BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS AT BIOKYOWA, SEMO

Thursday was quite a day for Cape Girardeau. Two long-awaited announcements arrived with long-term implications for our community, and both are positive. First is the sort of delightful news for which all communities compete but which few get to celebrate. One of our major corporate citizens is bringing new jobs to town.

In 1982, the decision by Biokyowa Inc. to locate a plant in the Nash Road industrial park made it the first major plant investment by a Japanese company in Missouri. For nearly 16 years, Biokyowa has been an exemplary corporate citizen in our community. Now they are announcing formation of a new sister corporation, Kyowa Hakko Foods Co. Ltd. Kyowa Hakko Foods will build a $50 million plant initially employing 50 people. Completion of the 32,000 square-foot plant is expected in summer 2000.

Kyowa Hakko Foods will manufacture and sell nucleotide seasonings that improve the taste of a variety of foods. Another product will be a fermented seasoning in flavors like beef, pork, chicken and fish that will be used for broths, soups, bullions and pre-mixes.

Thursday's announcement came on the heels of another welcome announcement made earlier this year by Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, the parent of the same company. That parent company had announced in January a $35 million expansion of the existing Biokyowa plant and more than 20 new jobs. Down the road, the two announcements will eventually approach 100 new jobs and over $90 million in new investment for our region.

The company is in the hunt for quality employees of the kind that lured them here in the first place. In this regard, the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School will play a big role, as it has in previous years. Biokyowa has long been a big booster of the vo-tech school, and officials say they will be looking that way for high-tech training.

We congratulate the good people of this fine company and thank them again for the confidence they are showing in the people of our region.

From Thursday morning's industrial announcement, there followed an historic educational announcement that evening. Southeast Missouri State University's president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke, and Board of Regents president, Don Dickerson, announced the university's purchase of the former St. Vincent's College and Seminary property overlooking the Mississippi River. A crowd of more than 70 excited citizens from throughout the area cheered the announcement.

The announcement was made possible through the generosity of longtime university supporter B.W. Harrison of Cape Girardeau. Harrison's gift, made in memory of his late wife Hazel and her mother, is the key to the transaction.

Southeast plans to move its departments of art, dance, music and theater to the seminary property at what is already being called the school's River Campus. Making all this a reality will require a huge undertaking, as large a challenge as the school and our region have ever faced. Proof of that is in the estimated $35 million university officials say it will take to complete the project. Nitzschke and others estimate that half that amount can come from private fund raising and the other half from state government. This is a daunting challenge that will require the best efforts of thousands of generous people throughout the university's 26-county service area -- and beyond. At present there is no guarantee of state funding.

Mr. Harrison's extraordinary generosity is what got it all started. Through him, we all have a chance to step up and see preserved one of the finest of our historical jewels. The historic seminary buildings date from 1843 and occupy some of the choicest high ground with some of the best views of any setting along the entire length of the mighty Mississippi. What great challenges and opportunities lie before us all, thanks to B.W. Harrison.