INDUSTRY HONOR FOR DANA WELL-DESERVED

Dana Corporation has been in Cape Girardeau for just four years but has already made a significant mark on the area. It was a fitting honor Thursday that the Chamber of Commerce recognized Dana as its "Industry of the Year." The award is well-earned.

A maker of axles at its Cape Girardeau facility, Dana Corp. opened its production lines in 1989 with only 60 employees. The number of employees today stands at 225. In accepting the award, Dave Blanchard, Dana plant manager, said the factory might add as many as 100 new jobs to go along with several millions dollars in capital investment. That's the kind of news Cape Girardeau should welcome. Not only does it add some solid, well-paying positions to the local job pool, it sends an encouraging signal to other industries that might look to locate here; it says the business climate here is not merely adequate for growth, but conducive to it.

Dana represents the type of industry Cape Girardeau and the region need more of. It is a stable affiliate of a successful, broad-based, global corporation; worldwide sales total $4 billion annually. The local plant is an impressive 140,000-square-foot facility in South Cape Girardeau that lends itself nicely to that area of the city. Dana officials were resourceful in taking advantage of local job training opportunities (in this case, the Vocational-Technical School) to put together a skilled work force. Plus, the company has shown itself as an excellent example of corporate citizenship, its organization and employees lending time and money to efforts ranging to youth league sports to the United Way to recent flood relief efforts.

The chamber's Industry of the Year award bears the motto "Commitment to Excellence." It fits the Dana Corp., a welcome addition to the Cape Girardeau industrial scene. We congratulate the company.