TO THE EDITOR: TAMMS IS MORE THAN FUTURE PRISON SITE

Dear Editor:

The Progress Edition of the Missourian contained an article on the new Super Max Prison to be located here in Tamms. Numerous articles about the prison have appeared in the Missourian as well as the St. Louis Post Dispatch and Chicago Tribune. All of these articles have one thing in common, and that is the picture of Tamms that they portray.

I'm sure there are a number of people in your readership that have never been to Tamms, and they now have a mental picture of a town where the weeds have grown up through the abandoned railroad tracks, a town with one part-time police officer, one drug store, one grocery store and no motel within eight miles. These descriptive phrases have been repeated over and over in every article that has appeared.

I do not deny that Tamms is a small town. It is. Also, I'm sure that during the peak of the weed season that weeds do indeed grow up through the abandoned railroad tracks. I further do not dispute the number of drug stores or grocery stores that inhabit the town nor the number of motels within eight miles .

The thing that puzzles me is how article after article can mention only these items and ignore the fact that Tamms has a bank, a medical and dental clinic, a five-county regional vocational school, a Head Start daycare center, and a new governmental office building which houses the Farmers Home Administration, ASCS, and Soil Conservation Service. In addition there are two funeral homes, an insurance agency, a tax-preparation office, a building supply store, and a farm supply store.

In addition to these businesses and governmental services, Tamms has a very nice community park which provides summer recreation programs, a modern community building for meetings and other activities, and two modern senior citizens apartment buildings.

No one here in Tamms will deny that the town is small, and that an economic "shot in the arm" is sorely needed, but to continually be characterized as something out of Tobacco Road is a little much.

Also, just for the record, far too much has been made of the effects of the railroad closing down. Certainly a few businesses were affected, as were the families of the people employed by the railroad, but the town did not dry up. The population is basically the same now as it was before the railroad closed down. Actually the town has made quite a bit of progress over the past ten years or so, and we are quite proud of it. We feel that if one surveyed towns in Illinois with populations under 1, 000 people, you would find that Tamms is one of the cleaner and more progressive small towns. It would be really nice if one of your future articles could reflect this. Thank you.

CARL L. HILEMAN

Tamms, Ill.