Out of the Past

The owners of St. Vincent's College in Cape Girardeau have rejected a sales offer by the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation, but further negotiations for sale of the historic campus are continuing. Members of the Housing Assistance Task Force met for the first time Wednesday and wasted no time framing the scope of the debate; many task force members said they want the City of Cape Girardeau to provide temporary, emergency shelter for people with no housing and transitional housing to enable low-income tenants to save to buy a home.. ...

At an appearance yesterday in Cape Girardeau, former secretary of defense Dick Cheney assailed President Bill Clinton over economics and national security; Cheney was the featured speaker at a $50-a-plate breakfast at Drury Lodge; the event benefited the Missouri Futures Fund of the Republican Party...

Voters in the Cape Girardeau likely will have an opportunity Nov. 2 to reconsider riverboat gambling; at yesterday's City Council meeting, proponents of the measure presented petitions with the signatures of 3,720 residents requesting the measure be placed on the November ballot...

Lyn Muzzy has agreed to a six-month contract with the city of Cape Girardeau as a convention and tourism consultant; Muzzy will remain as director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, while the city searches for a new director; he will then continue to attend trade shows; at the end of six months, Muzzy's contract will be up for negotiation...

The Rev. Mark D. Martin is ordained into the ministry and installed as pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church at Egypt Mills in the afternoon; the rite of ordination and installation is performed by the Rev. James W. Kalthoff, president of the Missouri District of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod...

A Cape Girardeau man walking along the 400 block of South Sprigg Street escapes serious injury in the morning, when he is struck in the back by a loose boom from a logging truck; injured in the freak accident is Roy Donaldson, 32. "Bear" is the center of attention wherever he roams; adorned in one of his finest "Klingon" outfits, Bear, alias William Reed of St. ...

A wet spring in Southeast Missouri has left a lot of standing water, backwater from the Mississippi River, and now, hot, humid weather have combined to provide all the right ingredients for a bumper crop of pesky mosquitoes; Wayne Moore of the Cape Girardeau Public Works Department, who is in charge of the city's mosquito-abatement program, says his crew started using the city's new, ultra-low-volume fogging machine around the first of June...

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau will start operating under a new contract next month; it was officially announced during a meeting of the CVB Advisory Board last night that the CVB will receive its new directions from the Cape Girardeau City Council during the fiscal year that starts July 1...

A federal appeal court yesterday lassoed efforts to keep about 20 wild horses roaming free along a 24-mile stretch of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Southern Missouri; in a 2-1 opinion, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis reversed a lower court ruling and vacated an injunction that had prohibited the National Park Service from removing the horses, which live along the Current and Jacks Fork rivers in Shannon County...

Former Missouri Secretary of State Roy Blunt, who left office in January after losing a primary race for governor, was in Cape Girardeau yesterday to announce his support for the newly formed Missourians for Fair Elections; the bi-partisan coalition will soon begin a petition drive aimed at putting a measure before voters in 1994 that would limit contributions to political candidates from individuals and PACs; Blunt is chairman of the organization...

Gerald McDougall, associate vice president for academic affairs at Wichita State University, has been named the new dean of the College of Business Administration and professor of economics at Southeast Missouri State University. It was announced yesterday the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau will start operating under a new contract next month and will receive its new directions from the Cape Girardeau City Council...

The Rev. Walter J. Keisker of Jackson was one of three persons who received a doctor of divinity degree at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis on May 28; Keisker, who has been affiliated with St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson more than 50 years, currently teaches Sunday school and weekly Bible classes...

The sound of steam escaping from safety valves and steam-powered whistles echo through the hills around Gordonville; the Friends of Steam Railroading and Shelby and Mildred Brown of Jackson are sponsoring a weekend Spring Steam Festival that includes operating steam-power tractors and steam engines; the event is taking place today and tomorrow at Gordonville City Park...

After a stormy week, Riverfest organizers are hoping for clear skies for this weekend's celebration of Cape Girardeau's river heritage; Riverfest '93, the 15th annual event, begins in the evening with a concert by the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band. Three storms within the last week have left Cape Girardeau public work crews scrambling to dispose of downed trees and tree limbs; two storms came through Wednesday, dumping more than an inch of rain on the city and brought high winds that uprooted trees and damaged power lines; on Friday, a severe storm with high winds swept through the city, tearing down trees and power lines.. ...

