CHAMBER HOLDS ANNUAL RETREAT; JAMES RUST NEW BOARD CHAIRMAN

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce revised its agenda late in the year for its annual retreat.

The discussion of a new headquarters for the chamber suddenly moved from nowhere to head a list of topics discussed at the annual meeting Friday at Lone Star Industries Natatorium.

The chamber building, which has been at 601 N. Kingshighway the past 20 years, was sold in November following an unsolicited offer.

"We're looking for a new home," said John Mehner, president and chief executive officer of the chamber.

A number of sites and buildings have been suggested, said Mehner. Chamber board of directors member Harry Rediger has been named chairman of a committee to look into a new chamber home.

The new home, a chamber certification process, assessing and addressing membership needs and priorities, and election of officers were among agenda items at the daylong annual meeting Friday.

James Rust, president of Eagle I Inc., is new chamber board chairman. He succeeds Ollie Miller, president of Mercantile Bank of Cape Girardeau. Miller will remain an ex-officio on the board for one year.

"This will be an exciting year," said Rust. "After listening to reports from various groups this morning, we're looking at some great things in the future."

With the new business building at Southeast Missouri State University, the Mississippi River bridge project, and many city projects incuding sewers and streets, construction will total more than $200 million over the next four or five years.

That figure does not include a $51 million project being planned by Boyd Gaming Corp. in downtown Cape Girardeau along the Mississippi River.

"This will be a challenging year," said Rust. "We're going to be looking for a new location and continue to try to increase our membership. I think it will be a great year for us. We have more than 1,100 members, and when you have that strong a membership almost anything's possible."

Rust emphasized that every member would be contacted within the year.

"We want input from everybody," he said. "We want to know what they like about the chamber or what they dislike."

Rust said the chamber had adopted a new mission statement "to serve the Cape Girardeau area and its businesses as the principal advocate in fostering economic progress, vitalizing jobs and improving the caliber of life."

Rust emphasized that the chamber would support existing industry and business and would continue to support and participate in the efforts of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association.

Speakers during the day included Freeman McCullah, Missouri Highway and Transportation Department District 10 engineer; Neyland Clark, Cape Girardeau schools superintendent; Kala Stroup, Southeast Missouri State University president; and Doug Leslie of the city.

In addition to Rust, chamber board officers elected were: Dennis Marchi, manager of Schnucks Food & Drugs, chairman-elect; Mike Kohlfeld, president of Kohlfeld Distributing, vice president; and Ken Hayden, vice president of commercial lending at Boatmen's Bank, treasurer.

New board members are Marchi; Jane Daume, vice president and director of marketing and sales at Kwik Kopy Printing; Lyle Davis, general manager of the Trane Co.; Craig Felzien, area manager of external affairs for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.; Kim Kurka McDowell, assistant to the president of Concord Publishing House Inc.; and Jim Wente, administrator at Southeast Missouri Hospital.