BUS FIRM SEARCHES FOR HOME; EFFORTS TO LOCATE STATION UNDER WAY

Efforts to find a suitable site for a new Greyhound bus terminal in Cape Girardeau were scheduled to begin today, a Greyhound spokesman said.

Tom Clayton, customer service manager for Greyhound Bus Co. in St. Louis said Monday a representative from the bus line was scheduled to be in Cape Girardeau today.

"First he's going to close out our account with the agent at Spanky's," said Clayton. "Before he left I also gave him a copy of the Cape Girardeau zoning map. I told him to take the map and look over some of the locations already zoned for a bus terminal. If he finds something that looks promising, we'll both come to Cape and look it over," Clayton said.

Clayton said he wants to open a station as soon as possible to replace the terminal that was closed last week at Spanky's convenience store, 353 S. Kingshighway.

It was the fourth bus station to open and close here since March 1990, when Union Bus Depot at 16 N. Frederick was closed during the Greyhound bus strike. It had operated there since 1947.

The South Kingshighway bus station opened July 18 but closed five days later, on July 22, when it was discovered the convenience store site was not zoned for the operation of a bus terminal.

Regularly scheduled bus-passenger and parcel and freight service in and out of Cape Girardeau was suspended on Thursday afternoon.

"I've never had as much trouble keeping a bus station open in any town as I have in Cape Girardeau," said Clayton. "I was so happy when we moved into the fine, well-maintained facility that Nip Kelley had made for us," he said, referring to a site at Sprigg and Themis. "I thought our problems were over.

"The unfortunate thing is, I have 104 other Greyhound agencies besides Cape Girardeau to deal with each day. It's really difficult to devote this much attention and manpower to a single town."

Meanwhile, the ripple effect of the loss of local bus service continues. Passengers who want to go to Memphis, St. Louis or elsewhere must first get to Perryville or Sikeston to purchase their tickets and board a bus. Those who rely on Greyhound for parcel and freight service must do the same.

The American Red Cross Blood Depot in Cape Girardeau was able to make arrangements with Greyhound last week for blood supplies from the Red Cross Blood Depot in St. Louis to continue to be shipped by bus to Cape Girardeau on an as-needed basis. The blood is used by both local hospitals.

In addition to the blood supplies, Marilyn Hughey, blood depot supervisor for the St. Francis Medical Center, said the hospital occasionally used Greyhound to ship blood samples from patients to the Red Cross Reference Laboratory in St. Louis for identification of blood antibodies.

"The Red Cross does have a courier service that leaves Cape a couple of times a day, but we like to ship them by bus because there are more schedules," Hughey said. "We don't send blood samples to St. Louis very often, but when we do speed is important, and that's why we depend on the bus."

Some local veterinarians also use Greyhound's parcel service to ship suspected rabies specimens to the Missouri Department of Health Laboratory at Poplar Bluff.

Dr. John Koch of the Cape Small Animal Clinic said that he and other veterinarians ship the highly-perishable rabies specimens by bus because of rapid delivery time. "We usually send about a half-dozen to a dozen samples each year, but when we do it is important they arrive promptly," he said.