NEW CITY MANAGER STARTS HIS FIRST DAY ON THE JOB TODAY

Good morning, Michael Miller.

You are probably in a hurry this morning, trying to get to City Hall for your first day on the job as Cape Girardeau's new city manager. Welcome to town.

As a professional manager who has moved around a bit -- seven towns since 1960 -- you know how to get a quick feel for a new community. You already have found a house to buy, and pretty soon you and your family will turn it into a home.

If you are like a lot of other newcomers to Cape Girardeau, you already have been visited by some neighbors and maybe even been invited to a backyard barbecue or into someone's home to meet the neighbors. That's Cape Girardeau for you: Friendly and helpful.

With a freshness that only a new resident can have, you no doubt have seen a lot of things in town that longtime residents take for granted or don't pay much attention to. Have you tried to drive from one end of Cape Rock Drive to the other yet? It's a quick way to see a lot of the town and grasp the street situation. A hint: It helps to have a guide on your first Cape Rock Drive excursion.

Like any new homeowner in town, you probably have made a lot of trips to the hardware store and some other places getting all those things you need to settle in. You've seen how the city is a regional shopping area, with new retail outlets opening just about every week. That's good, because the city's sales-tax revenue is kind of like that little bunny in the battery commercials: It just keeps growing and growing and growing.

Sometimes moving can cause upset stomachs and palpitations, but here's hoping you haven't had to visit any of Cape Girardeau's top-rate medical facilities. Did you ever think a town this size would have so much to offer in the healing arts? It's one of the big pluses about this area, and you will grow to appreciate it.

If you're like most folks between residences and between jobs, you have been eating out a lot. The choices here seem to be endless. If you like barbecue, you might want to bone up on the finer nuances of smoking versus broiling and whether or not sauce is really necessary. Barbecue is the official food of Cape Girardeau -- well, it ought to be -- and you either learn to love it or go hungry sometimes.

As you head into work today, rest assured there are a lot of fine people waiting to help you do a good job. City government -- and county government too -- have a record for being managed well and operating smoothly and efficiently. When was the last time you lived anywhere where there was no county real estate tax?

Cape Girardeau is about as near-perfect a place as you will ever find, but there are some things that need attention. This is where you come in. Voters overwhelmingly approved a city transportation tax recently, and they are expecting to see some good results. A lot of folks are still wondering about the proposed riverboat casino. And as the city continues to bulge at its borders, there is always the annexation situation to deal with. You'll find plenty of other issues to deal with, probably by this afternoon.

Good luck on your first day, and best wishes for your success. You don't have to do everything by yourself. There's the city council, your staff, lots of volunteers on boards and commissions, and they are all ready to help make Cape Girardeau even better.

By the way, as a native of the Catskills, you can look forward to weekend forays into the nearby Ozarks. Believe it or not, they're in Illinois too. Just look across the river. They are just another bonus of being one of Cape Girardeau's newest residents.