MEMO

Coming up:

May 31 -- Small business forum, 8 a.m., Executive Room at Holiday Inn, Cape Girardeau.

June 1-2 -- Rural Economic Development Conference, 7:30 a.m., Southeast Missouri State University.

Magna-Tel, an area business that manufactures magnets for advertising purposes, has donated $1,000 to Southeast Missouri State University, in appreciation for and to support the university's "Health Promotion Program Planning and Evaluation" course.

Mary Ann Farmer, president and chief executive officer of Magna Tel, presented the check to Dr. Jacque Hooper, professor of health and leisure. Hooper teaches the course at the university.

Magna-Tel recently won a $1,000 community service award from the Screen Graphic and Imaging Association and decided to donate the prize money to the university, which spearheads a full-sale work site health promotion program each semester for area businesses.

During the spring semester, students in the university's program provided a variety of programs for employees of Magna-Tel, including health screenings, educational seminar series, behavior change incentive program and awards ceremony.

A small business forum will be held at the Holiday Inn Wednesday to provide input from area businessmen for the White House Conference on Small Business.

The forum, sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, will be held at 8 a.m. in the Executive Room.

Troy L. Wilson, CEO of First National Bank at Sikeston, has been selected to participate in the White House Conference on Small Business, and will attend the forum here.

Wilson and the chamber feel that it is essential to have feedback from local business communities.

Joining Wilson at the forum will be representatives from Congressman Bill Emerson's office, Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond's office and Sen. John Ashcroft's office.

Additional information concerning the conference is available by calling the chamber at 335-3312.

The annual Jackson Chamber of Commerce Installation Banquet will be held at Bent Creek June 26.

Additional information concerning the meeting will be announced soon.

Westvaco Corp., a manufacturer of paper, packaging and specialty chemicals, has received the forest and paper industry's two most prestigious natural resource management awards for 1994.

The American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) presented Westvaco with its Wildlife Stewardship Award and its Environmental Achievement Award for Forest Management during a recent special awards presentation in Washington.

According to the AF&PA, no other company has won both of the association's top awards in a single year.

Westvaco, headquartered in New York, owns 1.3 million acres of forest land in the eastern United States. The forests supply wood fiber to manufacturing facilities at Wickliffe, Ky., Charleston, S.C., and Covington, Va.

The Stewardship award, which recognized Westvaco's effort to promote wildlife habitat in cooperation with conservation organizations, took note of the company's Wildlife Management Area in West Kentucky, near the Wickliffe facility.

A Rural Economic Development Conference will be held at the University Center on Southeast Missouri State University campus Thursday and Friday.

The two-day conference, sponsored by Southeast Missouri State University, the Paducah/McCracken (Ky.) Small Business Center Inc.; and the Rural Minority Economic Development Association (RMEDA), will address issues facing rural towns in a six-state region, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana.

A federal panel with representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, Small Business Administration, State of Kentucky Small and Minority Business Division, National Rural Electrification Co-Operative Administration and the Appalachian Regional Commission will provide an overview of rural economic development assistance provided by select federal agencies.

Additional information is available by contacting RMEDA at Paducah, Ky., telephone 502-443-3977.

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc., has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 33 cents a share of common stock, payable July 3, to shareholders of record June 10.

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, owns 41 financial institutions in Missouri -- including Cape Girardeau -- eastern Kansas, Southern Illinois and northern Iowa.

Spartech Corp. has announced a significant increase in its results for the second quarter and first six months of its fiscal year, ending April 29.

Net earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 1995 were $3.9 million, or 16 cents per fully diluted share, a 41 percent increase from the $2.8 million, or 12 cents per fully diluted share, reported during the same period last year.

Sales were up 49 percent, from $64.4 million during the second quarter of 1994, to $95.4 million for the same quarter this year.

For the first six months of fiscal 1995, net earnings were $7.1 million, or 29 cents per fully diluted share, up 44 percent from the $4.9 million, or 21 cents a share, during the same period in 1994. Sales for the first half of the current fiscal year were $174.9 million, up from $113.5 million during the same period in 1994.

The St. Louis-based company has two large operations in Cape Girardeau -- Spartech Plastics, 2500 Spartech Drive, and Spartech Compounding on Nash Road.

Sears, Roebuck and Co., moving into the next phase of its revitalization program, plans to build its business by getting customers where they live -- at home.

Home products and services will drive the retailer's growth in the second half of the decade, Arthur Martinez, chief of the Sears Merchandise Group, told financial analysts last week. For the past two years, the Chicago-based company has trumpeted its more stylish apparel offerings, "the softer side of Sears."

The Whistle Stop & Cajun Catering of Jackson has become a Certified Angus Beef (CAB) operation.

More than 1,200 restaurants, hotels and country clubs have joined the CAB program since it was established in 1978 by the American Angus Association. The program is certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In 1994, CAB licensees marketed a record 174 million pounds of certified Angus beef products, a 39 percent increase from 1993.

Nicky Accardo is owner of the Whistle Stop.