Fairfield Illinois (Princeton, Flora, Wayne: crime, homes, employment)

[doctorlewis]

I may be moving to Fairfield, Illinois this coming June (2007) and I was just wondering what individuals thought about the town and location. I currently live in Arkansas in a small community. Thank you for any information.

[doll lady]

I've only been to Fairfield about 3 times. It appears to be a typical small midwestern town. But, if you are coming from a small Arkansas town, then the culture shock won't hit you so much. The location is about 4 hours from the capitol city. Easy access to Interstate 64 (East/West) which takes you directly into St. Louis. And Interstate 57 (North /South) is in Mt. Vernon. So at least you have good access to getting to other places in the state or to other states.

There used to be a large manufacturer of car horns in nearby Flora but that closed a few years ago and really hurt the economy. Many Fairfield residents worked there

There's not a whole lot there, but at least Mt. Vernon is not far and it has quite a few shopping areas and eateries. And several miles to the east is Evansville Indiana which is a very nice city.

[kathy58]

I live about 25 miles south of there, go ther on occasion to super wal-mart. there's not much there alot of drugs, and crime for a small rural area. nickname in our area for it is (foilfield). check out wfiwradio.com that's the local newspage on line.

[cstan2]

My family has lived in that general area for some time, my aunt & uncle actually live in the NE corner of Wayne county(where Fairfield is located) and its homestead property...

The area is VERY rural, but its nice enough, there are some drug issues meth is a big problem but my family still prefers raising children there to risking another area. I'm not sure which company doll lady was referring to; however Flora still has a very thriving industrial park: Hella & NAL make auto parts Hella makes circuits and NAL makes headlight assemblies. A lot of the people in the area also drive to Princeton and work at the Toyota plant. The vast majority of people in the area are blue collar, its pretty far removed from any real culture, the local community college district has a campus in Fairfield but it is one of the smallest campuses I believe only a single building.

Fairfield does have reasonably easy access to the Interstate and Evansville, IN & St. Louis both provide good shopping & other activities; Fairfield is also very near Shawnee National Forest if you enjoy camping and/or the outdoors.

Coming from another rural area Fairfield probably won't be much different unless you're moving for a much smaller area then you may think of it as 'the big city' I know thats the impression I used to get when I was little since we lived in a village of less than 1,000 where the post office shared a building with the grocery store.

[sixtwobaldguy]

Let's just be honest, the place is in the middle of nowhere. There isn't going to be any crime issues, lol, what a joke. The place is so small, it's not even funny. I can't imagine any reasonable person wanting to live in such a drab place, but if extreme religious right, farmtown is your thing-- by all means have at it.

No crime issues, nothing going on at all actually. The average citizen either owns a collection of atvs or is probably 500 years old.

[WalMartWorker]

Hi and I hope to actually meet you sometime... I live in Fairfield and have lived here in Wayne county for the last 15 years... It is a small town but the people are very friendly and I really like it here.. Yes like any place in this world there are some troubles but it is really not that bad....I work for the local Wal Mart in the TLE department and there are always jobs open there.. Another place for employment is Airtex which is a factory that has been here some 40 or 50 years... It is a place that if you are raising kids then they would like the schools here as I have 4 kids and they really like it... It is not like the bigger towns where the big bullys are out to run the schools.. Anyways my e-mail is hutchkey44@aol.com if you ever have any questions about Fairfield or any of the surrounding towns... Hope to hear from you soon........

[aus10]

Wow! Even though I didn't grow up a "Mule" your talking about my part of Illinois. Best of luck from this "Saluki" and "Indian" family. OP, you'll find that SE Illinois folks love their High School basketball almost as much as most Arkansas folks love their football. I enjoyed going to many a game at Fairfield. At one time there was a Rax restaraunt open there when all the others had shut down. Is it still open?

[WalMartWorker]

Rax is now closed and it is called 5 Brothers Cafe now.... I miss the Rax Roast Beef lol............

[PaintRider]

Originally Posted by sixtwobaldguy

Let's just be honest, the place is in the middle of nowhere. There isn't going to be any crime issues, lol, what a joke. The place is so small, it's not even funny. I can't imagine any reasonable person wanting to live in such a drab place, but if extreme religious right, farmtown is your thing-- by all means have at it.

No crime issues, nothing going on at all actually. The average citizen either owns a collection of atvs or is probably 500 years old.

sixtwobaldguy-

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. My family has lived there for over 80 years and I can assure you none of them own a collection of ATV's and are not 500 years old. Do us all a favor and either keep your opinions to yourself or know what you are talking about before you run your mouth.

[danifrogwes]

I really would like some info on Fairfield and Flora. My hubby and i want to move back further north to a smaller city. Right now we live in Hot Springs Arkansas and miss the north but somewhere not too cold like Minnesota. My hubby is in construction and needs work wherever we go.we have looked in to the southern part of Illinois but it looks good on paper but we don't want any suprise's when we get there. We will be leaving here in June; Please help! we really need it