Two storm systems passing through Cape Girardeau yesterday pelted the city with more than an inch of rain and brought high winds forceful enough to uproot trees on the north end. Central Hardware in Cape Girardeau, 271 S. Broadview St., is one of the company's stores that will close before the end of the year in an organizational restructuring; the Cape Girardeau store is one of four to be closed in Missouri...

MALDEN, Mo. -- Southeast Missouri State University employees will receive 4 to 5 percent pay raises for the 1994 fiscal year as part of a $52.41 million operating budget approved yesterday by the Board of Regents; later, in closed session, the regents awarded President Kala Stroup an $8,800 pay hike, raising her salary to $118,000 for the coming fiscal year...

Cape Girardeau senior citizens hope to celebrate July 4th in their new Senior Center building; plans call for a June 24 moving day; the kitchen at the new facility should be open for noon meals on July 29; the center is located at 921 N. Clark Ave. Cape Girardeau voters reject riverboat gambling by a margin of 53 to 47 percent; the ballot measure, which passed in only four of the 16 voting precincts, is defeated 5,506 votes to 4,940; while voters here reject riverboat gambling, a similar measure passes overwhelmingly in Caruthersville, Missouri.. ...

Hours after Gov. Mel Carnahan signs into law legislation that allows liquor stores, groceries and convenience stores to sell packaged alcoholic beverages on Sundays, Cape Girardeau City Councilman Al Spradling II asks for a similar local law; the local law will have its first reading at the council's June 21 meeting...

Members of St. Mary's Cathedral celebrate 125 years of the parish with a homecoming; the 11:30 a.m. Mass is celebrated at Deerfield, followed by a dinner, games and other activities; the parish was established in 1868. Ralph Ford, chairman of the Cape Girardeau County Republican Central Committee for the past two-and-one-half years, has resigned his position; the retired Cape Girardeau School teacher, who operates a 200-acre farm north of Jackson, made the semi-surprise announcement Friday at a meeting of the committee.. ...

Instead of lawn mowers, the whining sound of chain saws is heard throughout much of the area as clean-up operations are underway in a large area that was ravaged by severe thunderstorms yesterday morning; the line of severe thunderstorms cut a wide swathe of damage that extended from Lake Wappapello northeast of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, to the Mississippi River...

Under the new Missouri school aid package, Cape Girardeau schools stand to gain $1.6 million in new state money, according to the latest education department projections; that estimate differs from the initial projection, which said city public schools would gain an additional $1.2 million...

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department is considering options to improve traffic safety on Highway 61-34 beneath Interstate 55 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson; one plan includes relocating the westbound lanes closer to the eastbound lanes and eliminating the median from near the Veterans Home westward to where the dual lane highway comes together; all options include removal of a hill between the lanes, which obstructs drivers' vision...

With another report expected to be on file later today, the Boyd Group has spent $16,472.46 to promote the June 8 vote in Cape Girardeau on whether to allow riverboat gambling; the Boyd Group, which has four casino operations in Las Vegas, has expressed a strong interest in locating a riverboat here, if citizens approve riverboat gambling...

Should 8th District U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson decide to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, Emerson's chief of staff, Lloyd Smith, said he will seriously consider seeking his boss' House seat; Smith has been on the congressman's staff since March 1981, two months after Emerson took office...

Memorial Day. Several hundred people brave the biting, blustery chill at Memorial Day ceremonies in Cape Girardeau and Jackson to honor the nation's more than 1.1 million war dead; about 200 people, including many veterans, attend the service at Cape Girardeau County Park North; earlier in the day, about 125 people took part in a ceremony at the entrance to Jackson's Russell Heights Cemetery...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- David Noland Coon is ordained a Catholic priest by Bishop John J. Leibrecht of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese in an evening service at St. Henry's Catholic Church here; Coon is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Coon of Charleston...

Demolition of structures along the new Mississippi River bridge route in South Cape Girardeau could get underway by early- to mid-June; early earthwork for the Highway 74 bridge route interchange at Interstate 55 could start in July; bids were opened for both projects yesterday...

In what officials describe as the chamber's most controversial decision ever, the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has voted to support the riverboat gambling issue that will appear on the June 8 ballot. The Department of the Army is reorganizing the 21st General Hospital, resulting in the deactivation of three subordinate detachments in Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff and Springfield, Missouri; the closing of the leased centers in Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff on Sept. ...

Employees of the Cape Girardeau School District will earn an average of 3.5 percent more next year than this under a new salary package adopted by the board of education; the board Wednesday approved raises for teachers, administrators and support staff...

