GREYHOUND LOOKS FOR ANOTHER CAPE FACILITY

Greyhound is looking for a new home in Cape Girardeau ... again.

Greyhound bus officials will be in the area Monday to look for a new bus station and agent.

"We've been taking applications for a station agent two months," said Tom Clayton, Greyhound's customer service manager at St. Louis. "We'll be talking to some people Monday and hope to have things squared away soon."

A new location will be the fourth for the bus company since March 1990, when the former Union Bus Depot at 16 North Frederick closed. That facility had served as the Greyhound station more than 40 years.

"We want to get a new station and agent as soon as possible," said Clayton. "Cape Girardeau is a good bus town. We have a lot of riders out of there and here it is summer with no place to buy a bus ticket."

Clayton said the bus would discharge and pick up passengers at the present location, 40 North Sprigg, for about another week, although the facility closed last week..

"You can't purchase a ticket there, but you can get on the bus without a ticket," he said. "If you're going south, you can then purchase your ticket at Sikeston. If you're going north, you can buy the ticket at Perryville."

Clayton said Greyhound would be looking for a full-service agency, handling Greyhound Package express tickets, bus tickets, and prepaid ticket order.

"The Kelleys have been great," said Clayton, in reference to Nip Kelley, which operated the facility from September through June 1. "They operated a good facility, located across the street from a taxicab stand. The station had been completely renovated, and was always clean. I thought we had a fine facility in Cape Girardeau."

Clayton added that the Kelleys gave plenty of notice that they were closing the agency. "They told us two months ago," he said.

"It just didn't pay for us," said Wanda Kelley. "I think it would be a good business for people who wanted to operate the station themselves. But, but it was part of our overall operation, and it just wasn't financially feasible for us to keep it open."

Greyhound operated at the Union Bus Depot located on Frederick Street 43 years, from 1947 to March 1990, when the agency was closed because of a decline in bus service following a 21-day Greyhound bus strike.

A new station agent assumed operation of the station, which opened at 1101 William. After five months, in August 1990, the station closed again.

The station opened Sept. 4 in a newly renovated building on North Sprigg Street.