A few Central Illinois towns show growth in latest Census estimates

Jul 20, 2008 (Herald & Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CILL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Central Illinois communities that have grown since the year 2000 may be few and far between, but they do have things in common.

The larger ones, such as Bloomington, Champaign, Normal, Springfield and Urbana, are not as dependent as Decatur on manufacturing, which is on the decline nationwide, for employment.

"Most downstate areas are not growing like the Chicago suburbs," said J. Fred Giertz, professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "A lot of that is because manufacturing is not doing very well in the U.S., with Caterpillar being one of the few exceptions."

Smaller places, including Effingham, Forsyth, Monticello, Mount Zion, Oreana, Sullivan and Teutopolis, appear to benefit from strong educational systems and their location -- either near a larger city, along an interstate highway or both.

Such were among the cities, towns and villages that grew, according to population estimates for July 1, 2007, released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau. To produce them, the bureau used housing unit estimates, which look at building permits, estimates of construction and mobile home shipments.

"People are moving to rural areas for a better quality of life," said area author Jack Schultz, who published "Boomtown USA: The 7 1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns" in 2004, "and the first thing they look for are good schools."

School districts in the seven communities above consistently rank among the top 15 of 40 smaller districts analyzed annually by the Herald & Review for their performance on state achievement tests.

Communities do not always benefit equally, even from new school buildings. Estimates show Maroa and Argenta missing out on the increases experienced by nearby Forsyth and Oreana, despite high schools built there in the past five years.

Argenta Mayor Deena Bowman, however, doesn't believe the new estimates are accurate.

While they show the village slipping from 917 people to 830 between 2000 and 2007, her best guess of Argenta's population is 921 people.

Bowman said families moving into a dozen new houses on the village's southwest side in the last couple of years have made up for the losses that have occurred.

"There are a lot of new things going on in Clinton, and we're not too far from Forsyth," she said. "We're a quiet little community that's kind of the middle of things here."

Forsyth has evidence its 2007 estimate of 2,929 people is far short of the mark, with a special census this summer producing a preliminary figure of 4,418 and expected to return an even higher final total.

Mayor Harold "Hap" Gilbert said the $68,000 the village paid the Census Bureau should return an additional $200,000 annually in state reimbursements based on population.

Indeed, because of the steady growth in commercial development since Hickory Point Mall was completed 30 years ago, 90 percent of the village's income comes from sales tax revenue. That confers some property tax advantages, making separate levies unnecessary for Forsyth's park system and public library.

The tax levy for the portion of Hickory Point Township that is in Forsyth is $6.9474 per $100 equalized assessed property value, for example, compared to $8.9235 for the part in Decatur.

Sales tax revenue also made it easier for the village to build a water treatment plant in recent years and for construction to begin east of town on a new Maroa-Forsyth Grade School funded by a half-cent sales tax increase.

"We have tried to do our very best to maintain a good infrastructure and provide for the needs of citizens," Gilbert said.

Meeting people's needs is just what sets some communities above the rest, Schultz says, but Forsyth and Mount Zion didn't get mentioned in his book because Macon County is a Metropolitan Statistical Area and thus attracts people getting jobs in Decatur.

Sometimes even small suburban communities like these aren't far enough away from it all, with estimates showing Long Creek losing population despite the pull of the Mount Zion School District.

Former village President Kevin Greenfield, now supervisor of Long Creek Township, said he believes the village population is closer to 1,600 instead of an estimated 1,316, but that the township's residential growth is coming from rural subdivisions.

"We're growing for the same reasons as Mount Zion," Greenfield said. "It's just that these subdivisions are just outside the village limits."

On the other hand, Effingham, Mattoon and Tuscola were among the successful Illinois "agurbs" Schultz highlighted in "Boomtown USA."

Norma Lansing, president of the Greater Effingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said Effingham and Teutopolis are both coming back from the loss of 600 jobs when Quebecor World closed its Effingham printing plant in 2004. Population estimates for counties released this year showed Effingham County declined slightly in population, going from 34,264 people in 2000 to 34,225 in 2007.

Lansing cited the arrival of a Pinnacle Foods warehouse in Effingham with 100 new jobs a year ago and said Patterson Dental is hiring 100 more employees.

"But it's not just new employers coming in," Lansing said. "We also have the Rosebud Theatre, which opened in November, and that's the kind of quality-of-life factor that the younger generation looks for first."

Drew Hoel, city administrator for Tuscola, credits such amenities as the 11-year-old Iron Horse Golf Course, Tanger Outlet Mall and the community's strategic location between Decatur, Mattoon and Champaign.

"Sixty percent of our work force commutes outside Tuscola to their employment," he said.

City Manager Floyd Allsop said Monticello has averaged 32 new home permits a year since 1995, and it's not uncommon for families moving in to have one spouse working in Decatur and the other in Champaign-Urbana.

"These are two different types of metros, and we're fortunate to have easy access to both," he said. "But we're really a community that has pretty much everything you need, within reason; we have Kirby Hospital, a swimming pool and a lot of other recreational opportunities, and crime is nearly nonexistent."

Allsop speculates that rising gasoline prices and the increasing importance of having a quality of life could lead employers to open more satellite services.

"You want to have population growth, but not so fast that it outruns your capacity," he said.

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.

To see more of Herald & Review, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-review.com Copyright (c) 2008, Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index