LOWE'S `BUILT IT': PEOPLE ARE COMING

"Build it and they will come."

It's not a baseball field, but the new Lowe's Home Center, which opened last week in Cape Girardeau, is a do-it-yourself enthusiast's "Field of Dreams."

Lowe's built it, a 115,000-square-foot home center, with a 40,000-square-foot live nursery, greenhouse and garden center, and people are coming -- in droves.

As I left Lowe's following a 9 a.m. "grand opening" ceremony Thursday, incoming traffic to 3440 Lowe's Drive, just south of the intersection of Route K and Interstate 55, was consistent.

People were arriving at the new store in cars, vans, pickups, recreational vehicles and motorcycles.

Other people arrived long before the influx of shoppers to the new center Thursday. On hand for grand opening ceremonies were Cape Girardeau Mayor Gene Rhodes and city councilmen Melvin Gateley and Melvin C. Kasten; county commissioners Gene Huckstep, E.C. Younghouse and Larry Bock; media representatives from newspapers, radio stations and television; John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and other chamber representatives; Lowe's Store Planning Coordinator Sam Johnson of Wilkesboro, N.C.; Lowe's District Manager Jack Way; Jack Cecil and other representatives from the Missouri Job Service office; and Civic Center Director Calvin Byrd. Byrd accepted a $1,000 check from local Lowe's Manager Jim Lunn for the Civic Center Youth Activity Fund.

A highlight of the grand opening was the "cutting of the board."

"Most businesses cut a ribbon," said Lunn. "When we open a new store, we cut a board."

Rhodes did the honors, taking a hand saw and ripping through the board to "officially" open the store.

"We opened about 60 stores last year," said Way, who oversees operations in Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois. "This is our goal over the next five or six years. By the year 2000, we want to double our company."

Lowe's Companies, Inc., currently operates more than 300 stores in 20 states.

"We're looking at more than 600 stores by 2000," added Way, of Marion, Ill.

Currently, the company employs more than 29,000 people, about 160 of that at the Cape Girardeau store. Lowe's, headquartered in North Carolina, has been selected as one of "The 100 Best Companies to Work For in America."

Welcome to Cape Girardeau.

A question answered: We've had numerous inquiries concerning the new Sam's Club, which has been planned south of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cape Girardeau.

There will be a Sam's Club.

A spokesman from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., corporate headquarters, Bentonville, Ark., said last week that Sam's is scheduled for opening here in the early spring of 1995.

Original plans were for a 1994 opening, but a building redesign plan halted plans for awhile.

"But, we have Cape Girardeau on the books for the 1995 opening," said the spokesman.

Cape Central Airways, Inc., is expecting delivery of another Beach 18 in the near future.

"We should have the craft within a month," said Mark Spatz. "It'll take another month or two to bring it on line."

Cape Central Airways, which recently traded a short-body MU-2 for a long-body craft, now has three long-body MU-2 crafts.

Sandy's, a women's sportswear store, has opened at #4 Crossroads, Independence and Kingshighway.

"We have a wide selection of women's sportswear and accessories," said Sandy Howard, manager and buyer for the new operation. "We have Bushwhacker, British Khaki and David Brooks lines, and will be adding Corbin and Barry Bracken for fall lines."

Howard has more than 20 years of experience in operating a women's wear store.

The store will be open from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Construction is now under way for a daiquiri bar in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Papa Bear's Daiquiris will be located at 2 N. Main.

More about this later.

Century Propane Company, Inc., of Jackson, has acquired two additional liquid gas companies -- Bassemier's Gas, Inc., of Evansville, Ind., and S & S Propane of Fulton, Ky., and Union City, Tenn.

"This will add more than 1,000 new customers to Century's service area," said R.L. "Rick" Humphrey, president and chairman of the board at Century, 810 Jackson Blvd. East, Suite 1-B.

Century now serves more than 9,000 customers in eight states.

John Bassemier, former president of Bassemier's Gas, Inc., will be retained by Century in a consultant's capacity on the firm's board of directors.

Century, headquartered in Jackson, distributes in excess of 5.8 million gallons of propane annually, placing the company in the top 50 of more than 8,500 propane distributors in the nation. Century owns 2.1 million gallons of customer storage and retains 275,000 gallons of plant back-up storage. The company does not distribute propane in the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area.

UPDATE:

The Red Lobster Restaurant is taking shape.

The 6,000-square-foot restaurant, located in front of the Victorian Inn on Route K between Interstate 55 and Silver Springs Road, is expected to ready for a summer opening.

The seafood restaurant, part of a national chain, will employ about 100 people when it opens.

ELSEWHERE:

ANNA, Ill. -- Associated Lumber Industries, Inc., with stores in Anna, Jonesboro, Carbondale and Murphysboro, has become the exclusive dealer in Southern Illinois for the complete line of Pella products.

Pella manufactures four products lines -- the designer, architect, commercial and ProLine series -- of doors and windows.

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The annual Home Builders of Southern Illinois Homes Show will be held April 16-17 at the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Arena.

BOAT NOTES:

The December Illinois "Slot Report" shows the Casino Queen, docked at East St. Louis, with the highest slot machine payouts in Illinois. The Illinois Gambling Board, which keeps check on payouts, reported that the Queen paid out 93.88 percent of the money dropped into its slots for the month.

Par-A-Dice of East Peoria had the stingiest slot payout at 90.9 percent.

In between were the Joliet Empress, 93.8; Hollywood Casinos, Aurora, 92.9; Harrah's at Joliet, 92.8; East Dubuque's Silver Eagle, 91.7; Casino Rock Island, 91.6 and Players Riverboat Casino, Metropolis, 91.3.

METROPOLIS -- Players Riverboat Hotel, located alongside the Ohio River in downtown Metropolis, is now open. The new hotel is less than a block from the Players Riverboat Casino.

Fifty-six rooms opened the weekend of Feb. 26-27, and all 120 rooms are expected to be open within a month.

Construction started last summer.

The hotel, built and managed by AmeriHost Properties, will employ 35 people. Stan Seibert is general manager of the hotel, and Judith Compton is hotel sales director.