as town leader. Each promises to bring peace to a city hall where four years of political trench warfare resulted in hardened factions unable to find consensus on almost any issue, including routine business.

Both men agree that Cairo urgently needs a source of jobs that can give hope to young people. The town lost 25 percent of its population from 1990 to 2000, and current U.S. Census estimates show the town is down about another 200 people with a population estimate of about 3,400. In the 1920s, more than 15,000 people lived there.

"That is one of the reasons I jumped into the race was to try to get it turned around," Klein said. "We need to get some industry here, maybe get some restaurants and some small businesses to supply the industry. Now when children get out of school, they've got to leave town to find a job. When your young people leave your town, the town is going to die."

Judson Childs (Fred Lynch)

Cairo's top private employer, Bunge Corp., announced plans last year to build a biodiesel plant. A Louisville, Ky.-based company, Clean Coal Power Resources, has pitched a massive coal gasification facility to area leaders.

A first step to generating interest, Childs said, is to develop a plan to remove crumbling buildings. "What I see in Cairo is people are crying out for help," he said. "We need to attract industry, but we need to clean up the town. If you are coming to my house, you make it attractive to the people who are coming."

The winner Tuesday will replace Mayor Paul Farris, who was elected in 2003. Even before Farris took office, attitudes hardened against him on the six-member city council.

Over the four years, Farris fought with the auditor hired to review his predecessor's last year in office. The result is that there have been no audits of any spending under Farris.

Farris' attempts to get control of the city finances resulted in criminal charges of official misconduct, later dropped. His actions to fire and discipline city workers have often backfired, resulting in arbitration awards, some of which remain unpaid. The city is facing litigation on several fronts.

Karl Klein (Fred Lynch)

Both Childs and Klein seek votes based on their business and administrative skills. The men both have a clear understanding of the factionalism that divides the town, and each claims the ability to overcome those rifts.

Childs is retired from the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he went to work in 1965 after four years in the U.S. Army. He was raised in the rural community of Cache, Ill., and made Cairo his home while he worked at prisons in Joliet and elsewhere. He retired from the post of warden at the medium security Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna.

Through 33 years in a state position, Childs said he retained Cairo as his home, returning on weekends to his family.

His cites his climb through the hierarchy of the prison system as evidence of leadership and administrative skills, both of which Cairo needs, Childs said. "A good leader uses his eyes and his ears," he said. "I got into this because I thought, 'Enough is enough. What are you doing except complaining?'"

Klein was raised in town and remembers his first job at a small, family-owned grocery store. He's held positions with the city fire department, worked in construction and as city superintendent in the 1970s. He was director of the privately operated Cairo Public Utilities, which operates the gas and electric system and pays $50,000 monthly to the city.

Before the city can successfully attract industries, Klein said, the town's financial situation must be determined.

"I have no idea what is there," Klein said. "We've got to get in there and do the audits. I have no idea how far in debt they are. I know they are in debt quite a-ways."

The winner will join at least three new members on the council. Three of Farris' most ardent foes are seeking new terms, but both Childs and Klein promise they will work with whoever is elected.

"If I were to win, my whole thing would be to work with the council, whoever they may be," Childs said.

Maintaining the city's current level of services for fire, police and maintenance will be a top priority, Klein said, although that may be tough given tight finances.

Unlike the campaign from four years ago, the two candidates aren't battling each other as much as they are offering a similar prescription with differing perspectives. Any business offering jobs will be welcome, they said, and cooperation, not confrontation, is the first dose of any remedy.

But turning around a town in decline for decades won't be accomplished in a few years, they said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126