Stories from Sunday, February 25, 1996

The Six-Thirty Industrial Park is on either side of Southern Expressway, formerly Highway 74, in Cape Girardeau. The Seven-Thirty Industrial Park is a few miles south, in the East Nash Road Industrial Park area, near Scott City. The industrial parks are among the newest and fastest-growing industrial sites in the area...

Cape Girardeau's auto dealers have turned Kingshighway into Automobile Row. But it didn't used to be that way. When Fred Groves began selling Fords in Cape Girardeau in November 1914, his dealership was downtown, at Broadway and Fountain. Today, the Ford Groves dealership is on North Kingshighway. It is the oldest car dealership in Cape Girardeau, the second oldest Ford dealership in Missouri and the 16th oldest west of the Mississippi River...

Is anybody staying home and cooking? To look at the statistics from eating establishments in Cape Girardeau, it appears not. And anyone trying to get a table at a Cape Girardeau restaurant on a Friday or Saturday evening probably would agree. John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, said the statistics are deceiving if you don't take into consideration that Cape Girardeau is a regional hub for shopping and eating. ...

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Thiele celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary which their daughters hosted in the Fellowship Hall of the Methodist Church in Whitewater. They were married in Marble Hill on Jan. 14, 1936. Mr. Thiele was born in 1912 near Drum to the late John and Kate Thiele of Whitewater. Mrs. Thiele was born at Stroder Branch to the late Mr. and Mrs. W.P.Ross in 1917...

Business owners from Asian countries have the same concerns as any American entrepreneur -- the cold weather's effect on consumers, a late shipment from suppliers and so on. But they have different concerns, too: They admit that learning English is sometimes a problem...

A few more businesses opened than closed in Cape Girardeau last year, the city staff says. Based on the number of business licenses issued last year, 154 businesses opened their doors to Cape Girardeau. Based on the number of business licenses that were canceled or weren't renewed, 146 businesses closed their doors...

Though far from its former glory, the Good Hope neighborhood is slowly rising above some of its recent problems. Once a thriving business district, the area in past decades has steadily declined with shops moving out while crime moved in. But community efforts to combat the problems of the area are having a positive effect...

Support Girl Scout Week by recycling papers and aluminum on Saturday, March 9 at the Wal-Mart parking lot from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring magazines, catalogs and newspapers (including fliers and ads). The scouts have asked that papers be placed in paper bags or cardboard boxes. Please, no plastic bags, phone books or strings...

When Bob Blank went to work for his father-in-law 40 years ago, the gasoline business was different. A driver pulled his car into the gas station, where employees trotted out to fill the tank, clean the windshield, even check the tires. If the driver wanted, he could get a lube job and oil change there...

Anglers, prepare for lots of days of crappie fishing fun. Some of the best fishing in Missouri this year will be on lakes where crappie swim. Above-average rainfall four of the past five years created perfect conditions for crappie to prosper at many Missouri lakes, including Bull Shoals, Mark Twain and Smithville. And prosper they did -- in number and in size...

Today's manufactured homes have come a long way in terms of quality and design over the years. Today's homes are comparable to traditional site-built homes, say area dealers. The increase in quality, they say, is reflected by rising sales. "If you put a home on a foundation and brick the bottom, it becomes real estate," said Tim Klund, manager of Ferrell Manufactured Housing in Cape Girardeau...

Hand-carved carousel horse. Ponderosa pine, unicorn design. $499. Call 555-1136. Slightly used wedding gowns, free firewood and registered pets aren't the only items you can buy through the classified ads in the Southeast Missourian. A quick glance through the daily ads shows puppies free for the taking, antique dishes and television sets for sale...

More room to meet and park at a better location. Those were among criteria used by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce when it considered a new building, and chamber President John Mehner said they were met with the design and location of their new office in the 1200 block of Mount Auburn Road...

A handful of students at Leopold High School are playing around, being loud and exchanging notes during class. And their teacher is loving every minute of it ... even encouraging the students. Not the notes, racket and horseplay that often find students in trouble with the teacher. These are musical notes that can be heard at around 11:30 a.m. each day...

A pair of local residents were honored this past weekend as they obtained the highest rank in scouting -- becoming Eagle Scouts. During ceremonies Saturday and Sunday, Andrew Jansen, of Leopold, and Herman Eckerle, Jr. of Marble Hill, were awarded the highest honor in the Boy Scouts...

