MEMO

The Small Business Development Center will conduct counseling sessions in three areas this month.

The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available June 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office. The sessions, about one hour, are free. Call 335-3312 for an appointment.

He will conduct sessions at the Sikeston Chamber of Commerce June 21 from 9 a.m. to noon. Appointments are available by calling 471-2498. He will hold sessions at the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission office in Perryville June 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Appointments are available by calling 547-8357. Sessions will be held June 16 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Malden Chamber of Commerce. Appointments are available by calling 276-4519.

Total construction activity, suffering from a 41 percent decline in nonresidential building, was down in April in Missouri.

The F.W. Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill reported total construction in April at $406,859,000, down 16 percent from the $482,455,000 in April 1993.

Total construction in the state for the first four months of 1994, however, is up about 9 percent, from $1,507,348,000 in 1993 to $1,638,698,000.

Nonresidential construction in the state during the first four months, including commercial, manufacturing and other buildings not designed for shelter, was reported at $556,872,000, down 12 percent from the $635,644,000 during the same period of 1993. For April, nonresidential construction was down 41 percent, from $230,683,000 in April 1993, to $134,989,000.

Residential construction for the year through April is up 17 percent, at $784,512,000, compared to $670,905,000 during the same period in 1993. But residential building was down in April, from $213.9 million last year to $177.5.

Nonbuilding construction, which includes streets, highways, bridges, river and harbor developments, airports and a few other projects, was reported at $297,314,000 for the year, up 48 percent from the $200,799,000 for the same period a year ago.

Bill Bates, president and director of Training for Life Appreciation Training Seminars of Los Angeles, will present a series of seminars here on grief recovery, separation and loss. The seminars are sponsored by Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

A bereavement, separation and loss seminar for the public will be held Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. A professional bereavement training seminar for therapists, counselors, nurses and ministers will be held Friday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Holiday Inn.

Information is available by contacting Ford and Sons Funeral Home, 334-1313.

Central Hardware Co. creditors may be a step closer to getting some of their money.

Under a pact hammered out between the bankrupt company and its banks, suppliers and other unsecured creditors would be guaranteed to receive at least $9.5 million of the $60 million they are owed. That's an average of about 16 cents on the dollar, though payments to individual suppliers would vary.

Meanwhile, the bank group would receive about $115 million of the $185 million it is owed, or about 62 cents on the dollar. The bank group would receive a higher payout because most of its loans were secured by liens on property and inventory.

Creditors and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David P. McDonald have yet to agree to the payout plan, which is expected to filed in court this week.

Central Hardware had a store in Cape Girardeau.

A Canadian company, Cott Corp. of Toronto, is purchasing St. Louis-based Vess Beverages Inc., originator of Whistle orange soda, for $27.4 million.

The new owner plans to expand Vess and a sister company, Vess Specialty Packaging Co., of Sikeston, officials said. The price includes cash, assumption of Vess' bank debt and a subordinated note issued to Vess' vendors.

The company said Vess expects to continue turning out its orange Whistle along with 13 other sugar-sweetened flavors, eight varieties of diet soda and spring waters. Vess will produce Cott's private-label beverages along with other drinks that Vess cans or bottles under contract.

Don Schneeberger, Vess president, is to stay on to run Vess. Cott expects to keep Vess' 190 year-round employees in St. Louis and its 85 employees in Southeast Missouri. The St. Louis plant swells to about 230 employees in summer. The Sikeston facility should have 150 employees by the end of the year.