I hate to say it, but I removed the short_desc contribution (after all that work!) and installed the "Products Short Descriptions" contribution (1.03, I think). This puts the short description into the products_descriptions sql table. I then went through EP and made the same modifications that were made in some of the other files to see if I could get it to work. And I did! I can now import/export the "products_info" data through EP.
I reallly liked the product listing display with the short_desc much better than this one, but I can work around that.
Thanks again for the help before!