It might be easy for astronaut Linda Godwin, who has flown two space flights and has a third planned for March, to forget her roots, but she hasn't. Godwin, an Oak Ridge native who attended Jackson High School and did her undergraduate work at Southeast Missouri State University, still comes home whenever she can...

Tourism has been a shot in the arm for Cape Girardeau in the last few years but the city saw a decline in tourism dollars in the last few months of 1995. Mary Miller, the director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau said she doesn't expect the decline to continue. ...

Robert Glen Jones began writing poetry so long ago that his earliest works can not be found. But 50 of his most reflective efforts composed during and after World War II have just been published. Called "Times and Places," the anthology evokes images of Christmas, homes, months of the year, churches, friends and neighbors, and foreign countries...

Nathan Norman, number 47, dodges a Potosi player while another one advances last November. Jackson USA/Don Shrubshell Jackson High made it to the state championship game two years in a row, Norman's junior and senior year. Few would argue that he is one of the reasons. Jackson USA/Don Shrubshell...

Despite the sluggish Christmas sales season in Cape Girardeau, West Park Mall celebrated a good year in 1995. While malls and retail outlets nationwide were reporting a dip in sales during the holiday season and an overall decline in 1995, West Park Mall was pleased with the 1995 figures as they were tallied...

JACKSON -- Grace M. Seabaugh, 89, of Jackson, died Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 26, 1906, at Sedgewickville, daughter of George and Bertha Sample Seabaugh. She married Dale D. Seabaugh Oct. 25, 1924. He died April 26, 1988...

Two motorists were injured in separate accidents Saturday in Alexander County, Ill. and taken by Air Evac helicopter to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Katherine E. George, 34, of Anna was reported in stable condition. Todd M. Bennett, 20, of Tamms Route 1 was in the intensive care unit Saturday night...

While the current policy/political agenda in Missouri focuses on a number of pragmatic subjects ranging from granting citizens the right to carry concealed weapons to whether the loss limit on non-cruising riverboat casinos should be eliminated, let us venture for the next few paragraphs to a point beyond this realm and focus on issues that are considerably more complex but no less revolutionary...

Did you hear? Maclean Stevenson died last week. Stevenson is best-known (possibly ONLY known) for his portrayal on the long-running hit television show, "M*A*S*H." Stevenson played Lt. Col. Henry Blake, the lovable, if inept, commanding officer. (For you trivial trivia buffs, after leaving M*A*S*H, he also starred in "The Maclean Stevenson Show" and "Hello, Larry.")...

"So I guess it'll be good old Dole. He had no message that came through, and I thought that was wrong. But, good old Dole it is." -- Ruth Nottage, New Hampshire Republican Voter In New Hampshire, good old Dole ran a close second to the wild man, Pat Buchanan. It was enough to survive -- enough ultimately to go on and win the Republican nomination, but not enough to win the November election...

Pity the poor pundits, with their conventional wisdom, which may indeed be conventional but surely isn't very wise. All last year we were told that at this point in the Republican presidential contest, we would have a two-man race between Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and his well-financed challenger, Texas Sen. ...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Archie L. Wright, 66, of Jonesboro, died Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996, at the Illinois Veterans Home in Anna. He was born Feb. 1, 1930, in Jonesboro, son of Fred and Lillie Shepherd Wright. He married Betty Sims in Jonesboro in 1954. He served in the Korean conflict. He was a member of the VFW in Knox, Ind., and the Masonic Lodge in Granite City, Ill. He was a member of the Freewill Baptist Church...

Myrtle A. Cotner, 101, of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Dec. 21, 1894, in Advance, daughter of Frederich and Alvina Wille Goetz. She marred Alvin Cotner in 1920. He preceded her in death Dec. 4, 1947...

MARBLE HILL -- Anna Alice McConnell, 67, of Marble Hill died Friday, Feb. 23, 1996, at her home. She was born July 5, 1928, at Allenville, daughter of Clarence W. and Lola M. Lumpkins Elliott. She married Ernest T. McConnell Sept. 3, 1948. He survives...

SIKESTON -- Flora M. Fugate, 86, of Miner, formerly of Sikeston, died Friday, Feb. 23, 1996, at the Miner Nursing Center. She was born April 24, 1909, in Datto, Ark., daughter of Arthur Alvin Cole and Margaret Foster Malone Cole. She was a member of the Miner Baptist Church...

