Benefit of sales tax is seen in efforts of LCRA in Sikeston

In just over a week, Sikeston voters will be asked to continue a one-cent sales tax approved 10 years ago that funds Public Safety improvements, Land Clearance for Redevelopment efforts and the pledged payments for the SEMO-Sikeston campus.

It was 10 years ago that Sikeston voters overwhelmingly approved the much-needed revenue. And since then, the results of that tax money are evident in our community.

But today, I want to address the importance of the LCRA funding.

When you discuss the number of sub-standard properties in Sikeston, the scope of the issue becomes apparent.

Since the first 1-cent sales tax was approved, the LCRA has acquired 199 properties through your tax dollars. An additional 100 or so properties have been upgraded because of the LCRA efforts by the home owners.

When first approved, approximately 300 properties were identified as unsafe, unsanitary and uninhabitable. But then the mortgage scam hit our community and another 300 properties were targeted.

Not one person or family has been displaced because of the clean-up efforts of the LCRA. Every property targeted, acquired and demolished was a blight on the neighborhood and a source of health and safety issues.

Can you imagine over 600 properties in our small town that were condemned? What does that do to the neighborhoods? How can nearby residents be expected to take pride in their property when they sit beside a condemned property?

In short, the task was and remains immense. And expensive to resolve.

But through the revenues of the original sales tax, vast improvements have been made and will continue with your approval of the sales tax continuation on Aug. 6.

As of today, the LCRA has 268 additional properties that have been targeted for removal. And in some ways, that list continues to grow.

If our community does not address this long-neglected issue, then our future will be in jeopardy. And that is no exaggeration. It's a fact.

We cannot expect neighborhoods in the targeted area to improve if we don't remove these problem properties.

We cannot expect Sikeston to attract new residents if we don't address this issue.

We cannot expect employers to consider Sikeston until we remove these eyesores.

And the problem will not be solved unless we approve the sales tax continuation and continue funding for LCRA.

No effort on community improvement in Sikeston's history has had as much positive impact as the efforts of the LCRA on behalf of the citizens.

Given the resources, we can clean-up our hometown and make way for future redevelopment.

Please join me and many others in supporting this sales tax continuation and the long overdue efforts to have a hometown in which we can all take pride.