KINDER'S COMMENTARY: REGION ON VERGE OF MORE ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT NEWS

The greater Cape Girardeau area, together with our neighbors to the south, may just be on the verge of some very positive announcements in the arena of economic development and job creation. Cape has long been buzzing with rumors of major announcements that could be in the offing later this year. We have gone a long way toward securing $3.1 million in state funding for a new Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School with the news that this funding is in the governor's budget. This will likely prove a major boost to efforts to pass our bond issue for the Cape Girardeau School District at the April election. Meanwhile, construction continues on the completion of the eastward extension of Nash Road into the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority. One ancillary benefit of this effort will be, later, to ultimately provide a second outlet for traffic out of Scott City besides the current highway interchange.

For our neighbors in Sikeston, even as the four-laning of U.S. 60 continues, the first major moves have now been made to build a third, northern interchange on I-55. A few weeks ago, at its regular meeting, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission responded positively to written pleas made by me and others to approve this project. In this I greatly appreciate the prompt positive response by commissioners including Mark Preyer of Kennett, chairman Lee Kling of St. Louis (two good Democratic friends), as well as that of chief engineer Joe Mickes and district engineer Scott Meyer. This long-hoped-for interchange is tied to, and made possible by, a major industrial announcement for Sikeston that will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Construction of this interchange will help to "make" the planned Sikeston Industrial Park north of town, with more to follow.

Community leaders in Sikeston will meet this Friday morning at breakfast to be briefed on efforts to secure a post-secondary technical training facility for that community. Much work has been going on behind the scenes by a lot of good people to make this dream a reality. It may take years, but we will get it done.

At the same time, efforts continue to gain state funding for a new polytechnic facility at Southeast Missouri State University, consonant with the new, enhanced mission for our university. This may take a while too, but it will pack a huge payoff for the whole region when we get it done. Stay tuned for more progressive announcements.

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This Wednesday in the Missouri Senate, we'll have the hearing on my bill banning partial-birth abortions in front of the Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 275 was introduced a few weeks ago with a constitutional majority of 18 co-sponsoring senators. Among these is Judiciary Committee Chairman John Schneider, D-Florissant, who volunteered to me weeks ago that he wants to pass it and "put that one on the governor's desk."

Owing to the generosity of a great and humble pro-life layman, present as a witness at Wednesday's hearing will be nurse Brenda Shafer, a former pro-choicer for whom witnessing a partial-birth abortion at the clinic where she worked was a horrifying and life-changing experience. This friend and benefactor, who asks no mention or reward except that the truth be told to any who will listen, volunteered to pay for her flight from her home in Ohio to Jefferson City.

These and other subjects were topics of discussion week before last when I was honored to receive a visit from Bishop John Leibrecht of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese of the Catholic Church. We discussed progress on the fund drive for Notre Dame High School as well.

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