Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 26, 1993 TAG: 9309240370
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRANSON, MO. LENGTH: Long
She'd come from Palestine, Texas, with her 7-year-old and a friend. They were in the RV back at the campground.
``We haven't even looked for a place to live yet,'' Kim said.
Branson is booming, and people like Partin are coming from everywhere to get in on the bonanza. Help wanted signs dot 76 Country Boulevard, the lodging and entertainment strip. Theater construction continues at a rapid pace. Hotels and motels are being built, and those that are open need workers, too.
To the average show-goer, things could hardly look better. But there's an almost invisible side of the city's rapid development that has longtime, year-round residents under siege.
``We're grappling with things we never thought about,'' says the city's mayor, Wade Meadows, 74. ``This was thrust upon us all of a sudden, you know. And we have problems every day that we didn't think about.''
The Branson/Lakes area has been a tourist draw since early in this century. It's had well-known entertainers since at least 1983, when Roy Clark opened a theater on the strip. But a ``60 Minutes'' broadcast a few years ago made Branson a target, it seems, for just about anyone who needs a job.
Jobs they can get, at least during the tourist season, from April to November. In July, unemployment drops to about 3.5 percent, says Vonda Olson, manager of the Missouri Job Service office in Branson. In January, it rockets to 24 percent.
And the pay is not so hot, either. Olson says it averages about $6 per hour. Try finding a house or an apartment in Branson for that.
``If you got a hold of a Branson newspaper right now, you'd see a little article about our tent people,'' she says. ``One of the campgrounds has been really kind in allowing people to put tents up. Now they say the sewer system can't handle it, so it will have to close down for a while.''
Her advice: ``Don't just come on down ... because if you don't have a place to stay you're going to be in a world of hurt.''
The state department of social services, 13 miles away in Forsyth, is wrestling with its own overload of cases.
``One of our biggest problems is the homeless,'' says Donna Stuart, the director of the department. ``We have all these people moving in, expecting job, expecting a place to live, and with the wages they receive, they really cannot afford it.''
In winter, her office provides Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps and other assistance. Year 'round, Stuart says, she could use a dozen more workers than the 25 she has.
The ``60 Minutes'' broadcast ``told about some of the larger music shows that took in so many million and really more or less told all of the good things,'' she says, ``but nothing was mentioned about the area not being ready for all of this and what it was going to mean on our side of it. It really is sad to see some of these little children without a place to live.''
``There is a housing shortage,'' admits Dawn Erickson, communications director for the Branson/Lakes Area chamber of commerce. She says Springfield, 45 minutes away, ``has people who need jobs and we have jobs to offer. We're looking at putting together some kind of transportation plan.''
Housing for workers is just one of the problems faced by Meadows and other Branson residents. Traffic is another. Branson's strip, where many of the area's 32 concert halls have been built, draws tens of thousands of cars per day. The average speed during peak periods is little more than zero. Feeder roads and parallel roads are needed. The city is building seven new roads at a cost of $18 to $20 million. Originally planned over seven years, they now are targeted for completion within two.
And, Meadows says, ``We're going to put a motel tax on the November ballot to build a large sewer and water plant'' three miles out of town, in Taney County. It will cost about $18 million, and it will be completed, he hopes, in early 1995.
The road money comes from a half-cent sales tax. A one-percent sales tax adds to the city's general revenues.
Branson's growth has been so explosive that real estate assessments haven't kept up, Meadows says. Two years ago, they actually dropped. After protests from the city and school officials, they rose about 20 percent last year and are expected to rise another 3 to 4 percent in 1993.
``I think the assessor has been somewhat lenient with some of the theaters,'' the mayor says.
The effect of all this growth, and the threat of other major projects in the works, has some of Branson's 3,700 residents torn.
``I've been here most of my life,'' says Don Groves, 31, a staff writer for the Branson Daily News. ``There's more theaters, more motels and a lot less trees and pasture. I think back to the time when I was a kid, and back then it was a lot quieter, easier to go out and go swimming at the lake and not be crowded out by other people. Now you've got a lot of different things to contend with.''
But, he says, there also are lots of jobs, in season, anyway.
Stuart, the county's social services director, is ambivalent, too.
``I hate to see all of our beautiful timber destroyed,'' she says. ``The good side, I guess, is the growth and development and the revenues it's bringing in.''
Donna Erickson of the chamber of commerce is certain that the growth is good.
``The vast majority of people who live here are dependent on tourism,'' she says. ``Tourism has been the focus of this area's economy since 1960. We're very excited to see the community gain the kind of attention it has.''
Those who are not thrilled ``would be people who aren't dependent on it for their living,'' she says, ``and they are relatively few in number.''
One must admit that, except for the busy Branson strip, development does not appear to have overwhelmed the area, at least visually. Downtown Branson still appears quaint, with old-timey, and bustling, Dick's five-and-dime store and the comfortable Branson Cafe serving natives and visitors. But the city is building an $800,000 parking garage to help with the traffic crunch.
Its politicians are divided on the growth issue. In the last election, city council member Raeanne Presley, wife of Steve Presley of the Presleys' Jubilee music show, ran for mayor against Meadows. He beat her, winning an fourth two-year term. Raeanne is ``a nice person,'' he says, but too pro-entertainment strip to serve all the citizens.
Meadows was born in Branson and returned to the area in 1959 after serving 22 years in the Navy. For a time he was the city's engineer. He says he ran for mayor, an unpaid post, only after several businessmen begged him to. He never expected to win, and he says he is surprised and a little sorry to have kept on winning.
But, he admits, with his engineering background, he's ideal for the job.
``This is my home town,'' he says. ``I brought my family back here. We've got good schools. It's good country. The crime rate is low.''
Last year, he tried to persuade council to impose a moratorium on growth but was defeated, 4-2. It's not that he's anti-growth, he says. He just wants more planning. And he thinks the chamber of commerce should look into industrial development, with stable, good-paying jobs, instead of focusing so intensely on tourism.
He has no complaints with the entertainment crowd, saying, ``The bigger the star, the better they are to work with.''
What really irks him is newcomers who press to turn old Branson into some kind of tourist-luring village it never was. This is a man who remembers when hitching posts dotted the city's streets, not designer trees.
``They try to change the image of Branson, to bend it to the way they think it ought to be, in order to sell properties,'' Meadows says. ``I often wonder why the hell they didn't stay home.''
by CNB