BUSINESS MEMO

Coming up:

Sept. 8

Jackson Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours, 5 to 7 p.m., McDowell South, 4670 E. Jackson Boulevard.

Sept. 11

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First (Second) Friday Coffee, 7:30 a.m., Show Me Center.

Sept. 15

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours, 5 to 6:30 p.m., Show Me Center.

Sept. 23

SBDC business counseling session, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., one-hour sessions, Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office,

Coffee speaker

Bekki M. Cook, Missouri secretary of state, will be guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's September coffee meeting.

The monthly First Friday event will be a second Friday coffee this month due to the Labor Day holiday.

The event will be held Sept. 11 at 7:30 a.m. at the Show Me Center.

New Business After Hours

The Jackson Chamber of Commerce will hold its first Business After Hours session next week.

Hosts for the first session will be McDowell South, Century 21/Dutch Realty and the Cash-Book Journal. The meeting will be held Sept. 8 at McDowell South, 4670 E. Jackson Boulevard, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Business After Hours sessions will be held the second Tuesday of each month.

Cape Business After Hours

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours is held the third Tuesday of each month. The Sept. 15 event will be held at the Show Me Center from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Legal Secretaries meeting

The Missouri Association of Legal Secretaries will hold is Fall Seminar/Board Meeting Sept. 25-26 at the Benjamin Plaza Hotel in Kansas City.

A number of topics will be discussed. Representatives are expected from the 11 chapter associations, which include the Cape Girardeau County chapter.

Looking ahead

Industrial Appreciation Week will be observed in Cape Girardeau Oct. 5-9.

Highlights of the week include the Industrial Appreciation Golf Tournament, to be held at Bent Creek Golf Course Oct. 5, and the annual Industrial Dinner, which will feature the presentation of the Commitment to Excellence Award to be presented to the Industry of the Year Oct. 7 at the Show Me Center.

More on these big events later.

SBDC counseling sessions

The Small Business Development Center will conduct counseling sessions at Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Perryville in September.

The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available Sept. 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office. The counseling sessions (about one hour) are free. Call 335-3312 for an appointment.

He will conduct sessions at the Sikeston Chamber of Commerce Sept. 22 from 9 to 11 a.m. Appointments are available by calling 471-2498. He will hold sessions at the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission office in Perryville Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Appointments are available by calling 547-8357.

The Small Business Development Center represents a Partnership for Economic Development between Southeast Missouri State University, the U.S. Small Business Administration, local financial institutions, area utility companies and Southeast Missouri municipalities. The goal of the center is to stimulate diversity and growth in small business by assisting new and existing businesses to become more productive and more profitable.

Funds to YMCA

Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream of Sikeston has presented $75,000 to the YMCA of Southeast Missouri Capitol Building Fund.

Kelly Harms, plant manager of the ice cream plant, presented the check recently to Jeff Partridge, executive director of the YMCA.

The YMCA is in the process of renovating the former Sikeston Middle School gym and cafeteria into a year-round, multiuse facility.

The funds given by Good Humor-Breyers will be used to construct an indoor swimming pool, athletic fields, multipurpose space and a full gymnasium.

Amtrak ridership up

Missouri Amtrak ridership is at an all-time high.

The Missouri Department of Transportation reported that a record number of passengers rode Amtrak between St. Louis and Kansas City last year. Ridership for fiscal year 1998 - July 1, 1997, through June 30, 1998, -- was 207,279 passengers, up 13.8 percent over fiscal year 1997. The previous ridership high was 201,463, in 1993.

MoDOT officials say improved services and discounted ticket prices have been an important component of the ridership increase.

Under a new Amtrak pricing system, riders can buy tickets at reduced prices for certain travel times by purchasing them in advance, said Jack Hynes, administrator of railroads for MoDOT.

MoDOT contracts with Amtrak for four daily trains between St. Louis and Kansas City, with stops at Kirkwood, Washington, Hermann, Jefferson City, Sedalia, Warrensburg, Lee's Summit and Independence.

Small-farm meetings

Small-farm operators will have an opportunity to tell lawmakers how to combat the decline in the number of family farms and add value to farm commodities in the state.

Four meetings of a joint interim committee, which evolved from the USDA National Small Farms Committee, will be held in the state. The Southeast Missouri session will be held Tuesday at Dexter High School at 6 p.m. Additional information is available by calling Betty Robinson at (573)-751-5852.

Hastings expansion

Hastings Entertainment Inc., a multimedia entertainment retailer that combines the sale of books, music, software, periodicals and videotapes with the rental of videotapes and video games in a superstore format, opened six new superstores during the second quarter of 1998.

Hastings, founded in 1968, operates 123 superstores in small- to medium-sized markets, including Hastings Books, Music and Video in Cape Girardeau.

Hastings, headquartered at Amarillo, Texas, plans to open 60 new stores before the end of fiscal 2000.