Pat, we hardly knew ye. Few Americans, anywhere, can be said to have enjoyed the columns and the quips, the commentary and the analysis of the estimable Patrick J. Buchanan more than this writer. As a kid, our household, like most in eastern Missouri, took the great, gray old Globe-Democrat. ...

The Cape Girardeau County Commission issued a no-burn order Saturday night after fire departments responded to more than a dozen fires in less than eight hours. The order applies to the entire county. Both the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson have issued similar orders. The burning ban remains in effect until further notice, officials said...

In an age of supermarkets that can fulfill all the grocery needs of shoppers, small, neighbored specialty shops such as meat markets have all but disappeared. But those which remain have at least one big selling point -- uniqueness. Blake Esicar, owner of Esicar's Old Hickory Smokehouse, prides himself on the fact that his products are different from those found in supermarkets...

"Rodeo Houston," a rodeo and concert, will be presented live via satellite Thursday at Southeast Missouri State University. The event, featuring "Alabama" and "Patty Loveless," will be shown on a big screen at 8 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom...

This year's installment of the Southeast Missourian Progress Edition allows readers to remember the past and glimpse the future of business and industry in the area. The special section inside today's newspaper contains an extra 64 pages of information about the advances in business, industry and agriculture. More than 150 photographs let readers know which stores opened, remodeled, changed locations, changed ownership or expanded...

CHAFFEE -- Bob Dacus wanted to open a business in a small town. He started looking for buildings within a 50-mile radius of the Sikeston area, and settled on Chaffee. Here he opened his store, Dacus Discount, in 1983. "At that time we were just looking around at towns in this area," he said. "We wanted to be an asset to the town and felt like there was a need for the type of store we were anticipating opening."...

ORAN -- About 10 percent of the residents here are employed by Venture Products, a cap manufacturing factory. The company employs 100 people in this Scott County town of 1,164. Orders pour in from all over the country, said plant manager Kay Daniels, adding that the company has about 100 regular customers...

Richard "Hutch" Hutchison and his wife, Denise, usually look and act like any contented couple. He puffed on a cigarette Friday morning while she applied makeup. It seemed impossible anything was wrong. Then Hutchison was asked his age. "Forty-four," he said, certain he was right...

When Kent Evans explained his idea to revamp the Town Plaza Shopping Center's look, he got some questions. Would the light-colored walls and rounded, bright blue roof work? Now that the project is nearly completed, Evans says the sceptics have been won over...

After Jeff Harms' car accident in 1986, he spent 19 days in a coma and several years recovering. Now, nearly 10 years later, he has worked out a system that allows him to drive, deliver speeches and volunteer at a local hospital. He spends his free time trying to educate people about brain trauma...

I HOPE the people of New Hampshire aren't stupid enough to believe that Lamar Alexander walked across their state because he wanted to meet them and hear what they had to say. Not hardly. It's called politicking. I call it show business. He merely wanted them to think that just to get their vote...

Sales tax figures indicate 1995 was a banner year for retailers in Cape Girardeau County. The county's half-cent tax on purchases put $4.2 million in the coffers. In 1994, the figure was $3.8 million. History shows a hefty increase in county sales tax revenue almost every year this decade...

Cape Girardeau and Scott City share at least one common bond -- an industrial park along Nash Road. Area businessmen and civic leaders proposed the idea of an industrial complex south of Cape Girardeau in 1959, but it wasn't established until the 1960s...

MARBLE HILL -- While most towns can only support a limited number of businesses, video rental stores don't seem to have any problems keeping up with the demand in Southeast Missouri. Some towns have only two such stores, while others have nearly a half-dozen, if you include video rentals available in the local grocery stores...

Cape Girardeau city officials have adopted a more lenient water cutoff policy after a "get-tough" policy proved to be money down the drain. "We were losing money doing it," City Manager Michael Miller said of the tougher policy, which was enacted months before he was hired...

The Cape Girardeau County Commission had a few tense weeks last summer. The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission had called upon it to make a judgment: The state wanted to know who needed an Interstate 55 interchange more -- Oak Ridge or Jackson...

Cape Girardeau County Treasurer Bill Reynolds says he'll seek a fifth term. Reynolds, 67, took office in 1981. "I'm still the new guy on the block" in county government, he jokes. As treasurer, Reynolds is responsible for receipts, disbursement and investment of county revenues...

