MITCH ROBINSON, RECURITMENT GROUP EARN HIGH PRAISE

The Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association should be proud that its executive director, Mitch Robinson, was recently named Missouri's Professional Economic Developer of the Year. It is a prestigious distinction of which Robinson and the association are much deserving.

The Missouri Development Council honored Robinson just four days before his fourth anniversary with the Cape Girardeau Industrial Recruitment Association. Robinson and the association should feel doubly proud of the state honor considering the relatively short period with which he has been associated with the organization.

The award recognized Robinson for having excelled in providing services to the area, the local economic atmosphere, the state and his profession. Since joining the association in June 1993, just six months after it was founded, Robinson has helped work to relocate or expand a number of businesses.

The most significant, one which Robinson and many others worked to acquire, is the $350 million addition to the Procter and Gamble Co. plant north of Cape Girardeau. When finished, the plan will add 350 workers to its massive payroll.

The honor was given for all of Robinson's visible successes in working to improve the economic condition in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area. In working to expand the business base, much work goes on behind the scenes -- and not every effort is a success. For all of those efforts as well, we join in congratulating Robinson on a job well done.