business on Main Street, Range

September 17, 2011
NCO announces plan to hire 500 in Best Buy, Intuit
expansions
Officials with NCO Group Inc. on Thursday announced a plan to hire 500 seasonal and full-time
employees at its Joplin call center at 1717 W. Seventh St. in the coming weeks.
Wally Kennedy: Back to business on Main Street, Range
Line (http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1700249668/WallyKennedy-Back-to-business-on-Main-Street-Range-Line)
By Wally Kennedy
news@joplinglobe.com (http://www.joplinglobe.com)
JOPLIN, Mo. — Getting confirmation about the future of the former El Vaquero restaurant has been
elusive, but I’m getting closer.
The manager of the store at 2412 S. Main St., Ramon Villasenor, moved his family to Stillwater, Okla.,
after the May 22 tornado. Villasenor has family there who operate an El Vaquero, which, by all accounts,
is as popular in Stillwater as the one in Joplin was.
I have learned that the property was not owned by Villasenor. That complicates matters. I spoke with
people at the El Vaquero restaurant in Stillwater about the future of the restaurant in Joplin.
They said it was their understanding that no immediate rebuilding is planned, but that El Vaquero could
return to Joplin when conditions here improve. As soon as that is confirmed, you’ll be the first to know.
Openings
Truck Toys, 2302 S. Main St., an auto products store operated by Terry Jewsbury, is reopening at 7257
Gateway Drive. The new shop is near where U.S. Highway 71 and Gateway Drive meet south of Joplin.
The store, destroyed by the tornado, provides stereo installments, remote starters and window film. Solar
Gard Specialty Films helped Jewsbury get his business back on its feet.
Gard Specialty Films helped Jewsbury get his business back on its feet.
A grand opening will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday. Food and refreshments will be served.
New construction
That wood structure under construction at 2101 S. Main St. will be the new home of Joplin Tire Center. A
spokesman for the business said the project is to be completed in 30 to 45 days.
The structure will be different in appearance than the building that existed there before the tornado. The
big difference will be the roof, which is now pitched.
Joplin Tire Center reopened a week after the storm in a storefront between Fourth and Fifth streets on
High Avenue.
Expect to see activity soon at the former site of Dude’s Daylight Donuts, 2315 S. Main St. Carolyn
Pendergraft, with Dude’s, said foundation work could begin at any time and that construction could be
completed in six to eight weeks.
I hope they rebuild Dude’s with those big windows facing Main Street, because the new Dude’s will be a
Dude’s with a view. The folks who gathered there for coffee, doughnuts and the morning news will be
witnesses to the reconstruction of Joplin.
Sleepygirls, a furniture and bookstore at 2129 S. Main St., has relocated to the former Saver’s New &
Used Discount Furniture building at 516 N. Main St. This will be Sleepygirls’ new home.
The owner told me she lost everything in the storm, including more than 100,000 books. She said she
went out of town to buy furniture so that she could have enough stock to reopen her store. The books will
take a little longer.
Sleepygirls, which was closed when the tornado hit, took a direct hit. The building was the home of Fred
Reid Rambler for years. My parents were fans of Ramblers and Ambassadors because they were
durable. The building is gone, but the memories remain.
On the strip
Cato will reopen its store in the Hobby Lobby Shopping Center, 1321 S. Range Line Road, on
Wednesday, Sept. 28. The store and its neighbor to the south, Slumberland, sustained significant
damage from the tornado.
Cato is a leading retailer of value-priced women’s fashion apparel, shoes and accessories, offering
exclusive fashions in the newest styles, colors and fabrics.
The entire management team will return to the store, including store manager Amanda Basaldua, of
Joplin.
Slumberland Furniture, 1329 S. Range Line Road, is expected to reopen Nov. 1. The storm tore the airconditioning units off the top of the building, which created gaping holes for rain to pour through. The
building, which sustained significant interior and structural damage, is getting a new facade and a
complete makeover.
For the time being, Slumberland is operating in the former storefront occupied by MC Sports, 423 S.
For the time being, Slumberland is operating in the former storefront occupied by MC Sports, 423 S.
Range Line Road.
Academy Sports and Outdoors has opened a new 87,000-square-foot store in Springfield. It is located at
610 W. El Camino Alto Drive. It is the company’s first store in Springfield and its second in Missouri.
Academy is in the process of rebuilding its Joplin store, which is currently scheduled to reopen in early
2012.
If you have news about something happening on Range Line Road or Main Street, dial 417-623-3480,
ext. 7250; send an email to wkennedy@joplinglobe.com; or send a fax to Wally Kennedy at 417-6238598.
The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO 117 E. Fourth Street Joplin, Missouri 64801