St. Francis Medical Center put the emphasis back on patient care at the bedside in 1995, said John Fidler, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. In April the hospital implemented patient-focused care in its inpatient services. The philosophy stresses bring services to the patient rather than moving the patient to the services."I think we've always been very patient-centered," Fidler said. ...

Southeast Missouri Hospital put a lot of effort into making the region a healthier place to live in 1995, said administrator James Wente. "The initial things that we do involve direct patient care and meeting the community's medical care needs," Wente said. "But we've tried to get involved improving the overall health of the community."...

The Cape Girardeau area has 155 doctors and more are being recruited. But the recruitment is being handled individually by doctors' offices rather than through the hospitals or the local medical society. Physician recruitment also could benefit from medical school programs. Restructuring of medical groups is a factor, too...

Physical therapists have worked to correct injuries for years. Now, more and more of their time is spent working with industries to prevent those injuries from occurring in the first place. HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center and Mid-America Rehab, both in Cape Girardeau, offer ergonomic analyses of worksites to spot safer, less strenuous ways for workers to perform their jobs...

Illinois goose hunters enjoyed a bumper harvest this year, bagging a kill of 34,722 in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone alone. The Crab Orchard Region accounted for almost two-thirds of that number with 21,231 Canada geese taken from Jackson and Williamson counties...

As winter fades and the days get warmer, I find myself paying close attention to nature. While inspecting the swollen buds of a sliver maple the other morning, my ear caught the high-pitched, ascending "peep" of a single northern spring peeper. To me, this is a sure sign that spring has arrived...

Tiny incisions mean big business for local orthopedic surgeons. Arthroscopic surgery is usually performed on knees, but the procedures can also be done on wrists, shoulders and ankle joints. In arthroscopic surgery, small incisions are made into the affected area, then a tiny camera is inserted into the joint to locate the injury. Once the injury is pinpointed, the surgeon inserts very small instruments into the incisions to correct the damage...

The prognosis is healthy for managed care in Southeast Missouri. HealthNet Blue, a managed-care product offered by MedAmerica HealthNet Inc. and Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield, covers 19,600 people in the region, and Humana Healthcare Plans covers more than 8,000 people...

Midwest Plastic and Hand Surgery has added laser technology to its array of surgical services. Dr. David Deisher joined the practice last year, said Dr. Greg Tobin. "He brings additional expertise in facial procedures" using the laser, Tobin said. The laser can be used to correct signs of aging and to remove pigmentation or vascular formations, such as birthmarks or spider veins, that can't be corrected by conventional surgical methods...

New doctors, new facilities and new programs have improved access to primary health care in the Cape Girardeau area over the past two years. Three family doctors and a pediatrician have opened practices in Cape Girardeau in the past two years, said Lois Kasten, director of the Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society...

Comfort, stylish women's shoes are "in" for the workplace while uncomfortable high heels take second place. Front row from left, a brown sandal "Linda" by Connie; a pink "Bayleaf" casual by "Bayleaf"; and the "Gina" by Jasmine. Back row, The "viper" by Soho; "Thelma" by Jasmin; a red "Agnes" by Jasmin; and the New York Transit pink patent leather "Pride."...

Came a day in February when, almost with a physical start, I remembered it was time to go out and see if the daffodils were up. Winters used to seem so long, I would start looking for them even in January. But, whisk, whisk, whisk November, December and January fly by now. I noticed, two weeks into February, that one of my favorite calendars was still showing January...

Cape Girardeau ranks 11th among Missouri's 114 counties in manufacturing facilities. The 132 Cape County plants provide employment to more than 7,000 people, with more than a third of them at two plants: Lee Rowan Co. at Jackson and Procter and Gamble Paper Products north of Cape Girardeau...

Cape Girardeau city government, the public school district and Southeast Missouri State University have all had major leadership changes in the past year. The city has a new city manager, the university has a new president while efforts continue to find a permanent one, and the school district has gone through a number of leadership changes, including buying out the contract of Dr. Neyland Clark as school superintendent last December...

Conventions and meetings are big business to Cape Girardeau. Not only do they benefit the hotels and meeting halls where they are held, but Mary Miller with Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau said their tax dollars go a long way in the community...

