Want to move up? Hit the fair

It's time again for the annual Southeast Missourian Career Fair. If you want to change jobs to find a better fit for your skills or an entirely new line of work, 40 employers are seeking workers ranging from salespeople to engineers.

And if you are an employer looking for new workers, there's still time for last-minute sign-ups, said the organizer, Robin Strop, manager of classified advertising here at the Southeast Missourian.

I know this looks like shameless self-promotion, and it probably is, but last year more than 2,500 people showed up and the turnout convinced NARS to locate its 400-person call center in Cape Gir?ardeau.

This year's job fair will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Osage Community Centre, 1625 N. Kings?highway.

Major partners this year include Cape Girardeau, which helped by providing the Osage Centre, BioKyowa, NARS, Schneider National, Saint Francis Medical Center and TG Missouri, Strop said.

The event was moved from the Show Me Center because it became difficult to work out the details with the center and because the Osage Centre is more convenient to Interstate 55, Strop said. Last year's fair brought applicants from as far away as St. Louis to the north and Steele, Mo., to the south, she said.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said the event is "absolutely critical to our entire region. There is a bit of an obligation for the city to help support an effort like that for people looking to land new jobs or move to the next level in their career."

The career fair comes at a good time because the latest employment news for Southeast Missouri was a little disappointing. I reported two weeks ago that the Department of Economic Development's Missouri Economic Research and Information Center lists that the census-defined statistical area that includes Cape Girardeau, Scott and Bollinger counties in Missouri and Alexander County, Ill., had lost about 1,800 jobs since January.

The unemployment rate for the region was 5.1 percent, up from a year-to-date low of 4.1 percent in April.

And Cape Girardeau hit 5.4 percent in August.

If you are an employer who wants to find out if booth space is available at the career fair, contact Strop at 335-6611, extension 232.

• Manufacturer faces fines: The Associated Press reported that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants to fine Cape Girardeau manufacturer Mid-South Steel Products $148,500 for alleged safety violations.

OSHA cited Mid-South Steel Products Inc. with three willful violations, 10 serious violations and one other-than-serious violation after a routine inspection of the company that makes petroleum storage tanks.

Regulators claimed the company failed to adequately protect workers from falls, didn't maintain employee respirators or train employees on their use, and lacked safety procedures for employees working in enclosed spaces.

Inspectors also said the company unsafely stacked steel tanks, didn't protect pressurized tanks from falling, exposed employees to significant amounts of toluene gas, didn't prevent workers from smoking in a spray room and other violations.

Sonny Underwood, the company's president, said Mid-South will request an informal hearing to get more information about the alleged violations. But he said he was perplexed why the fine was so high.

"We've never had an accident, and this isn't tied to any accident or other incident," Underwood said. He added that when he told a third-party company that inspects Mid-South for OSHA compliance about the fine, the company asked him how many employees had been killed.

"We don't understand it at all."

Rich Kulczewski, an OSHA spokesman, said the routine inspection was aimed at reducing possible fall risks, respiratory protection and confined space hazards. He said the company's problem-free past and how it responds to the alleged violations could be considered in possibly reducing the level of the fines.

• Focus on medical bills: A new business designed to help people catch and remedy medical billing errors has been launched by Betsy Stause of Leopold, Mo.

Stause said that 90 percent of medical bills have errors or overcharges, and many people have difficulty deciphering whether their insurance company has paid the correct amount on a bill.

Stause said the bills are produced in bulk and are not individually reviewed. It is the patient who has to take the time to go through them.

Stause has worked as a medical biller in California and Missouri, including seven years at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She said her business, Semo Medical Billing Review and Recovery, will evaluate bills at no charge, doing most of the work at her home. If she finds an error, she will help get the mistake corrected for a percentage of the savings.

Stause is promoting herself as having the expertise to compare bills to medical charts and records to determine if the items appearing on the bill match the care provided.

Stause has a Web site for her new enterprise, www.semomedicalreview.com.

• More promotion: The Southeast Missourin was recognized for outstanding achievement again by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. At the organizations annual convention, the Southeast Missourian won second place for print quality among newspapers with a circulation of less than 25,000.

The contest rated the newspapers on items that included color registration, spot color laydown, black ink density and overall appearance.

• New development Web site: I wrote last Monday about Walden Park, the new development underway by RiverWest Partners along Route W. The developers unveiled a Web site for the community last week at www.discoverwaldenpark.com.

Rudi Keller is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at 335-6611, extension 126.