Richard Poston's great plans for Cairo

Big-hearted democracy in Cairo's community life at the southern tip of Illinois and fabulous economic prosperity built on tourists drawn to a grand riverfront refurbishment — that is Dick Poston's vision. It has spread to many of the town's 6,000 people, who now have "showboat" fever. But Poston admits, "This is the hardest nut I have had to crack."

Cairo, with its 20 percent unemployment and large minority population, has been on a downturn since the 1920s. Almost single-handedly Poston is trying to energize this community, located near

SIU-C Photo Richard Poston

where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge and on Interstate 57 where 2.5 million vehicles pass each year. He has succeeded before in other towns, and he is betting his reputation on doing it again in Cairo.

Richard Waverly Poston, 73, is professor emeritus of community development at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He came out of retirement 18 months ago after 40 years as a professional community developer in Montana, Washington, Illinois and in countries around the world as a Peace Corp consultant and foreign aid adviser. His current mission: to revitalize the once-reknowned department that he founded in 1953 at SIU, and which, under Poston's efforts, relit civic flames in about 45 southern Illinois towns.

If Poston and Cairo succeed, there will be a three-decker steamboat on the river waters, attracting tourists to its fine dining, games and 19th century shows, and generating seed money for other tourist-attracting projects: a Civil War Museum, renovated 19th century buildings and mansions, bed-and-breakfast operations. The most ambitious plans call for developing a substantial commercial and recreational harbor on the Mississippi near Angela Towhead Island, which would cap the tourist development with regional commercial use. Like a colonial Williamburg, Cairo could showcase a slice of U.S. history.

So far, with Poston's help, the citizens of Cairo made good their pledge to save Fort Defiance State Park (two miles south of town where the two great rivers meet) from closure by the state. They formed Operation Enterprise. They set up a not-for-profit organization called Confluence Community Development Inc., and as of November 1, 1987, it was leasing the park from the state for $2 a year. They got the Illinois National Guard to agree to help clean up the park each April after seasonal flooding in return for using the park as a bivouac area during certain months. Hundreds of Cairo citizens turned out July 11, 1987, to clean up the fort grounds and a defaced Boatman's Monument. The rebirth of the park (the point where Ulysses S. Grant launched the Civil War siege on Vicksburg, Miss.) was celebrated last October with mayors from southern Illinois, southeastern Missouri and western Kentucky.

Two women direct Operation Enterprise with Poston's coaching. Angela Greenwell, who is from the white community, heads the Cairo Chamber of Commerce. Jenolar McBride, a respected black educator, is the other driving force. They have involved the citizenry in taking a thorough town census and attitude survey. Besides working to repave the access road to Fort Defiance, they are working on other community needs, such as medical services.

Has all of Cairo embraced the vision? Poston says that "nobody in Cairo is in open opposition to the showboat" or the other parts of the project, but behind the scenes the Old Guard remains skeptical. It is taking a wait-and-see posture and as­sisting Operation Enterprise very little. Poston also says that "a fringe element is skeptical of anything and everyone concerning any improvement in Cairo."

Meanwhile Poston is concentrating on the steamboat, which he hopes to have in operation a year from now, and financial backing. An entrepreneur with a large Chicago company recently handed him a $10,000 check after reading about the steamboat, but the grander plan will ultimately need millions of dollars. Contacts have been made with several foundations, including a Japanese foundation on the East Coast, Poston says. The Institute for Illinois, formed by the Illinois congressional delegation to promote the state's interests, is another possible ally that he is trying to enlist, as are top state tourism and economic development officials. Poston is trying to fashion irresistible political clout and leadership to help attract foundation and private funding. At the same time he is scouting out a management firm to lease the steamboat and manage its on­board and related enterprises for the Cairo citizens' not-for-profit group. He is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Poston believes that if the Corps gives the harbor idea the green light, other pieces of that project will come together.□

Cheryl Frank is a reporter for Lee Enterprises Inc. in its State-house bureau in Springfield.

October 1988 | Illinois Issues | 19