Southwest Missouri News

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Carthage|ret||ret||tab|

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Campaign sets high goal |ret||ret||tab|

The Carthage Area United Way has set a $250,000 goal for the 2000-2001 campaign.|ret||ret||tab|

Miriam Putnam will be general chairperson of the campaign, which has the theme "Caring Into the 21st Century." Vice-chairman of the campaign is Bob Copeland, chief executive officer of McCune-Brooks Hospital.|ret||ret||tab|

The campaign will provide money for numerous area agencies including the southwest Missouri Chapter of the American Red Cross, Ozark Trails Council of the Boy Scouts, Carthage Cerebral Palsy Center, Carthage Crisis Center, and Carthage Crosslines Ministry.|ret||ret||tab|

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Joplin|ret||ret||tab|

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Event benefits screenings|ret||ret||tab|

The Freeman Foundation recently held the fourth annual Carol Morton Regatta Party, raising more than $48,000 for breast cancer awareness, education and detection.|ret||ret||tab|

A joint project of the Freeman Foundation and the Grand Lake Sailing Club, Grove, Okla., the regatta is dedicated to the memory of Morton, a Joplin resident and sailor who died of breast cancer at age 48.|ret||ret||tab|

The Freeman Foundation is the charitable arm of Joplin's Freeman Health System.|ret||ret||tab|

Since it began in 1997, the regatta has raised more than $100,000 for breast cancer awareness and detection in the four-state area. |ret||ret||tab|

The money provides an average of 25 free mammograms per month to underinsured or low-income women.|ret||ret||tab|

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Plant to create 70 jobs|ret||ret||tab|

Joplin will soon be home to a pet food company. Hampshire Pet Products, based in Mission, Kan., has announced plans to move its headquarters to Joplin's Crossroads Center Distribution and Business Park and will build a 105,000-square-foot pet food processing plant.|ret||ret||tab|

"We are excited with our selection of Joplin as the city for our first biscuit plant and future corporate headquarters," company President Karl Kipke said in a press release. "In our estimation, Joplin possesses one of the highest quality, most dedicated work forces in the nation. That, along with close access to the area's agricultural products, makes Joplin the perfect location."|ret||ret||tab|

Hampshire is the fourth company in the last 18 months to move into the industrial park near Interstate 44 and U.S. 71.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Kipke, the company will employ 40 production workers and 30 corporate and professional staff, with the possibility of expanding. Production jobs could pay an average of $11 an hour, with hiring to begin around January.|ret||ret||tab|

The company is expected to invest more than $8 million in the project, which is scheduled for completion in the spring. JMH Construction Management Inc. of Joplin, is the builder. Hampshire will make private-label per biscuits and pet treats at the 18-acre site southeast of Joplin.|ret||ret||tab|

"Hampshire's announcement, along with the new Jasper Products soy products plant and continued expansion by Pillsbury, shows that Joplin is an ideal location for food companies to reach both raw products and customers," Joplin Mayor Darious Adams said.|ret||ret||tab|

Hampshire is the fourth client to move into the Crossroads Park since Component Packaging held a ground breaking there in the spring of 1999.|ret||ret||tab|

The Joplin Business and Industrial Corp. also has a speculative building in the park under construction.|ret||ret||tab|

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Neosho|ret||ret||tab|

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Furniture store to close|ret||ret||tab|

Neosho's Heilig-Meyers Furniture Store is the only in one in Missouri that will be closed as part of the company's restructuring plans under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.|ret||ret||tab|

All 13 employees of the Neosho store will be laid off when the store is closed in 30 to 60 days.|ret||ret||tab|

Across the nation, Heilig-Meyers will lay off 4,400 of its 17,000 employees. The closings will leave the Richmond, Va.-based home furnishings chain with 596 stores and approximately 12,900 employees in 29 states.|ret||ret||tab|

The bankruptcy petition lists assets of $1.35 billion and liabilities of $868 million. The company reported a net loss of $15 million for the quarter that ended May 31.|ret||ret||tab|

"Continued disappointing operating results coupled with an inability to secure alternate financing sources limit our ability to achieve the necessary strategic and capital improvements to compete in today's retail marketplace," said Donald S. Shaffer, president of Heilig-Meyers, in a press release.|ret||ret||tab|

In recent weeks, many of Heilig-Meyers' furniture suppliers either stopped shipping products to the company or required the company to pay cash, Shaffer said. |ret||ret||tab|

The company said that the filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond allows it to continue business operations while it formulates and implements its restructuring plan. In conjunction to the filing, the company said it has received a commitment from a group of lenders led by Fleet Retail Finance, Inc., for $215 million in debtor-in-possession financing. [[In-content Ad]]