Floating dock may become restaurant

The floating dock that got away from Cape Girardeau city officials may now end up as a floating bar and grill at the city's riverside park.

But first, a little background.

In June, Cape Girardeau city officials became interested in bringing a floating dock to Cape Girardeau. Mayor Jay Knudtson, chamber of commerce president John Mehner and Convention and Visitors Bureau director Chuck Martin made plans to travel to Alton, Ill., for a look.

They were especially interested because Alton officials said the floating dock could come at no cost. The dock ended up in Alton's possession after an excursion boating operation went out of business. Alton was desperate to get rid of it to make room for the arrival of paddlewheelers the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen.

But before any of that could happen, Neal Day, who owns a trucking company in Sikeston, swooped in and bought the 30-by-90-foot floating dock, which was being held as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

Now, Day, a resident of Cape Girardeau for the last 22 years, has big plans for the floating dock. Specifically, he wants to open Grady's Bar-ge & Grill. He uses the hyphen in the word barge to emphasize that it will be a bar as well as a restaurant.

He's working with city leaders to get a lease for a waterfront piece of property. He's also used the dock -- basically a barge -- as a landing vessel for the Grampa Woo excursion yacht.

Day said the floating dock was being operated as a bar and grill in Alton and is set up to be a nice place in downtown, with a pavilion, food prep area, restrooms and waist-high hand railings.

Day said the food will have a Cajun flair, along with barbecue ribs, chicken and tenderloin. He describes it as a full-service restaurant, not just a sandwich shop. He expects to hire about 15 employees once it's up and running.

He says it would be a good fit.

"We've never had anything that lends itself to the river like this," he said.

A meeting has been set up with Old Town Cape on Oct. 25, which will be held on the barge.

* RM COCO buys Steven Fabrics' cut order business: RM COCO has announced the acquisition of all Steven Fabrics current decorative fabric inventory. Already a leading national wholesale distributor/convertor of fabrics, trim and custom hardware, RM COCO will become the source for the entire fabric line of Minneapolis-based Steven Fabrics, including drapery, multipurpose and upholstery fabrics.

"The addition of Steven Fabrics' inventory, along with its valued customers, will significantly strengthen RM COCO's offerings," said company president Jim Rust.

The inventory will be ready for shipping on Oct. 17, but orders can be made now. RM COCO is a wholesale distributor/converter of exclusive decorative drapery and upholstery fabrics, trim, blinds and custom hardware serving the residential and commercial markets.

Custom Creations, a division of RM COCO, specializes in custom top treatments, bedspreads, cornices and drapery. The company has hired four new reps since August to accommodate additional customer service needs.

* Retired art teacher featured in sporting magazine: William Headrick, a retired Cape Girardeau public schools art teacher, is prominently featured in the October issue of Sporting Classic. Headrick is the subject of a well-written article written by longtime friend Michael McIntosh.

"You know him as William W. Headrick, the world's premier gun photographer," the article starts. "I know him as Bro, a treasured friend of twenty-odd years."

Apparently, Headrick is a well-known photographer of guns.

"You have only to study a few Bill Headrick images to see that he has raised the gun photography bar by an order of magnitude," the article states.

The article says that Headrick is also as good behind a gun as he is behind a camera.

It's a nicely written article, funny at times, about a man that I had for art class in school, but knew very little about. It's worth the read.

* E-mail mania: It's an e-mail world. About 17 billion e-mails float around cyberspace at any given moment.

So a staffing firm posed an interested question to 250 people in advertising and marketing over the summer: What's your biggest e-mail peeve?

Almost a third, 29 percent, said being copied on the "reply all" function was the most irksome practice. An equal percentage cited receiving large, unsolicited files in their e-mail. About 16 percent said they found messages that are too long the most annoying e-mail practice when communicating with business contacts. Thirteen percent cited typos and grammatical mistakes, and 6 percent cited having to scroll through the message to find the information they need.

Scott Moyers is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Send comments, business news, information or questions to Biz Buzz, 301 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699, call 335-6611, extension 137 or e-mail smoyers@semissourian.com.