Business Notebook: Mall lists safety precautions as some retailers reopen

As the Southeast Missourian reported over the weekend, West Park Mall has reopened after being closed more than a month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

West Park Mall is seen March 17, 2017, in Cape Girardeau.Southeast Missourian file

About a dozen mall tenants opened Friday with additional retailers opening in the coming days, according to Stacey Keating, senior director of public relations and corporate communications with CBL Properties in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which owns the shopping center. She said customers should visit the mall's website, www.shopwestpark.com, for an up-to-date list of stores that are open, as well as current mall hours.

The website also lists several safety measures the mall is taking to reduce the chances of spreading the coronavirus, including:

• Encouraging everyone to follow social-distancing guidelines.
• Prohibiting groups of more than 10 people from congregating in the mall's common areas.
• Canceling or postponing all mall events
• Requiring mall management staff, vendors and contractors to wear masks while in common areas, public spaces or when other individuals are present.
• Encouraging mall tenants to provide their employees with masks that should be worn when they interact with others in the mall common areas and public spaces.
• Placing hand sanitizer units throughout the property.
• Conducting temperature checks on all mall management, security and janitorial staff members at the beginning of each shift and requiring that anyone with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher or experiencing any other symptoms go home and contact their health care providers.
• Increasing the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing all high-traffic common areas with a focus on all touch points using cleaning agents recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Requiring each store and restaurant to "follow applicable guidelines set forth by relevant government orders, which could include, but is not limited to: occupancy restrictions, social-distancing markers in checkout lines, cleaning and sanitizing procedures and the closure of fitting rooms."

Until further notice, the mall is closing its food court seating area, the children's play area, "soft seating" areas, common area gathering spaces and drinking fountains.

Building industry loses nearly 1M jobs

More than 20 million American jobs were lost in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 14.7%, the highest its been since the Great Depression when the 25% of America's labor force was unemployed.

Nearly a million of the jobs that were lost last month were in the construction industry. According to Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), 975,000 construction jobs vanished in April. This, ABC said, was the largest recorded loss of construction jobs since the government began tracking employment in 1939, even though construction has been classified as an "essential" industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nonresidential construction employment lost 560,500 net jobs in April with job losses in all three nonresidential segments. The largest decline was among nonresidential specialty trade contractors with 393,100 job losses. The nonresidential building segment lost 86,500 jobs while heavy and civil engineering segment lost 78,900 jobs.

"The hope had been that construction activity would hold up well given the industry's classification as an essential industry and the presence of substantial backlog coming into the crisis," ABC chief economist Anirban Basu said in a news release late last week. "But those hopes were not realized. The level of construction industry job loss in April easily surpassed that of the worst month sustained during the Great Recession when 155,000 jobs were lost in March 2009."

Between April 2006 and January 2011, the number of construction industry jobs in the U.S. declined by 2.3 million.

"The industry lost nearly a million jobs last month alone," Basu said.

"Based on a combination of business confidence indicators, initial unemployment claims and other emerging data, May will represent another month of crushing construction employment loss," he said.

Compared to April 2019, the overall construction industry, including both residential and nonresidential construction segments -- contracted by 11.2% last month.

Casey's contributing to food programs

Casey's General Stores has announced a partnership with Feeding America to provide a half-million dollars' worth of assistance over the coming year to food banks within the company's 16-state footprint. The effort is intended to help meet food needs of vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported one out of even seven children in the United States was food insecure. A new report by Feeding America now finds the coronavirus crisis has caused an increase in demand for food assistance, and the number of food insecure children could escalate to 18 million, higher than the 17.2 million in 2009 at the height of the last recession.

Casey's partnership will include immediate cash donations to support COVID-19 relief efforts at 52 food banks, including several in Missouri. The Southeast Missouri Food Bank in Sikeston has been designated to receive an initial $2,500 contribution from Casey's, which has several locations in the Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City area.

Southeast receives Leapfrog's 'A' grade

SoutheastHEALTH has received an "A" rating in the spring 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety ratings in recognition of the health system's safety protocols and outcomes.

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. Leapfrog assigns safety grades to all general hospitals across the country and updates them every six months, assessing how well each hospital prevents medical errors and other situations that could cause harm to patients.

The Leapfrog safety grade rating system uses up to 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,800 acute care hospitals in the United States twice a year.

