SCHOOL FARM MAY BE REPLACED

Don Dickerson sees more than cattle and fence rows at Southeast Missouri State University's demonstration farm. The president of the university's Board of Regents envisions a technology park taking root on the 368-acre farm that straddles Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau County.

"There's no reason the technology corridor needs to stop in St. Louis," Dickerson said.

Companies involved in bio-technology for agriculture could benefit from having research facilities in the diverse farming region of Southeast Missouri, he said.

"What we are going to have is land available and a plan for development," he said.

A technology park could bring an end to the farming operation there. Southeast has operated the farm since 1976 when the school's foundation purchased the dairy farm of Fred and Edith Ristig.

Dickerson said the purchase agreement spelled out that the land had to be used as a farm while the Ristigs were alive, but Fred Ristig died on Feb. 20, 1998. Edith Ristig died on Dec. 24, 1999.

Since her death, the university has been free to sell or develop the land as it sees fit, Dickerson said.

As spelled out in the 24-year-old agreement, revenue derived from the sale or development of the land would go to scholarships to fund needy students, Dickerson said.

The farm replaced the previous university farm, which operated on land that now houses the Show Me Center.

Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast's president, said the university won't eliminate its agriculture program. If the current farm becomes a technology park, the university would look to set up another demonstration farm.

"We will continue to have a demonstration farm," he said.

Dickerson said the university already owns a 260-acre farm near Oran that possibly could be used as a demonstration farm.

Lynn S. Bollinger and his daughter, Nancy Friend Bollinger Adams, both of Godfrey, Ill., donated the farm to the university in 1997 to benefit the school's Center for Regional History.

Southeast is using income from that farm to aid the history center.