University Daily Kansan / Monday, December 11, 1989
11A
Reagan's hometown mirrors decade's twists
The Associated Press
DIXON, III. — It was the decade when glasnost came to small-town U.S.A. and the hero from Hennepin Avenue did folks proud — he moved into the White House.
The 1980s began in Dixon with a celebration: Boyhood resident Ronald Reagan was elected president. They ended with small-scale superpower summity. The town opened up a friendship with a Siberian city.
But between the triumphs came tough times. And in many ways, Dixon's decade typified the highs and lows of Midwest rural towns. Unemployment rose, then fell. Farmland values dropped, now they're rising. The community lost a giant employer but gained another one.
"I would call it (the '90s) a roller coaster where you start and stop at the same point, but you have a hell of a ride in between," said Mayor James Dixon, a sixth-generation descendant of the town's founder.
Ronald Reagan
"When we started the '80s everybody's thoughts were, 'Well, we don't want to make changes.' We were looking backwards, if you ask me," he said. "Today, we've been through tough times and we know that we've
Not surprisingly, some say Reagan was an inspiration.
"When you hear the president of the United States say he's proud of his hometown, you think, 'Hey, maybe I should be,'" said Linda Brantley, who owns a jewelry store with her husband.
got to live with change."
Reagan may be out of the national spotlight, but he's not out of the hearts and minds of Dixon residents.
A Reagan museum and statue are planned. They will join the Reagan bridge and renovated white-frame home at 816 S. Hennepin Avenue, located in the Reagan bloom in the 1920s. He returned to a birthday visit in 1984.
The mayor and others say Dixon's future is more promising compared with a decade ago because of the healthy economy. But a new upbeat, can-do attitude has helped, too.
Foreign visitors also have made the pilgrimage, including a delegation from the Soviet Union's northernmost city, Dickson, Siberia, which in 1988 established sister-city
"I don't think the Dickson-Dixon exchange is just a nice little thing between two little cities," said the mayor, who traveled 13 time zones this spring to the remote Arctic city. "Its importance is that we're just one drop in a flood of change."
ties with Dixon.
Although Dixon hasn't strayed from its conservative leanings — Reagan won 83 percent of the 1984 election, the decade has seen cultural changes.
In the high school, more boys were wearing earrings, more computers were used, the cafeteria added a salad bar. The girls' teams did better than the boys. In stores, people bought Nikes and Liz Caiorones. In the library, folks checked out "Clan of the Crown" books, "I," and "The Ladies of the Club" and anything by Stephen King, Tom Clancy or Danielle Steel. In town, there was a new event — an antidrug "Just Say No" parade.
But bread-and-batter issues were bigger than food and fashion in the past.
15,000, which greets visitors with a white arch decorated with the town's name in neon.
The early '80s were years of economic despair.
About half of Dixon's economy depends on agriculture. When the farm crisis hit, business failures and bankruptcies followed. Four farm implement dealers in the area have shrunk to one.
A steel wire mill in a nearby town closed much of its operations, leaving hundreds without jobs. It has since restored some of them.
Then, in 1983, a state home for the mentally retarded shut down. Its workforce of 1,000 had made it Dixon's largest employer.
Property values fell, school enrollment dwindled and the district's debt increased. Dixon's confidence was shaken.
"We lost population," Brantley said. "We lost business. And we lost attitude."
The turnaround started in mid-decade. School district voters approved a tax increase in 1985. The
home for the retarded was remodeled into a state prison, providing hundreds of jobs.
With a new, smaller home for the retarded and a branch of Illinois' transportation agency, the state remains Dixon's No. 1 employer.
Dixon also traded its laissez-faire business style for a hard-nosed, competitive approach.
"We're a lot better prepared for the '90s than we were for the '80s," said Chuck Beckman, Chamber of Commerce president. "The '80s attitude was there nothing we can do about it if an industry says, 'We're going to close.'"
Now, he said, "We've been able to go to them and pretty much convince them the workforce is good; this is the place they ought to be. You have to be willing to go to people and say, 'What will it take? What's the problem?' Is there something we can do?"
As Dixon enters the '90s, Brantley says, "everything is in place. It's just a matter of blossoming."
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