More information is available online at www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.

People on the Move

Stephanie La Pierre

Stephanie La Pierre has been named to the newly-combined role of chief nursing-clinical officer at Saint Francis Healthcare System.

La Pierre has been the organization's chief performance improvement officer since 2015. In her new role, she is responsible for standards of patient care and nursing practice as well as performance improvement throughout the Saint Francis system. She also provides administrative management over several clinical areas, including surgical services, maternal child health and medical/surgical services, critical care services and emergency and trauma services as well as performance improvement, pharmacy and training and development.

She has more than 20 years of combined nursing and executive-level experience and has served nearly 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel.

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Don Patton

ULLIN, Ill. -- A 31-year member of the Shawnee Community College Board of Trustees, Don Patton, has submitted a letter of resignation and is retiring from the board, the college announced last week.

Patton, a lifelong resident of the college's service region, was recently recognized for his dedicated service to the school by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA), receiving that organization's Distinguished Longtime Service Award in 2019. He also received five ICCTA Trustees Education Awards in 1996, 2001, 2004, 2008 and 2014 as well as many other recognitions.

As a result of Patton's resignation, the remaining trustees on the board will identify nominees and select a replacement to fill the remainder of his term. More information can be found on the college website, shawneecc.edu.

Chamber notes

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce will host a "virtual" Women's Network Power Hour at 4 p.m. Thursday on the Zoom video meeting platform.

The program's topic will be stress management. Dr. Greg Pursley with PC Wellness Centers will share tips for unique ways to alleviate stress. Meeting participants will also have an opportunity to make some brief (30 seconds or less) comments about their businesses.

Participation in this online event is free, but preregistration is required. A link to the event registration page can be found under the events section of the chamber website, www.capechamber.com.

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The Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's next "virtual" business breakfast will be from 8 until 8:30 a.m. Friday on the Jackson chamber's Facebook page.

Commercial building permits

A commercial building permit for the new Veterans Affairs medical clinic planned for 711 S. Mount Auburn Road in Cape Girardeau has been issued to project contractor B.L. Harbert International LLC of Birmingham, Alabama. The permit lists anticipated construction costs of $20,782,606.

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A commercial building permit has been issued to Columbia Construction Corp. to build a single-story pediatric dental clinic, which, according to the permit, will be occupied by Dr. Jayne Sherman. Anticipated cost of the project is $1.5 million, according to the construction permit.

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Boulder Construction has received a commercial building permit for an interior build out at 2311 Bloomfield St., Suite 103, which is owned by Rhodes Properties in Cape Girardeau. According to the building permit, the project cost will be approximately $80,000.

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A commercial building permit has been issued to Keystone Design Architects LLC for the remodeling of the Lanzotti and Rau law offices in Cape Girardeau. The contractor listed in the permit is Collin McClanahan and the cost of the project is listed as $700,000.

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Keystone Design Architects LLC has also received a commercial construction permit for a remodeling of an existing building at 121 S. Main St. in Cape Girardeau. The project contractor is Mac Con Co. and the project construction cost is listed as $3,000.

Business license applications

A business license application was filed May 1 by Flowers Baking Co. of Batesville LLC in Batesville, Arkansas, to operate a bakery thrift store and distribution warehouse at 900 S. Kingshighway, Suite 102, in Cape Girardeau. According to the application, the business opened last week.

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Suzanne Elizabeth Hightower of Jackson has applied for a business license to open a business called Restoreme LLC at 811 Broadway in Cape Girardeau. The business will purchase and restore historic structures with the purpose of leasing or renting them as commercial spaces or apartments. The projected opening date for the business is Aug. 15.

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Gregory Todd Brown of Jackson has submitted a business license application to open AmeriAir LLC, doing business as Aire Solutions, at 2355 Rust Ave. in Cape Girardeau. Aire Solutions is heating, ventilation and air conditioning firm.

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Kimberly Renae Niswonger of Cape Girardeau has submitted a business license application to open The Beauty Parlor, a full service hair salon, at 2619 Prairie Lane in Cape Girardeau. According to the application, the business will open this month.

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Bryant MacKenzie Davenport of Jackson has filed a business license application for Restorative Construction LLC, a general contracting business at 166 LaSalle St. in Cape Girardeau. According to the application, the business opened earlier this year.

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