Cape Girardeau's two hospitals have vowed to work together to improve health care services; at a joint news conference yesterday at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office, officials of Southeast Hospital and Saint Francis Medical Center announced the two hospital boards of directors will "explore collaborative efforts."...

If Cape Girardeau voters approve riverboat gambling June 8, city officials will have to decide the best use of local revenue from riverboat proceeds; Councilman Al Spradling III says two projects would top his list: The resurrection or demolition of the old Saint Francis Hospital building and the Marquette Hotel...

The decision a year ago by the U.S. Supreme Court to ban prayer at school graduation ceremonies seemed to have little effect on the Cape Girardeau High School baccalaureate service last night; the service was sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Ministerial Alliance in lieu of the school and was held at the Holiday Inn Convention Center instead of the school gymnasium; attendance was optional, as it always has been...

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson celebrated its 100th anniversary, with the Rev. James W. Kalthoff, president of the Missouri District of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, speaking at the morning worship services; St. Paul began May 18, 1893, with the original constitution signed by six charter members...

Hoping to dispel rumors Cape Girardeau Central High School is a drug haven, school officials welcomed a trio of trained German shepherds to search for contraband on the campus yesterday; no drugs were found, and no arrests were made. Thousands of senior citizens dance, play bingo and enjoy the Senior Fun Fest at the Show Me Center; more than 3,000 senior citizens from all over the region attend the event, offered free every other year...

According to a just-released economic impact study, a riverboat casino in Cape Girardeau would bring nearly $150 million into the local economy in its first year of operation; the study was conducted by Pauline Fox, an economics professor at Southeast Missouri State University, using data provided by The Boyd Group, a Las Vegas-based casino operator that has proposed bringing a gambling boat to Cape Girardeau...

Deactivation Sept. 30 of the 1138th Combat Engineer Battalion at Jefferson Barracks in South St. Louis County will mean additional manpower and equipment for the 1140th Combat Engineer Battalion and its four line companies in Southeast Missouri; the 1140th Engineer Battalion and its headquarters company are based here; Guard officials say deactivation of the 1138th will increase the strength of the 1140th by at least 149 people; the 1140th will also receive most of the equipment assigned to the 1138th.. ...

Better late than never, it's finally strawberry-picking time in the Cape Girardeau area; because of cloudy, wet, cool weather the past 30-40 days, the strawberry harvest is about two weeks behind schedule. Charles Kupchella, who was hired in December, began his new duties Monday as the provost at Southeast Missouri State University; he replaced Leslie Cochran, who is now president of Youngstown State University in Ohio...

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to take the "middle man" out of its operation; Robert Hoppmann, chairman of the CVB Advisory Committee, is recommending the city take over the CVB contract; the bureau is now operated under the auspices of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce...

The Cape Girardeau City Council gives first-round approval to a law that sets Aug. 3 as the date voters will again consider city amendments to implement ward representations; the charter amendments were recommended by the city's Zone Election Committee, appointed to define an ill-crafted measure voters approved last November...

A retirement reception was held yesterday for Sam Jarrell, principal of May Greene School, at the Vo-Tech Building; Jarrell will retire at the end of the school year, after 26 years with the Cape Girardeau Public Schools. Legislation to allow Sunday package liquor sales is drawing mixed reactions locally; Gov. ...

The annual May worship service is conducted at 172-year-old Apple Creek Presbyterian Church near Pocahontas in the morning, with the Rev. Bill Bernauer, a supply pastor at Lutesville (Missouri) Presbyterian Church, preaching the sermon; this historic church no longer serves a congregation, but is maintained and kept active through the Apple Creek Memorial Association...

Despite the rainy weather, construction work on the Cape LaCroix Creek-Walker Branch flood-control project continues; as of April 29, the contractor -- Dumey Excavation and Brenda Kay Construction Inc. of Oran, Missouri -- has completed 70 percent of the work on the first phase of the project, which involves channel improvements along Cape LaCroix Creek from south of Bloomfield Road north to Arena Park...

Drury Development Corp. is moving forward with plans to build a five-story, 118-room Drury Inn at the southwest corner of Interstate 55 and Route K; the proposed Drury Inn will be built north of the Cape Budget Inn. Southeast Missouri State University student Melissa Compton dies in a St. ...

