The retired Landmark Bank chairman who has studied economic trends in Columbia/Boone County for 38 years says the decision by Central Bank to go public is a smart move. Former Landmark Bank chairman Jeff MacLellan joined host Fred Parry in-studio for the hour Saturday morning on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable” program. “What they’ve done is they now have access to capital markets. And for a bank to grow you really need, particularly if you’re going to grow quite a bit, you need access to capital markets. And if you look at their performance over time, they’ve always done really well,” Mr. MacLellan tells Fred Parry, who asked him what he means by capital markets. Mr. MacLellan tells listeners he is referring to stock. Mr. MacLellan also discussed Columbia’s economy since he arrived in 1987 and says it’s been resilient. The biggest change he’s noticed is Columbia’s population. “When I came here in 1987, the population was about 67,000. And today it’s somewhere north of 131,000. So the town hasn’t quite doubled but almost. I mean it’s really close,” he says. Mr. MacLellan tells listeners that the common denominator for that growth is the University of Missouri. He and Fred also discussed Jefferson City’s population, crime in Columbia, the real estate market and other topics during the interview. He says Columbia Board of Realtor numbers show the average days on market for a home in Columbia last year was 32 and that it’s now 38 days. Jeff MacLellan was born and raised in Mexico City, before he enrolled at the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri at the age of 14 and graduated from there. He remains on the board of directors at Missouri Military Academy and says it’s a great facility. After serving in Guam in the U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam war, he earned multiple degrees from SMU in Dallas, a campus known as “The Hilltop”: