Plaza Tire Service opens in Scott City

Plaza Tire Service opened its 45th location in Scott City on Memorial Day. The new five-bay facility is at the corner of Main and Crites streets next to Burger King.

Ground was broken for the Scott City store in January. Plaza Tire Service president, Mark Rhodes, said the company had been looking forward to serving Scott City long before that time.

"We have been serving Southeast Missouri communities including Cape Girardeau and the surrounding areas for 44 years now," he said. "We were excited about the opportunity to meet customers in another local community and provide them with our fast, friendly tire and automotive services."

Scott City native Mike Hensley is managing the Scott City Plaza Tire Service. Hensley has been with Plaza Tire Service for two years and previously worked as the Cape Girardeau Siemers Drive store's assistant manager and the Cape Girar­deau North Kingshighway store's manager.

Vernon "Pee Wee" Rhodes established Plaza Tire Service in 1963 as Plaza Car Wash. Plaza Car Wash provided hand-operated car wash services on William Street in Cape Girar­deau. The company gradually expanded to provide tire services in addition to washing cars. Eventually, the company began selling and changing tires along the sidewalk outside the carwash.

Local regulations ended this practice, and the company chose to exclusively provide tire and automotive services from that point on.

Plaza Tire Service currently operates 45 stores throughout four states -- Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas -- and is listed as the 28th largest independently owned tire retailer in North America by Tire Business magazine.

• Three established businesses in Cape Girardeau have relocated next door to one another in the 2000 block of Broadway within the past two weeks. They are having their grand opening from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Bloom, owned by Carrie Tracy, specializes in invitations and stationary; Wendy Ray Durham's Magnolia Market sells flowers, chocolate-covered fruit and other gifts; and Carrie Perez' Photography By Carrie is a photography studio.

"We all felt the need to expand and feel like all the businesses complement each other," said Durham.

• The VanMatre Buick dealership on South Kingshighway officially became VanMatre Buick GMC Pontiac at noon on Thursday. Owner Mark VanMatre purchased all of Cape GMC Pontiac's assets, which included 93 vehicles. The owners of Cape GMC Pontiac, Darryll Brown and Charlene Bach, have retired.

VanMatre also brought over 11 of its employees.

Mark and Scott Rhodes, owners of Plaza Tire, purchased the Cape GMC Pontiac property but have no immediate plans for it at this time.

Tim Krakowiak is the business editor at the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at 301 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699, tkrakowiak@semissourian.com or (573) 335-6611, extension 137