Jackson's additions

Jackson has a new soccer park and a new senior center, thanks to hard work by many volunteers along with donations and state grants.

The soccer park has been three years in the making. Parents, the Jackson Soccer Park Association and the city of Jackson contributed thousands of volunteer hours to the project, which encompasses 13 new fields on Route PP over 27 acres donated by the Jackson Industrial Development Co. A state grant for $150,000 in addition to $250,000 in donations helped make the park possible.

The new $800,000 senior center at 2690 Travelers Way is bigger and nicer than the city's previous center, where overcrowding cut down on the number of people who used it. More than 100 seniors came to the grand opening.

Procter & Gamble and the Lichtenegger family donated the land for the center, worth $125,000. An anonymous donation of $100,000 plus funding from the state and Cape Girardeau County accounted for the rest of the money.

The center still needs to raise $100,000 to pay off the debt on the building.

Both the soccer park and the senior center are additions that will serve Jackson and area residents well.