RIVER CITY JOURNAL: PERRYVILLE IS PERFECTLY POISED TO GRAB A TOURISM TIGER BY THE TAIL

* "Make hay while the sun shines" must be the official motto of Perry County friends who know good deals when they see 'em.Isn't it grand to live in a small town?Don't be offended. I like small towns. I am not calling Perryville or Cape Girardeau small towns.By comparison, my favorite hometown in the Ozarks is a lot smaller than Perryville. For example:Perryville has a bunch of stoplights. My hometown has one - and it works coming and going.Perryville has a bunch of fast-food restaurants. My hometown has one of the big-chain hamburger places, and it's open most of the time.Perryville has more churches than you can shake a stick at. My hometown ... .Actually, most of the folks in my hometown are Baptists, so it has a lot of churches too.Since we're talking about small towns, let me explain that remark about Baptists. If you have small-town sensitivity about being told you live in a small town, you're probably sensitive about your favorite church denomination too.Let me say that I was raised in a devout Baptist home whose moral lessons still guide me every day of my life. My mother is a proud Baptist, and I'm proud of her. But that doesn't erase the fact that there are more kinds of Baptists than breakfast cereal.So when I say my favorite hometown has a lot of churches because it has a lot of Baptists, I'm just stating fact. I am not trying to make the Lutherans look bad or anything.But enough about Baptists.This is about Perryville.Actually, it all started because Cape Girardeau is a small enough town that your mail can be temporarily mixed up for a day or two, but it always gets sorted out in the end.Here's what happened:I got a letter this week from a sales agent for a real estate company in Perryville. But the letter didn't go straight to me. It first went to another Joe Sullivan here in Cape Girardeau, because the Perryville sales agent looked up my home address in the phone book and picked the first Joe Sullivan she came to, which isn't me.(For you grammarians, that last bit should be "which isn't I." But who says that?)Naturally, with Cape Girardeau being a small town and all, the other Joe Sullivan's wife looked up my address in the phone book and forwarded the letter along with the sweetest note of apology about the mix-up.I've lived in some big towns from time to time. I don't think I would ever have received that letter from Perryville if I still lived in a big town. So that's one of the reasons why I think it's grand to live in a small town.On top of getting my letter forwarded to me, I also had the pleasure of reading the proposal being made by Karen Ellis, sales agent for Taylor Real Estate Co. in Perryville.Did I say pleasure? That's not quite accurate. I think it was more like ecstatic joy.You see, Karen, whom I've never met, said in her letter that she has been keeping up with the plans for the downtown golf course here in Cape Girardeau. By keeping up, she of course knew that those plans have been set aside so our esteemed mayor can rally the community behind his half-a-bridge plan for the new millennium. And, by keeping up, Karen also knows that folks in Jackson are planning a lighted course so golfers can play at night, which, in my opinion, is just as good an idea as the downtown golf course ever was.Remember? I predicted that if Cape Girardeau didn't have its downtown golf course to look forward to, other towns would step up to the plate - or the first tee, as the case may be.

In her letter, Karen wrote:

"Although it might not benefit you, we have listed 50 acres of prime ground close to the new Super Wal-Mart in Perryville, with plans already set up for a golf course and residential housing.

"With Perryville growing the way it is, it would be a very good investment for someone who would want to take advantage of this opportunity."Included with the letter was some information about the 50 acres in question plus an honest-to-goodness drawing of a par-3 golf course on a 15-to-16-acre tract. Naturally, a regulation-size golf course would take all 50 acres, more or less.The asking price for the Perryville property is $1.1 million.In my considered opinion, this is probably a good price for property that could one day be in the golf course hall of fame.However, this is about $1.1 million more than I had budgeted for the downtown golf course. I always figured I could use the courthouse park for free.I suspect Karen Ellis is pretty sharp to send me this plan for a Perryville golf course and get her name and real estate company mentioned in the newspaper. She said she enjoys reading my columns, which is always a good way to get my attention. Good going, Karen. We need more on-the-ball folks.But I wonder if Perryville doesn't already have a full plate, what with the big plans to build a rest home for old tigers.Now there's something that would get a lot of attention. How about a golf course with tigers roaming around? Golfers are always looking for new challenges.I'd say a tiger in the woods - one with stripes or one who earns more than any golfer in the world - would be a big draw for any golf course.Even in a small town.R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.