2. An environmental contractor installs a 76-foot-stack at the Missouri Electric Works Superfund site in Cape Girardeau. The stack is part of a $3 million effort to clean up the PCB-contaminated soil. Some 20,000 to 30,000 tons of soil at the site of the former motor and transformer repair business at 824 S. Kingshighway and neighboring commercial properties will be excavated and heat treated. The heat treatment is designed to separate the PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls from the soil. The treated soil will then be spread on the site. The contractor, Williams Environmental Services of Stone Mountain, Ga., is expected to finish assembling the equipment and then will test it starting in mid-September.

3. Lone Star Industries Inc., whose largest plant is in Cape Girardeau, and Dyckerhoff AG, a cement and building materials company headquartered in Germany, have agreed to a merger that will result in the sale of all of Lone Star's U.S. holdings to Dyckerhoff. The U.S. company will continue to operate as Lone Star Industries, and no immediate changes are anticipated. The local plant employs 170 to 200 persons and has an annual payroll in excess of $8 million.

4. Construction of a new regional vocational school will begin with a formal groundbreaking ceremony at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The site of the new school is near Silver Springs Road and Kingshighway. A $14 million bond issue was approved in 1997 to cover a number of construction costs, including a new vocational-technical school. The new center rests on about 75 acres. It will be joined by a high school campus if voters approve a second $14 million bond issue.

7. Commercial Credit, 3441B William St., has become CitiFinancial. CitiFinancial, a part of the Citigroup family. It is a consumer finance company specializing in personal and home equity loans and has been in business since 1912. It has more than 1,200 offices and 8,000 employees in the United States. Timothy Visnapuu is manager of the local CitiFinancial office.

8. MINER The city of Miner hopes to revitalize the old Brewer property by securing Tax Increment Financing status for it, and those efforts have already drawn the attention of Riggs Whosale Company. Efforts by the city to secure TIF status for a section of land are progressing for the property, located on East Malone Avenue between the Shoney's Restaurant and Penny Pincher. The land consists of approximately 12.4 acres. In years past, a drive-in theater was located on the spot. Someone also conducted mobile home sales at the location. The home construction supply business has been located in Sikeston since 1946. The business was gutted by fire in the early morning hours of June 5; the fire was judged to have been arson. The loss of the building was figured at $1 million, the buildings contents at $2 million.

13. Broadway Ice Cream and Sweet Shop has opened at 707 Broadway. The restaurant, which offers breakfast and luncheon menus, offers a buffet breakfast Friday and Saturday. Lunch items on the menu include soup and sandwich, chicken and beef sandwiches, a stuffed tomato salad and garden salad. Desserts include the pie of the day and cheesecake.

22. One of the nation's largest grocery operations plans to open a store in Cape Girardeau within a year. Albertson's Grocery, with more than 2,400 stores in 38 states, has entered a contract to purchase land on the northeast corner of Kingshighway and Independence to build a 61,020-square-foot Albertson's Food Center. The company has contracted for two sections of land the 4.68-acre former Wolohan Lumber Co. property at 120 N. Kingshighway and a 2.7-acre site that most recently housed a salvage operation. The company also is looking at the possibility of a store in Sikeston at Main and Malone streets.

24. Missouri Goodwill Industries, which operates 15 thrift stores mostly in the St. Louis area, is coming to Cape Girardeau. Goodwill will open a full-line retail store at 350 S. Silver Springs Rd. next month. The 9,550-square-foot building previously occupied by Chucky Cheese will house the store and space for in-store donation processing.

27. Maid Solution, a residential cleaning service, has opened at 1130 E. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson. The business is owned by Syndi Smith.

27. The Mobile AutoGlass Medix, a windshield repair business, has opened. The new business, a mobile service, will serve commercial and residential customers. Tammy Miller of Millersville is owner of the new business.

27. VTG Corp., parent company of Rapco International, has offices at the Lorimont Development. The Rapco manufacturing facility is north of Jackson. Rapco manufactures audio cables with worldwide distribution, primarily in the music industry.

27. First Tennessee Bank will open a First Horizon Money Center branch office at the Lorimont Place Development. The new facility will specialize in consumer lending, including mortgage, auto and other loans.

27. Shoney's Restaurant, 161 West Drive in Cape Girardeau, closes operations 16 years after it opened. The local restaurant joins 72 other Shoney's restaurants that will close in 14 states by Halloween. Shoney's opened here in 1983. Also included in the latest closings were Shoney's restaurants at 1317 E. Malone in Miner and Carthage. No franchised restaurants re included in the closings. The Cape Girardeau restaurant was a franchised operation until 1995, when it was sold back to the company.

28. Gary Rust has received the Suburban Newspapers of America's top award for his work as a leader in the industry. Rust, president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers, became the 21st recipient of the Dean S. Lesher Award during the SNA's Fall Publishers' & Retail Advertising Directors' Conference held in Chicago.