Even with all the competition for the grocery shopper's dollar in the Cape Girardeau area, nobody seems to be hurting for business. Every Saturday supermarket parking lots are packed with working moms and dads on their one convenient day to shop. Even during times of the year expected to be slow -- now, for instance -- everyone is out spending big dollars on food...

It is time think seriously about 573. "We're about two months into the new area code for Eastern Missouri," said Thomas D. Pagano of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. "And everything is moving smoothly." Southeast Missouri, including the Cape Girardeau area, is included in the new 573 area code. Callers have been using the new code, which covers all of the old 314 region minus a semicircle around St. Louis, since the first of the year...

The Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society will host an Everton Genealogy Workshop on Tuesday, March 19 from 4-9 p.m. It will be held at the Senior Citizen's Center at 927 North Clark. The workshop will include sessions on research using land and military records and publishing family histories. Genealogical materials will be on sale...

Nearly 300,000 people attended events at Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center in 1995. They saw events ranging from Sesame Street Live to the St. Louis Ballet In the eight years the center has been open, more than 2 million people have passed through the doors...

Cape Jaycee Municipal Golf Course foreman Randy Lueder, left, and Jack Hamm, maintenance worker removed asphalt near the clubhouse. The upper and lower parking lots will be resurfaced. Ed Donahue, left, and Bill Snider, both of Roanoke, Va., teed off near the new lake at Bent Creek Golf Course. The course also has a new computerized watering system installed...

A century ago, the telephone was a luxury. Today, it's a necessity and part of the ever-growing telecommunications industry. Everything from voices, to faxes to electronic mail on the home computer is sent via phone lines. College and high school students can take classes via interactive television carried over fiber optic phone lines...

Development at Route K and Interstate 55 has, of course, increased during the 20-plus years the interstate has been open. Until recent years that growth was slow and steady. However, during the past couple years new businesses have sprouted so frequently that new construction seems to be starting in the area on a daily basis...

As the city's west end has expanded with new businesses and buildings during the past year, traffic also has increased. City planners have worked out a solution to the traffic congestion with the extension of Sprigg Street and Lexington Avenue. Both extensions are 44-foot-wide arterial roads that will help connect the city at a cost of $1.78 million. The extensions are about a mile each and will eventually intersect...

Business and industry could take off at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport even as the city looks to land state funding for its air traffic control tower. City and economic development officials are working to attract a Kentucky industry to the airport in what could be the first step in creating a manufacturing park on a 120-acre site on the northwest corner of the airport...

Evelyn Boardman looks out on Cape Girardeau's downtown and sees lots of building energy. Boardman, a representative of downtown merchants, said downtown residents -- those who do business and those who live there -- have worked together to keep the area viable...

A soil sample is taken from each 2 1/2-acre area after the field has been mapped in a grid. Roger Krebs, a custom applications and agriculture student at Southeast Missouri State University, left, and Robert Owen, MFA Agri service technician and custom applicator, took soil samples in one of the grids. The round antennas on the pickup truck cab receive signals from a the satellite and are logged into the onboard computer...

Continuing a trend that began several years ago, unemployment in the region again remained extremely low last year. In November, the last month for which figures are available, the unemployment rate in Cape Girardeau County was just 2.5 percent, with 33,359 of 34,210 people in the labor force working for a total of 851 people unemployed...

Commercial and new-home construction, expansions and remodeling of property in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and the area continue on a fast track. Construction totals for 1995 were the second best in the history of Cape Girardeau and marks the fourth time in as many years totals were more than $30 million...

A change in interstate banking laws that gives banks the ability to cross state lines to establish branch facilities has changed the way banks here and elsewhere do business. In Cape Girardeau, evidence of the change can be seen in the recent buyout of Capital Bank by Union Planters; Union Planters banks are actually branch offices of the main bank headquartered in Memphis, Tenn...

The on-again, off-again, Sam's Warehouse is "off-again." No plans are on the board for a Sam's Club warehouse in Cape Girardeau this year. It was in September 1992 that Sam's Club officials announced plans to build a 134,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cape West Business Center near the Route K-Siemers Drive intersection...

TAMMS, Ill. -- Work is progressing on construction of the $60 million, 500-bed, super maximum security prison near here. "The project is going well," said Mia Jazo, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections Capital Development Board. "Work slowed a bit recently because of weather, but we'll be back at full speed when the weather permits."...