Color David Janssen a realistic optimist. The Savonburg City Councilman was asked to peer into a crystal ball and eye the community’s future, say five or 10 years down the road. On one hand, the future of small towns like Savonburg is bleak, Janssen admitted. With an aging population, fewer and fewer quality homes to entice out-of-towners and an infrastructure that has well outlived its realistic life span, it’s easy to see why rural populations continue to decline, he said. To wit, Savonburg’s population at the 2010 census was over 100. As of 2022, that number had dropped to 75. “If nothing happens, I can see the community going away,” Janssen warned, “and becoming unincorporated.” But Janssen isn’t one to give up without a fight.
Source: The Iola Register
