West Plains, a finalist when Caterpillar Inc. selected Dyersburg, Tenn., for a new manufacturing plant in 1995, emerged at top in its latest bid for a Caterpillar plant.

Caterpillar, a large manufacturer of mining and construction equipment, natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines, announced this week that West Plains had been selected for a 190,000-square-foot plant for the manufacture of high-pressure hydraulic hoses.

Construction of the plant in the Ozark Development Corp. Industrial Park on Highway 63 at West Plains is expected to start within the next three months. It should begin production a year later.

The high-pressure hoses to be made at the plant will be used in the company's line of mining, construction and earth-moving equipment, as well as for customers.

It was about two years ago that Caterpillar was looking at sites in Southeast Missouri -- West Plains, Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Farmington -- and Dyersburg in west Tennessee.

Caterpillar selected Dyersburg for a 170,000-square-foot plant that opened in August 1995. It manufactures machine clutch housings for uses in transmissions for the company's earth-moving and construction equipment.

The Dyersburg plant is already looking to expand. Caterpillar has announced a 40,000-square-foot expansion that will increase employment, said Chris Rimel, general manager and editor of the Dyersburg News -- a Rust Communications newspaper.

That will put the plant at more than 200,0000 square feet and the work force at over 100.

The plant at West Plains, a community of about 9,000 people, will create about 100 jobs.

Cape Girardeau, which received a second look in 1995, was once again contacted when the search for the hose plant started.

"Caterpillar officials came for a quick visit," said Mitch Robinson, executive director of Cape Girardeau Area Recruitment Association.

Announcement of the West Plains plant demonstrates that Missouri is a world-class location for some of the world's most prestigious businesses, said Joseph L. Driskill, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED).

Finalization of plans for the plant is contingent on final approval of an incentive package offered by the DED, said Jim Gardner of the DED. The package includes a Community Development Block Grant to Howell County for road, street, water and sewer improvements, job training, enterprise zone tax credits and possibly low interest loans.

Caterpillar will be the fifth company to take advantage of "BUILD Missouri," a new program that allows the issuance of bonds to accommodate large-scale projects.

The BUILD program, which went into effect in August, has been used in recent months to attract the Union Pacific Customer Service Department and Mayflower Transit to St. Louis, Schreiber Foods to Mount Vernon and Copeland Corp. to Ava.

Since August the program has help create more than 1,500 jobs, said Gardner.

Caterpillar is a Fortune 500 company with more than $16 billion in assets and more than 57,000 employees around the world.

Caterpillar products are made in 60 plants worldwide. The plant at West Plains will be the company's 61st. The company includes a rubber products plant in Boonville that employs about 100.

Caterpillar was founded 70 years ago by C.L. Best and Daniel Holt to develop steam tractors for farming purposes. The Best and Holt families collectively pioneered track-type tractors and gasoline-powered tractor engines.

Over the next two decades, Caterpillar's product line included motor graders, elevating graders and electric generation sets.