FIRST P&G GROUP VISITS

A number of families are getting their first look at Cape Girardeau County this week.

The 45 visitors, which include potential Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. employees and their spouses, toured the P&G plant north of Cape Girardeau Wednesday. On Thursday they visited schools in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, Southeast Missouri State University's Show Me Center and shopping centers.

The visitors ended the day Thursday at a vendor fair at Drury Lodge. Represented at the vendor fair were bankers, real estate companies, educators, local government officials and medical personnel.

The visitors will remain in the area today, said Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association. Robinson has accompanied them on their tours.

The group is the first of four that will visit the county this month. They are people who have been offered positions at the expanded P&G plant, said Robinson.

Some will have permanent positions at the $350 million plant being constructed adjacent to the existing plant. Others will be here to help open the new plant before returning to jobs elsewhere.

All are P&G employees. The group this week is from a P&G plant at Mehoopany, Pa. Coming March 16 will be a group from Albany, Ga. A group from Green Bay, Wis., will be here March 18 through March 20, and groups from Oxnard, Calif., and Weston, Toronto, Canada, will visit March 31 through April 2.

Approximately 120 P&G employees and their families will visit.

P&G announced the expansion project last April. Towels and tissues will be produced at the new plant.

The Area Industrial Recruitment Association and Cape Girardeau and Jackson chambers of commerce established the vendor fairs that will be held during each visit.