1999 BUSY FOR BUSINESS COMMUNITY

1. Linda D. Puchbauer, a business banker and relationship manager with NationsBank, Jackson, is the recipient of the 1999 Missouri Bankers Association Bank Leadership Award. The award recognizes outstanding career and community involvement achievements of Missouri bank officers from the junior or middle levels of bank management. Puchbauer began her banking career in August of 1978 and was promoted to business banker in July 1997.

1. Ten years after the struggling St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway considered moving to St. Charles, the popular tourist line is again facing an uncertain future. Stockholders will meet early this month to decide the fate of the railroad which brings some 20,000 visitors to Cape Girardeau County each year. The operation has been a godsend to the local economy. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway brings in 20,000 visitors a year to Jackson. The railroad was founded in 1985, making its first run April 18, 1986, with the late Bill Emerson, 8th District representative, shoveling in coal at the beginning of the Jackson to Gordonville run. The operation costs some $200,000 a year.

1. A gated golf community, with an 18-hole golf course, condos, a golf club and other recreational facilities, may be coming to Cape Girardeau. Presswick Group, which will develop the project, is looking at three sites in Cape Girardeau County, most in or around the city limits of Cape Girardeau.

2. Carole Heinbokel is retiring from the law firm of Buerkle, Beeson, Ludwig, Jackson & Boner, at 709 E. Main St., in Jackson. Heinbokel worked at the law firm 43 years. She served as personal secretary to Joe Buerkle, the senior member of the firm, at the time of her retirement.

2. JACKSON Stockholders in the financially-ailing St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway decide to seek status as a nonprofit corporation. Approximately 15 of the tourist line's 25 stockholders meet at the train station to make a decision about the future of the train, which currently is three months behind on its loan. Nonprofit status would enable people to write off donations made to the train and for the train to qualify for federal and state tourism grants, including federal transportation grants that only recently became available.

5. Mortgage rates crept past the 8 percent level this week for the first time in more than two years. With the lowest unemployment in three decades and the most affordable mortgage rates during the same period, home sales have soared over the past three years. Sales of existing homes and new homes have been good in the Cape Girardeau area over the past three to five years.

13. Big Kmart officially opens in Southeast Missouri. Kmart stores at three Southeast Missouri sites 11 S. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau; 2233 N. Westwood Blvd., Poplar Bluff, and 1110 S. Main, Sikeston, have been converted to the company's "Big K(mart)" concepts. The Cape Girardeau store made the transition in nine weeks.

15. John Wondel wants to see Jackson Bowling Lanes continue to be a pleasant place to bring a family or group of friends. The Cape Girardeau native has taken over as manager of the bowling alley. Bowling has always been a part of Wondel's life. He has bowled for 16 years and is a certified bowling instructor, as well as a member of the Regional Bowling Association.

16. Wiethop Truck Sales Inc., 2359 Independence, Cape Girardeau, recently observed its 45th anniversary. Wiethop, which moved to its current site in 1963, specializes in sales, parts and service for International Trucks. Carroll Wiethop, the company's first president, founded Wiethop Truck Sales Inc., a truck and trailer sales company at 20 S. Sprigg, in July 1954 after moving to Cape Girardeau from the St. Louis area. He retired in 1987.

17. The Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center (MAMTC) is a well kept secret. But that's not what the center wants, said Russ Lindenlaub, executive director of the Missouri office, which is headquartered in Rolla. MAMTC-Missouri is a program of Missouri Enterprise Business Assistance Center, a not-for-profit group that partners with the University of Missouri-Rolla. Services are aimed at solving technical and operational problems. Lindenlaub was in Cape Girardeau recently to visit with MAMTC project managers Dewayne Whitener and Robert F. Janota, who work out of the Industrial Technology Department at Southeast Missouri State University.

18. CABOOL A fire that orginates in the Corner Cafe destroys eight downtown business and causes $1.5 million in damage. A kitchen fire or malfunctioning air conditioner at the cafe likely starts the fire. The impact on business for this town of 2,000 is enormous. A hardware store, clothing store, sign-making shop and beauty salon are among those gutted in the blaze.

21. School band directors from Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Kentucky come to pay tribute to the Shivelbine's Music Store for 50 years of service. The band directors attend a series of music seminars and a special dinner and dance as part of Shivelbine's golden anniversary celebration. The name Shivelbine is nearly synonymous with music for many in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

23. It's a driver's market in the trucking industry. Business recruiters say the industry is growing bigger every day, and companies are constantly upping their salary and fringe benefits packages to make sure they keep dependable drivers in their trucks. Keeping the trucks manned with happy drivers is important, because three of every four products being shipped in the nation are being moved on a truck. Trucking companies are generating about $375 billion annually. Some 40,000 new jobs are created each year.

27. Cape Girardeau's two Save-A-Lot stores will close and a new one will be born next week, a consolidation that will give the city's south side a grocery store after a two-year absence. The Save-A-Lot store at 396 N. Kingshighway will close Sunday night, the other store at 19 N. Spanish St. will close Tuesday night, and the new store at 121 S. Sprigg St. will open its doors for the first time at 8 a.m. Wednesday. The consolidation of the grocery stores announced in June is occurring approximately two weeks behind schedule. The completion of the process is heralded by people who have been working to upgrade the area.

30. Although a group has already formed and committed themselves to making the downtown area of Cape Girardeau more attractive, they have yet to determine just where to start. "We will have a plan," says Judith Lang, a downtown merchant. "It will not be a case of the blind leading the blind." Lang is heading up the local board of 15 persons who are involved in getting a Main Street program set up in Cape Girardeau. The Main Street program helps communities find ways to revitalize their downtown area to preserve the history of the town. Because there already is a Main Street in Cape Girardeau, the project is called Old Town Cape. Getting started is a challenge. The problem is that there is no single area in Cape Girardeau that can be designated as the downtown area. This is because there are really three areas: the riverfront, Haarig district and upper Broadway.

30. Kelly Temporary Services has opened in Cape Girardeau at Suite 9, Sunset Tower Office Building, 1021 Kingsway Drive. Kelly Services has been the leader in the staffing industry for more than 50 years. Employees are available for office services, professional, technical, hospitality, retail merchandising, teleservices, seminar and trade show support, manufacturing, distribution, food service, electronic assembly and customer service.

30. An industry that has operated in Cape Girardeau since soon after the turn of this century will close by year's end. Florsheim Shoe Co., which once occupied a multilevel structure on North Main and is now in a modern plant at Southwest End Boulevard and Southern Expressway, announces it will close by late December. The closing will affect approximately 300 employees.