Business Briefs

Mehner, Payne, Ford, Hudson and Gautier recognized at Chamber dinner

John Mehner, outgoing president and CEO of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, was recognized Oct. 21 with the chamber’s top honor, the Rush H. Limbaugh Award.

The Drury Family Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award went to Walter “Joe” Doc Ford, past president of Ford and Sons Funeral Home, who began his work in the industry in 1949.

The Small Business of the Year Award recipient was Hudson Chiropractic. Seth Hudson and Chris Crawford’s chiropractic practice was one of eight businesses considered for the award.

The Ambassador of the Year honors went to Nate Gautier of rustmedia.

Since there was no 2020 dinner due to COVID-19, the 2020 Rush H. Limbaugh Award was given posthumously to Lawrence “Larry” Payne and was accepted by Payne’s son, Rich.

Plaza Tire becomes wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Auto

Plaza Tire Service, founded in 1963 in Cape Girardeau, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Tucson, Arizona-based Sun Auto Tire & Service by the end of the year. The addition of Plaza Tire’s 70 locations in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas will bring Sun Auto to more than 350 outlets.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Plaza Tire’s headquarters, warehouse and distribution center will remain in Cape, and president Mark Rhodes said there will be no employee downsizing as a result of the merger. Plaza Tire’s name will remain the same and all current stores will continue with the Plaza Tire brand — as will any new stores.

Current management will remain in place with Mark and Scott Rhodes, the latter serving as Plaza Tire’s vice president, and Mark’s oldest son, Sam, continuing in their respective day-to-day operational roles.

Jackson woman secures advancement position

at Ivy League school

Melissa Stephens, a 2014 graduate of Jackson High School and an alumnus of Southeast Missouri State University, has joined Princeton University in New Jersey as assistant manager of athletics advancement.

Stephens joins a five-person advancement team, responsible for planning major fundraising events for donors, mainly alumni, who are part of what the prestigious university calls its “Varsity Club.”

City of Jackson provides business update

The city of Jackson has added 20 businesses in the past year creating at least 80 new jobs, according to Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce vice president Jen Berti. Berti, who also works for the City of Jackson, said revenue from the municipal sales tax has increased 9% since 2019.

Illinois’ Robinson

Transport buys land

parcel in Cape

Harrisburg, Illinois-based Robinson Transport has closed on a 7.7-acre parcel in the 1800 block of Rust Avenue in Cape Girardeau, where the company — the bus vendor for the Cape Girardeau School District since 2015 — intends to construct a steel building to house its 32 buses.

The firm currently has a month-to-month lease at its current depot at 4178 Route K.

The purchased land is across the street from the former McKesson warehouse and is near the soccer fields of Shawnee Park.

Cape native Tim Arbeiter leaves state post for

private industry

Tim Arbeiter, former vice president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce and ex-director of Old Town Cape, has announced he is leaving his post as founding director of Missouri’s Office of Broadband Development to take a job in the private sector.

Arbeiter said Missouri is 34th out of the nation’s 50 states in terms of broadband access, noting there are more than 147,000 unserved or underserved households in the Show Me State with more than 392,000 individuals without reliable Internet access.

Jackson company to move into “spec” building

Midwest Sterilization Corp. will occupy a 50,000-square-foot “speculative” building at 2550 Industrial Lane, just off Route PP.

The facility, situated on 8.82 acres, began in 2017 and will provide Midwest with additional warehouse and distribution opportunities.

Midwest Sterilization already has a facility in Jackson’s Industrial Park.

The term “speculative” signals the intended use of the building was not known at the time of its construction.

The building has public water, sewer and electricity, 44 planned parking spaces and a 39-foot-tall ceiling in the center.

Seven financial institutions provided funding to put up the spec building: First Midwest Bank, The Bank of Missouri, Montgomery Bank, Southern Bank, First Missouri State Bank, First State Community Bank and Commerce Bank. Building and construction partners on the project were Koehler Engineering and Penzel Construction.

Cape Cosmetology &

Barbering Academy

celebrates two decades

Trend Setters School in Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri’s only fully accredited cosmetology and barbering academy, celebrated 20 years in business in November.

Trend Setters began as Sikeston Beauty College and moved to Cape in 2003.

Gateway seed to locate headquarters, warehouse on Nash Road

Nashville, Illinois-based Gateway Seed is planning to build a new corporate headquarters and warehouse in Scott City along Nash Road. A seller of seed corn and soybeans, Gateway purchased 12 acres just west of Fabick Equipment and has plans of employing five full-time staff.

Gateway, founded in 1997, plans a 100-foot-by-100-foot warehouse with an additional 2,400-square-feet of office space.

Farm supplier Rural King sets spring grand opening in Cape

Rural King, a farm supply store with 125 locations in 13 states, will host a grand opening of its newest outlet at 210 S. Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau on March 26. The building is the former site of Hancock Fabrics, Big Lots and Toys R Us. The Mattoon, Illinois-based Rural King, founded in 1960, has three stores in Missouri: Farmington, Warrenton and Wentzville, and also has an outlet in Carbondale, Illinois.

Rural King features livestock supplies, clothing, hardware and compact tractors from 19 to 55 horsepower at select locations.

