3-18-14 Maryville Daily Forum

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Volume 104 • Number 52 • Tuesday, March 18, 2014 • PO Box 188 • 111 E. Jenkins • Maryville, MO • 75¢

Kawasaki produces 8-millionth engine at Maryville plant By JIM FALL

Executive editor

Amid a shower of balloons floating down from the ceiling, a traditional Japanese toast, and special recognition from Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. President Shigehiko Kiyama, employees and managers at the Kawasaki facility in Maryville celebrated production of the plant’s eight-millionth engine at 2:45 Friday afternoon. Regular production at the Maryville plant was halted at 2:15 p.m. for the historic observance, and three long-time employees participated in the actual rollout of the latest engine, assisted by Steve Bratt, Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A. vice president and plant manager. One of three employees given special recognition. Paul Walter had the honor of actually pushing engine No. 8,000,000 off Line 2. Senior employees Tim Melvin, assistant production manager, and Bob Staashelm, research and development manager, also participated in the ceremony with Bratt and other highranking company officials. Employees at the Maryville plant were recognized by Shigehiko Kiyama, president of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., the local plant’s Japanese parent company, “for outstanding efforts in having the best production in the United States of America.” Kawasaki in Maryville employees 834 full-time worker and approximately 280 additional temporary workers. The plant is currently operating three shifts per day, and working seven days per week in the foundry and machining area, Bratt said during an interview Monday. This will be a record year for engines produced, and sales, although

“because our year runs from April 1 to March 31, I don’t know the exact figure yet,” Bratt said. “Without the workforce we have available to us here in northwest Missouri and southwestern Iowa, Kawasaki would not be where we are today,” Bratt added to Kiyama’s accolades for the local employee pool. “They have tremendous dedication to their jobs and wholehearted concerns about what they are doing.” The Kawasaki plant opened in 1989 in Maryville in the former Uniroyal facility and produced its 1,000,000th engine in 1995. The five-millionth unit rolled off the local production line in June 2007. The size of the building when Kawasaki moved in was “something under 300,000 square feet,” according to Bratt. Now, “after at least 10 additions I can think of, we are just shy of 800,000.” Located near the south Maryville city limits, the plant sits on a campus of just over 113 acres. The main Maryville product line consists of three sizes of engines for power lawnmowers ranging from heavy-duty commercial zero-turnradius riding units to residentialsize mowers and tractors. When production first began locally, the sole product was a 6.5-horsepower engine made specifically for John Deere push mowers. Engine sizes now range from 12- to 32-horsepower. Kawasaki in Maryville has approximately the same number of employees as the company’s production points in Lincoln, Neb., where all-terrain vehicles, jet skis, wheel rims and railroad cars are produced. The international manufacturer also has U.S. plants in Yonkers, N.Y.; Fort Worth, Tex.; and the Atlanta, Ga. area.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Plant-wide celebration

The eight-millionth engine produced at the Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A. plant in Maryville rolled off the local production line at approximately 2:45 p.m. Friday to a plant-wide celebration. Participating in the official recognition of the historic engine were, from left, Tim Melvin, assistant manager production; Matt Kurushima, president, Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A.; Nate Kobayashi, general manager of Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A.; Steve Bratt, vice president/plant manager; Trey Miyoshi, general manager; and Bob Staashelm, manager for research and development.

Marinaro among Scholars 100 MARYVILLE, Mo. — A second Sponsored by the Missouri Asstudent from a Maryville school sociation of Secondary School has been chosen as an honoree by Principals, Missouri Scholars 100 Missouri Scholars 100, a staterecognizes students that have been wide program that honors 100 of nominated by their schools and the state’s top-achieving students selected using a formula based on slated to receive their high school grade-point average and ACT or diplomas at the close of the spring SAT scores. 2014 term. Minimum exam scores to beNorthwest Missouri State Unicome a Missouri Scholar are 29 versity’s Missouri Academy of Scifor the ACT and 1,900 for the SAT. ence, Mathematics and ComputHowever, due the high caliber of ing announced Monday that Rose the young people nominated, sigMarinaro, St. Louis, a second-year nificantly higher scores are generRose Marinaro student at the two-year residential ally needed to qualify. school for gifted teens, will join To be selected, each student Maryville High School senior McKenzie Wallace nominee must also meet criteria associated with during the Missouri Scholars 100 recognition an “academic decathlon” designed to measure See MARINARO Page 3 event April 27 in Columbia.

Mason Walk is state geo semifinalist

Where in the world is …?

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM

Mason Walk, a seventh-grader at St. Gregory’s School, has qualified for the 2014 Missouri Geographic Bee next month in Moberly.

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MARYVILLE, Mo. — Mason Walk, a seventh-grade student at St. Gregory’s School in Maryville, has qualified for the state semifinals of the 2014 Missouri Geographic Bee, a stepping stone to the national competition, after scoring as one of the top 100 students statewide. Schools hosted local geography bees for fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout Missouri. Each school’s winner then took a qualifying test sanctioned by the National Geographic Society, and semifinalists were selected based upon the results. Mason, 13, will compete

Sports.................... 7, 8 Entertainment.......... 9 Classifieds.......... 10,11

with the other semifinalists at the 2014 Missouri Geographic Bee, scheduled for Friday, April 4, at Moberly (Mo.) Area Community College. The state winner will receive $100, the “Complete National Geographic on DVD” and a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent Missouri in the national competition. The national winner will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expensespaid trip to the Galapagos Islands. Mason is the son of Scott Walk and Karen Walk, both of Maryville.

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