KINDER'S COMMENTARY: BIG P&G ANNOUNCEMENT LIKELY TO HAVE MANY FUTURE SPINOFFS

In conversation Wednesday morning with Missouri Department of Economic Development director Joe Driskill, we visited about Cape Girardeau's exciting news of the week, or make that the year, or perhaps the decade? That, of course, would be the decision by Procter & Gamble to locate a new $350 million plant here employing at least 350 people. Rest assured, there will be lots of spinoffs from this one, some of them continuing for years to come. Several years of construction will be only the beginning. Nobody has said anything official, but it is distinctly possible, even likely, that plants supplying essential products and/or services to the gigantic P&G complex will need to be expanded as well, yielding still further employment gains in good-paying jobs. Down a soon-to-be-completed Nash Road, the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority could be a major subsequent beneficiary, as well.

As news of the announcement spread throughout Jefferson City Wednesday, I was visited by a friend who is a top executive with a major St. Louis company. I informed him of P&G's decision, and he responded, in a voice slightly tinged with envy, "Wow! That would have been a great one for us to have landed for St. Louis!"

This great news comes as another significant Cape Girardeau employer is on the verge of announcing still another major expansion, pending expected approval from relevant state agencies. Down in Sikeston, our neighbors will benefit from a third, northern interchange on I-55 and from the new Good Humor-Breyers ice cream plant that will add 400 jobs. Good Humor-Breyers will be locating in the new industrial park being made possible by the new interchange.

We are indeed fortunate to live in a community and region that is blessed with as many advantages as we enjoy in the Greater Cape Girardeau area. And how great it is that so many are beginning to recognize the strengths we have all known about for so long.

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Speaking of Procter & Gamble, and service in the Legislature, one of the neat things about it, if you're a people person, is the folks you have so many opportunities to meet. Is that a bit confusing? Allow me an explanation. Thursday morning at 10, just as I was preparing to go to the Senate floor for the morning session, two men walked into my office to discuss my concealed weapons bill. (Before noon adjournment, the bill passed 27-4 and was sent to the House.) One was a retired St. Louis detective of my previous acquaintance, while the other was unknown to me, at least by sight, until he said his name: Tony Viessman.

Although we had never met, I instantly recognized the well-known name of the retired highway patrolman from Rolla who earned quite a reputation as a lawman in his day. Viessman is the father of a former Cape Girardeau resident, Beth Bextermueller, wife of former P&G executive Jim Bextermueller. The Bextermuellers lived here during the 1980s before Jim's career took them away.

Viessman appeared a little startled as I told him I knew Jim and Beth and like so many others am quite fond of the popular couple. I asked about their children -- he said their ages are something like 10 and 12 now -- and was informed that Jim now manages P&G's largest paper products plant in England. Then Mr. Viessman volunteered, "But they would love to come back to Cape," adding something about their favorite place to have lived in all his years with P&G. I responded that, "Who knows? Maybe this expansion will lead them back here one day."

Just another piece of good news in a week filled with it, with more on the way.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and is a state senator from Cape Girardeau.