Stories from Monday, January 8, 2001

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee will be a "Second Friday" event in February. The chamber's monthly event will be held at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 9 at the Show Me Center The Chamber's annual meeting will be held the first Friday of the month, Feb. 2, at the Show Me Center. Annual "Small Business of Year" and Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. awards will be presented...

More than 100 trucks a day will make the swing off Interstate 55 and into 730 Industrial Park when Pavestone Company opens early next year. Pavestone, headquartered at Dallas, Tex., is a leader in the nation's landscape product industry and is the nation's largest producer of interlocking concrete paving stones and retaining walls...

Chuck Schuessler has been named store systems manager for Plaza Tire Service. Schuessler has been with Plaza Tire more than 30 years and was formerly a store manager. He started his new post last week. Mike Jobe, who has been with Plaza Tire 10 years, is taking over operations of the William Street location...

William R. Schott and Harold G. Fallert, CPAs with Schott & Van de Ven, Certified Public Accountants, recently attended the Federal Tax Institute's seminar in Nashville, Tenn. Schott founded the firm more than 40 years ago, and is managing partner. Fallert is the tax manager, and has been in public accounting since 1950...

Jayne Schrader of Cape Girardeau has earned the title of Fraternal Insurance Counselor (FIC). Schrader, an Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) district representative with Mike Mikelson and Associates of Independence since 1998, serves Lutheran families in Cape Girardeau, Chaffee, Mo., Gordonville, Mo., and Scott City, Mo...

Paul Combs of Kennett, Mo., has been selected for the 2001 Rice Leadership Development Program. Combs, with Baker Implement Co. at Kennett, was selected for the program in the industry-related category, sponsored by the Sygenta and John Deere Co.

Wehrenberg Theatre Inc. has closed its Northwest Plaza 9 Theater in the St. Louis area. Wehrenberg, which owns the local Cape West 14 Cine here, has closed five theaters in the St. Louis area in the past year. Ronald Krueger, president and chief executive of Wehrenberg, cites increasing costs, decline of moviegoers and lack of consistently strong film products among reasons for the closures...

The Small Business Development Center will conduct counseling sessions at Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Mo., and Perryville, Mo., this month The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available Jan. 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office. The counseling sessions (about one hour) are free. Call 335-3312 for appointment...

Schnucks Markets Inc., headquartered at St. Louis, is expanding a partnership program with a group of Missouri and Illinois farmers. The Bootheel Missouri/Southern Illinois Farmers Cooperative, formed over the past two years, will involve more than 40 farmers in the program this year...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open its first store in Japan as early as next year, joining a rush of big foreign retailers scrambling to set up shop in the world's second-largest economy, a Japanese business newspaper reported Monday. The world's largest retailer plans to form a Japanese subsidiary this summer and open a U.S.-style discount megastore as early as 2002, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing sources...

The Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District has selected Jim Wohlschlaeger of Piedmont, Mo., as one of its two "Small Business Prime Contractors of the Year." Wohlschlaeger received the award for mowing services at Corps larks and public areas around Clearwater Lake near Piedmont in Southeast Missouri. Wohlschlaeger's business has three contracts at Clearwater Lake, and has performed services there for about 20 years...

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at the new Bank of Missouri facility at 233 W. Jackson Blvd., at Jackson, Mo., at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The best year ever for the U.S. auto industry ended with a whimper as a slowing economy pushed December sales down about 8 percent. Automakers sold 17.4 million cars, pickups, vans, minivans and sport utility vehicles last year, beating their record of 16.9 million set in 1999. ...

Richard W. Meyer may be getting his fishing gear out about the right time. Meyer, who will officially retire as assistant administrator at Southeast Missouri Hospital this year, may find some 40-plus degree weather -- almost a heat wave after a month of freezing temperatures. That means the bass will be jumping, and the crappie hitting at just about anything that moves in the water...

A new antique shop has opened at Murphysboro, Ill. Judy Grissom and Gene Biby opened two businesses at 1335 Walnut Past and Present, Antiques and Collectibles and Baskets by Design. Both businesses will be open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday...

Beer giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. has expanded its presence in South America by purchasing a stake in Chile's leading brewery, officials with the St. Louis-based company said Thursday. Anheuser-Busch bought a 14-percent share of Compania Cervecerias Unidas S.A. The company operates primarily in Chile and Argentina and holds 90 percent of Chile's domestic beer market...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- If someone reported an accident near Seven Sisters in Bollinger County, Marble Hill fire chief James Bollinger could find it. But not all of his firefighters could. "Some of them haven't lived in the area all their lives, so they don't know places' nicknames," said Bollinger, noting that Seven Sisters is an area of bumps on Route N near Leopold, Mo...

Big sliding bolts bolster security on worn out cell doors at the Cape Girardeau juvenile detention center on Merriwether Street. But even with a string of added locks, the 30-year-old detention center is running out of time, worn down by age and the constant abuse of juvenile offenders...

A former convent building will be transformed this year into a place of comfort and shelter for those in need. When converted, the three-story building at 815 Caruthers in Cape Girardeau will be home to a helping hand organization, as well as transitional housing...

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission awarded a construction contract for 24 miles of road resurfacing projects in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties. In Cape Girardeau County, improvement areas include 7.5 miles of Route OO and .28 miles of Route HH...

Emergency funds available to emergency service providers Cape Girardeau county will receive more than $24,000 to supplement area emergency food and shelter programs, according to Area Wide United Way officials. Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the Area Wide United Way, said a local board will determine how the funds will be distributed among the emergency food and shelter programs run by local service organizations...

