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Cairo Reaches For Helping Hand

By Andy Waterman

CAIRO-- If you've ever driven through Cairo, it's easy to see that much of the town is in poor shape.

"It's sad, it's falling apart, all you see is empty lots, and broken down buildings," said long time resident Audrey Tabor.

To help that image, a class of SIU architecture students spent the last four months coming up with projects to revitalize the town.

"You need something for somebody to come to," said SIU student Andrew Malinowski. "If there's nothing here, the people aren't going to come. So hopefully with the proposal we're going to make today, people will want to come, move back in, and start rehabilitating the city."

A few staples of the proposed project focus on recreation. Everything from a community center, to a skate park, and even a golf course. All ideas that residents were happy to hear, because right now there's no other form of extracurricular activities in the town.

"There's nothing here for the youth, there's no jobs here, everything is just a retired, laid back place for retirees, and there's young people here that need more," Tabor added.

But only a few minutes into the students' presentation, folks started having questions about how the project would be funded.

"The city's broke, and I still say is there anyway we can get a grant because I just don't believe that the business people here are going to pool their money together and try to make things better here for Cairo, I just don't believe that," exclaimed Tabor.

Students say the town would have to rely mostly on grants and stimulus money for the project. And although they don't have a timeline on when they can get that money, residents say at least they've started a plan.