Even without hats, St. Joe still holds its head high. The Missouri River city of St. Joseph, Mo., saw the closing of its Stetson Hat factory in 2004 by Hatco, Inc., eliminating 110 jobs. But the closing of the 87-year-old facility (opened as the St. Joseph Hat and Cap Co. in 1917) did nothing to quell the longstanding economic gumption of this city of 102,000.
      An even older company is instead choosing to grow in St. Joe. Founded in the city in 1876, Chase Candy Co. is building a new 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m.) facility to make its famous Cherry Mash candy bar and other candy products.
      That's just a small part of the corporate investment that had more than doubled the total for 2003 by June 2004. In fact, as of June, there were 17 active expansions in the metro
      Triumph Foods is still moving forward with its 1,000-worker new pork processing plant. The project is benefiting from a new water treatment facility (finished in 2000) that has a capacity of 30 million gallons (113.6 million l.) per day. Triumph will use 2.8 million gallons (10.6 million l.) per day, provided at a special rate by Missouri American Water.
      In December 2004, the St. Joseph City Council approved a $42-million bond package for a 100-job, 16,700-sq.-ft. (1,551-sq.-m.) lunchmeat plant expansion by Sara Lee Foods, which already employs 588. The company will purchase the bonds and expand its lease with the city, which would use the lease payments to pay off the bonds.
      A 350-acre (142-hectare) area was rezoned in May 2004 for a business park, although the project awaits $10 million in federal highway funding for an important road extension. And in August, renewal of the quarter-cent sales tax for economic development was approved by Buchanan County voters. The measure allocates 1 million annually for economic development purposes. City officials say that the previous seven years of the tax provided nearly $4 million to companies in the form of 5-year forgivable loans, and 64 percent of those companies already had operations in St. Joe.