National report ranks Show Me State favorably

in cost-effectiveness

Missouri boasts the third most cost-effective highway system in the U.S., according to the New Jersey-based Reason Foundation, comparing dollars spent and highway performance.

In Reason’s 26th annual highway report, the Show Me State is behind only North Dakota and Virginia in its latest rankings.

In terms of total spending, Missouri is one of five states to spend less than $30,000 per mile on its highways. South Carolina, West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota are the others.

By contrast, three states — Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey — spent more than $250,000 per lane-mile of highway.

Missouri figures to spend more on its highway infrastructure in the coming years as a graduated tax on motor fuels took effect Oct. 1, approved in May by the state’s General Assembly.

Additionally, Missouri stands to receive millions to repair roads and bridges following approval of the recent infrastructure bill in Congress.

Sales tax revenue in Cape County poised to establish new record

If the expected trend continues, Cape Girardeau County will break $8 million in sales-tax receipts in 2021 for the first time.

The office of County Treasurer Roger Hudson revealed that the county received $594,011.70 in November in its sales-tax account from the Missouri Department of Revenue — pushing the year-to-date revenue generation to $7,657,059.40.

With a month remaining in 2021, the sales-tax account is running 8.4% ahead of last year’s record pace when the county’s sales generated just more than $7,791.000.

With only $131.940 to go to match 2020’s figure, and with December traditionally a strong revenue month because of holiday purchasing, county sales-tax receipts appear certain to set a new high-water mark this year.

Cole family to rebrand

brokerage as Edge Realty

in 2022

The Cole family, owners of Realty Executives Edge brokerage, has announced the firm is leaving the Realty Executives franchise after 18 years with a formal separation expected in January.

Company co-founder and co-owner Bill Cole, who announced the decision to end the franchise relationship, also said Edge Realty will open a new office in Sikeston, Missouri, after the first of the year.

Edge currently has offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Mexican restaurant opens on Broadway in Cape

Abelardo’s Mexican Fresh restaurant opened at 1740 Broadway in Cape Girardeau, with owner and proprietor Jesus Flores at the helm.

The previous eatery in that space, Mario and Angela’s Italian Cucina, closed in July, with the Grippo family citing a long struggle in finding and retaining workers.

Abelardo’s is part of an Omaha, Nebraska-based chain of 21 restaurants.

Cape Girardeau, after Kansas City and St. Joseph, will be Abelardo’s third Mexican fast-food outlet in Missouri — with 11 more located in Nebraska, six in Iowa and one in South Dakota.

Kirbys buy Simply Swirled

in Cape

Dawn and Mike Kirby have bought Simply Swirled, 274 S. Mount Auburn Road in Cape Girardeau, assuming operations Oct. 18.

The Kirbys already own Ty’s Summer Sno shaved ice shops in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Like Ty’s, Simply Swirled will also make use of a mobile food truck.

Simply Swirled will be open six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday.

Wood & Huston Bank to have new building by spring

Wood & Huston Bank is building a new 6,400-square-foot structure behind its current location at 111 S. Broadview St. in Cape Girardeau, which will feature two interactive teller machines (ITM) the company has been using in other Missouri cities.

Clint Karnes, the bank’s market president for Cape Girardeau and Jackson, said he is hopeful the new structure will be complete by April.

Pilot House to open at

Cape Regional Airport

Pilot House Restaurant, which has operated for more than six decades at 3532 Perryville Road in Cape Girardeau, will be expanding to a second location at city-owned Cape Girardeau Regional Airport in northern Scott County on a five-year premises and equipment lease agreement.

The eatery will fill the vacancy created when Sandy’s Place Cafe, which had been the restaurant tenant for 12 years, relocated to 4590 Nash Road in February near Schaefer’s Electrical Enclosures.

Cape Splash 2021

attendance surpasses pre-pandemic 2019 numbers

Turnout at Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center at Osage Centre returned to pre-pandemic levels during summer 2021.

According to figures released by the City of Cape Girardeau’s Parks and Recreation Department, there were 58,290 paid admissions via the gate from May to September over 86 days of operation.

In pre-COVID 2019, there were 56,850 admissions over 87 days of operation.

Last year, at the height of the pandemic, Cape Splash saw 24,429 admissions over 72 days.

Cape Splash, an outdoor waterpark for all ages, opened in 2010 and features a splash pad, a zero-depth entry pool, lazy river, swirl pool and eight water slides — including a slide 265 feet in length.

Seafood restaurant

opens in cape

A new seafood restaurant, Krabby Daddy’s, opened Oct. 11 at 841 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau.

The eatery’s Facebook page lists hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The space was formerly occupied by Papa John’s Pizza.

Proprietors Mike and Heather Perez also have locations in Farmington and Festus, Missouri.

Best Missouri counties for spending golden years

According to www.Stacker.com, when it comes to most desirable retirement locations, Cape Girardeau County ranks 24th out of Missouri’s 114 counties.

Factors analyzed included cost of living, government services, health care facilities, weather and overall climate, crime rate, outdoor recreational facilities, eating establishments and cultural and entertainment opportunities.

The website, in setting Show Me State rankings, noted Cape Girardeau County’s median home value of $160,500; median rent of $808; median household income of $53,732 — adding 65% of county residents own their homes.

Stacker said the No. 1 county for retirement in the state is Camden County in the Lake of the Ozarks region of Missouri.