Houston County can expect upgrades for sewers, water and roads

Infrastructure to accommodate Branson, Mo.’s, nearly 8 million annual visitors has created its share of problems for this small town.
Branson Public Information Director Jerry Adams said roads, water and sewers created challenges.

“We needed alternate routes to heavily traveled Highway 76,” Adams said, referring to the northern part of town. “Motorists were bumper to bumper on Highway 76, which is lined with most of the theaters, restaurants and hotels.”

Residents passed a one-half percent transportation tax in 1991 that allowed the city to begin building and improving streets. It has funded the improvement of 18 miles of streets at a cost of $50 million.

“Southwest Missouri has very rocky terrain that makes road construction more difficult, costly and longer to complete,” Adams said. “Building a street requires blasting rock.”

In the mid 1990s, the city built an additional water treatment plant and wastewater treatment plant to keep pace with the economic development. The city now has two drinking water and two wastewater treatment plants and is looking to expand capacities of the newest water and wastewater plants, Adams said.

In addition, the city added public safety personnel (firefighters and police) and built three fire stations.

Because there was so much building, Branson also increased personnel in its planning and engineering departments. “We added building inspectors to ensure safety in all construction and public projects,” Adams said.

And to Houston County, Adams offered this advice: “If your county moves forward with this development, make sure city and county governments plan ahead for the infrastructure and services to accommodate the influx of visitors your area will experience.”   
 
Adams said because of the way Branson evolved, the community had little planning.

“It just happened,” he said. “We are a neat community where entertainers and entrepreneurs came and saw the potential and made Branson what it is today. We didn’t sit down and recruit anybody. It was a tremendous stress to provide the infrastructure.”

Branson Mayor Raeanne Presley, who has lived in Branson almost 40 years, sees all the problems as opportunities and in terms of economic development, the troubles have been worth it.

“Certainly infrastructure and transportation are issues. We live in an area that is beautiful but difficult to build in,” she said. “Traffic is something we continually work on. As the tourism community has grown ... we have built a series of parallel alternate roads. We use a colored route system and encourage our folks, especially the locals, to use the outer roads.”

Adams said there have also been employment issues. A town the size of Branson does not provide a large enough labor pool to the many businesses there.

Taney County, which includes Branson, has an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent. Nearby Stone County has 6.6 percent unemployment. By comparison, Houston County’s unemployment rate is 3.3 percent.

“Our work force comes from a 50-mile radius,” Adams said. “From Springfield down to Harrison, Arkansas.”

While many of the Branson jobs are in retail sales, Adams said they are not necessarily low paying. The average wage is close to $10 an hour, he said. “Even hotel maids recently got a wage increase because of competition.”

Most people work at theaters, theme parks, and other attractions and many are entertainers themselves.

The per capita income in Branson is $35,104, compared to $20,539 in Dothan according to U.S. Census estimates. Those with the highest incomes in Branson are developers and business owners, Adams said.

Affordable housing is also a problem in Branson, in part because the terrain increases the cost of construction.

“Housing is not affordable here. We are working to create more affordable housing, like apartments. A lot of people live within 40 miles and they commute,” said Adams who commutes 26 miles one-way from his home in Ozark, Mo.

Presley said as gas prices rise, there may be more people moving closer in.

Presley said because Branson is what it is, the community is very much conscience of its role as a 24-7 host and hostess.

“As much as we might find it frustrating to be behind a car from Iowa going 20 miles per hour, when all you want to do it get to the grocery store, we remind ourselves our industry is hospitality and we can’t walk away from that. Ever,” she said.