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce membership drive is over the 1,100 mark again following a one-day recruitment blitz Tuesday that resulted in at least 78 new members; the new figure leaves Cape Girardeau fourth on the Missouri Chambers of Commerce list behind North Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield...

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department will open bids May 28 for the demolition of structures along the new Mississippi River bridge route in south Cape Girardeau; the demolition work should begin in late June or early July. Joseph E. Doner has been named the new manager of the Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. ...

Cape Girardeau Central High School student leaders have requested a joint meeting with the school board to discuss the renovation of the aging high school auditorium; the Student Senate wants the district's help in financing the refurbishing and replacing of the auditorium seating...

A new painting by Bill Needle is unveiled and dedicated during the morning worship service at First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau; the title of the canvass painting is "Christ Lives" and incorporates scenes from the Gospel of John. The Rev. Jonathan Rice is the new youth pastor at First General Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau; he will be assisted by his wife, Angie; the couple resides in Chaffee, Missouri...

Speaking at spring commencement exercises at the Show Me Center, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. advised Southeast Missouri State University graduates not to cheat in their future endeavors; "When you cheat, somebody else suffers," says Limbaugh...

Owners of about one-third of Cape Girardeau County's 30,000 parcels of real estates are receiving impact notices, advising them of an increase in their property assessments; Missouri statutes require county assessors' offices to update real-estate values in odd-numbered years...

The Mississippi River is expected to crest at 38.5 feet, the fourth crest since March; on April 20, the river crested here at 40.6 feet, the highest the river has been in almost seven years. CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Scott County News has been purchased by Concord Publishing House Inc. of Cape Girardeau; the purchase includes the equipment and building at 113 N. Main St. in Chaffee; the newspaper's current staff will continue with an emphasis on local news coverage...

A Missouri appeals court ruling has removed a legal roadblock that had dammed up Cape Girardeau's effort to move forward with a portion of the Cape LaCroix-Walker creeks flood-control project; the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District concluded that the city of Cape Girardeau does have authority to condemn land outside its city limits; the ruling clears the way for the city to acquire the acreage needed for construction of a dry detention reservoir...

U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh has ruled that provisions of a federal law supersede a Missouri Constitution provision preventing public school funds from being used to transport parochial school students to special education classes; the order is in response to a lawsuit filed against the Cape Girardeau School District...

The Cape Girardeau City Council agrees to appoint a 10-member task force to examine the issue of public housing in the city and whether to appoint a housing authority; the decision comes after officials with the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decry a shortage of available low-income housing and publicly funded rental assistance...

Mary Miller assumes the role of organist at Centenary United Methodist Church; she comes to Centenary from Emanuel United Church of Christ in Jackson, where she served as organist/music director three years; a native of Detroit, Miller received a bachelor of music degree in organ from the University of Michigan...

A memorial honoring veterans of all wars is dedicated in Jackson's Brookside Park; the ceremony is part of the annual May Day Loyalty Day program sponsored by the Jackson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10495. Southeast Missouri State University students will be paying more to park in campus lots as part of a plan designed to help fund a day and night shuttle bus system; parking fee revenues will also be used to blacktop, expand and maintain current parking lots...

Newly elected chairman of the Faculty Senate of Southeast Missouri State University, Terry Sutton, says the senate needs to address the issue of tenure; he says he and other faculty members are concerned tenure decisions are being made based more on whether instructors have published research rather than on classroom teaching...

Thieves stole $600 to $800 from copy and change machines in Southeast Missouri State University's Kent Library over a two-day span last week; the back-to-back burglaries, described by library director James Zink as the worst in 15 years, have prompted the university to take steps to improve security there...

Area high schools are finding ways to keep prayer a part of their graduation ceremonies despite limitations imposed last year by the U.S. Supreme Court; the ruling prohibits officially-sponsored prayer at high school graduation ceremonies; skirting the limits, both Cape Girardeau and Jackson graduating seniors will attend baccalaureate services on May 23, sponsored by the towns' respective ministerial alliances...

Two new principals have been named to head Cape Girardeau elementary schools; Barbara Kohlfeld, who has been a facilitator in the schools' gifted program for the past five years, has been appointed principal of May Greene School; Barbara Blanchard, who has been the interim principal at Washington School the past year, has been named the permanent principal...

Organizers say the weekend's blustery weather cut down on the number of people who participated in the third annual Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive; bright spots during the drive was attendance at both the Civil War encampment near Burfordville and the frontiersmen and women of the Zenon River Brigade at Elks Park, which drew robust crowds...