Cape Girardeau will put up $2.1 million in bonds to help an aircraft manufacturer set up shop at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport -- a move that eventually could create as many as 200 new jobs for area residents. City officials say Delaware-based Renaissance Aircraft plans to manufacture an updated version of the Luscombe, a two-seat, single-engine aircraft, at the airport...

Notre Dame had the size and strength. Caruthersville had the speed and quickness. Chalk one up for the fast guys. Caruthersville, continuing its best season ever under first-year coach Kevin Williams, ran past Notre Dame 69-57 Wednesday night in a Class 2A sectional boys basketball game played in front of a huge crowd at Cape Girardeau Central High School...

The Jackson High School girls basketball team got strong performances from all-stater Andrea Koeper to win a pair of weekend games. With Koeper scoring 22 points in each contest, the Lady Indians improved to 7-1 by rolling past host St. Joseph's Academy 68-51 Friday night and then rallying past McLeansboro (Ill.) 41-38 Saturday at the John A. Logan Shootout in Carterville, Ill...

Kelly High School will serve as host for the annual Scott-Mississippi Conference girls basketball tournament that begins today. In first-round games, No. 2 seed Scott City plays No. 7 East Prairie at 5:30 p.m.; No. 3 Chaffee faces No. 6 Oran at 7; and No. 4 Delta meets No. 5 Scott County Central at 8:30...

Mildred Rose Little, 79, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001, at her home. She was born June 23, 1921, in St. Louis, daughter of Frank and Elizabeth Godefroid Martin. She and Leonard O. Little Jr. were married Nov. 29, 1941, in Cape Girardeau. He died May 22, 1990...

Brenda A. Stanfield, 61, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Nov. 5, 1939, in Bell City, Mo., daughter of Paul and Estelle Garner Jennings. She and J.W. Stanfield were married Sept. 27, 1958, in Oran, Mo...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Ravin "Don" Hendrix, 62, of Perryville died Saturday, Jan 6, 2001, at St. Anthony's Medical Center in St. Louis. He was born July 24, 1938, in Perry County, son of Andrew T. and Hester D. Edmond Hendrix. He and Dorothy Kline were married Nov. 5, 1960...

Madge L. Schultz, 88, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, Jan. 7, 2001, at Beverly Health Care in Cape Girardeau. She was born Oct. 9, 1912, in Commerce, Mo., daughter of George and Amanda Storey Steen. She and Fritz W. Schultz were married on Nov. 5, 1927. He died April 5, 1988...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Edith Lavica Poe, 91, of Bloomfield died Sunday, Jan. 7, 2001, at the General Baptist Nursing Home in Campbell, Mo. She was born Jan. 9, 1909, in Bloomfield, daughter of Terry and Cora Stacey Poe. She and Raymond Ray Southerland were married June 8, 1928. He died Dec. 14, 1984...

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Donna Kay Caudle Basham, 53, of Olmsted died Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Dec. 12, 1947, in Olmsted, daughter of John P. Caudle and Ruby Ellen Edwards Caudle Allen. Survivors include her husband, Russell "Rusty" Basham of Olmsted; one son, Michael Morgan of Olmsted; one stepson, Harold Crite of Olmsted; one stepdaughter, Cindy Crite of Olmsted; one sister, Liz Crain of Mounds, Ill.; one brother, Kenneth W. ...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Madge H. Allwood, 95, of Chaffee died Sunday, Jan. 7, 2001, at the Chaffee Nursing Center. She was born March 16, 1905, in Bloomfield, Mo., daughter of Robert Miller and Elizabeth Stevens Stafford. She and Joe A. Allwood were married May 16, 1941. He died Jan. 3, 1975...

THEBES, Ill. -- Naomi Williams, 88, of Chattanooga, Tenn., formerly of Thebes, Ill., and Fairmount City, Ill., died Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001, at Life Care Center in Red Bank, Tenn. She was born March 8, 1912, at Thebes, daughter of Deward and Maggie Clutts Butcher. She married William H. "Rusty" Williams, who died July 2, 1997...

One of the unappreciated benefits of the post-holiday season is getting to know the friendly folks who run the gift-return departments. Nothing erases the bad memories of hot, humid, uncomfortable Missouri summers more than cold, snowy, uncomfortable Missouri winters...

A lot of thought, time and money is going into research into ways to reduce the unpleasant odor of pig manure. The reason, of course, is because huge corporate hog farms are under fire for the unpleasant odor they generate, and neighbors don't like it...

Cape Girardeau County commissions in recent years have demonstrated an exemplary knack for handling county finances, and one of the reasons is that longtime county auditor H. Weldon Macke, the chief financial officer, has provided expert guidance not only in putting together annual budgets but keeping a handle on them year after year...

Here are excerpts from the remarks of state Sen. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau as he addressed the Missouri Senate last week as the first Republican president pro tem in 54 years: For me to stand here on this auspicious occasion fills me with an emotion that I hope does not overcome me, but I hope you will understand. ...

To the editor: During a lull in a rather tough winter, the sun is bright, the gutters are dripping and the first seed catalogs with wonderful colored photographs of rutabagas and creeping phlox are delivered to our door by the trusty postman. Along with the morning paper is another item, the Program Guide of the Parks and Recreation Department. Both are worthwhile reading and illustrate the truth of Pope's line about hope...