Out of the Past

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said aiming high and being persistent landed the county a record award of $1.5 million from the U.S. Marshal's Service to help expand the overcrowded county jail; "In April the county commissioners and I submitted an application for $1.8 million to help with the expansion of the jail," he said; "The commissioners and I were aware that most CAP (Cooperative Agreement Program) funds are from $400,000 to $500,000, but we thought, if we're going to be a bear, we might as well be a grizzly.". ...

Bishop John J. Leibrecht blessed the ground at the site of the new Notre Dame High School just west of Cape Girardeau yesterday and asked God for help in the second half of the local effort to raise the $5 million it will take to construct the school; volunteers have already collected contributions of more than $2.7 million in a little more than two months...

The ringing of cathedral bells announces the beginning of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau; the event begins at 2:30 p.m. at St. Mary's Cathedral; around 300 people join together outside on the south side of the church to await the invitation of Bishop John J. ...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Greer Chapel Church members have decided to rebuild; the question now is where, says Alice Henry, a longtime member of the church, which was destroyed in an arson fire Sept. 13; church members met last night to discuss the congregation's future; members of the Missionary Baptist congregation are trying to decide whether to stay on the site about two miles north of Sikeston on Highway ZZ or to find another site for the church...

Jay Knudtson, chairman of the Cape Girardeau Park Board, and Dan Muser, parks and recreation director, like to talk about the newest Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation facilities to be available next year; the Osage Park Community Center, a 33,728-square-foot building, is expected to be ready by the first of the year, and the new Shawnee Park Softball Complex and Concession Building will be ready for the 1997 spring season; the combined projects cost $5.3 million...

When Bill Clinton and Bob Dole square off in presidential debate, Cape Girardeau's opinion of their performances will count; Cape Girardeau is among 18 national research sites participating in Debate Watch '96, a project of the Commission on Presidential Debates; Jay Goff and Tom Harte, both of Cape Girardeau, are state coordinators for Debate Watch '96 and will help collect personal opinions of the debates...

Missouri Highway and Transportation Department district engineer Scott A. Meyer told a gathering of Scott City Chamber of Commerce members last night that once riverboat gambling comes to Scott City, the department will start building roads; many at the meeting expressed some skepticism that Meyer would be able to meet his promise of speedy road improvements to coincide with a gambling boat...

Dr. Dale Nitzschke can think of no better birthday present; the Southeast Missouri State University president celebrated his 59th birthday yesterday with the dedication of the school's new business building; it was a birthday celebration too for Dr. Kala Stroup, Missouri's commissioner of education and former Southeast president, who observes her birthday today; around 500 people attended the dedication of Robert A. Dempster Hall...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The community is already promising to help rebuild a historic Black church destroyed by fire early Friday morning; the fire that destroyed Greer Chapel Church has been ruled "incendiary in nature" by the state fire marshal's office...

The Rev. Paul J. Short is installed as pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church; the service is followed by a reception in the fellowship hall; Short, a native of Katy, Texas, has served churches in Texas, Kentucky and British Columbia. The Rev. Brendan P. Dempsey is installed as pastor of First Presbyterian Church; leading the service is Emily Wigger, moderator of Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, and the Rev. Robert C. Reynolds, executive presbyter; a reception follows in the church's fellowship hall...

Walter Phillips was barely a year old when his parents took him to see the livestock and exhibits at Fairgrounds, now Capaha, Park; since his first visit, Phillips hasn't missed an attraction at the SEMO District Fair, except when there wasn't one; the fair was canceled for about 10 years during the Great Depression and World War II...

Police attribute at least eight burglaries in Cape Girardeau over the past four months to a man who has been targeting elderly people; in each burglary, the man has broken into homes late at night while residents were asleep and demanded money from them; the most recent first-degree burglary and robbery occurred Thursday at about 1 a.m. ...

Fire of undetermined origin heavily damaged the former Polar Therm plant near Frederick and Independence streets late yesterday; firefighters responded to an alarm at 5:36 p.m. and battled intense, stabbing flames for over an hour and a half; despite poor water pressure, the fire was brought under control...

Churches in Cape Girardeau are experiencing a building boon; several churches are expanding or planning new buildings; Lynwood Baptist Church, now at Lynwood and Randol, will be getting bids next week for construction of a church on Route W near Kingshighway; Cornerstone Church, now on West End Boulevard, is planning a new building on the north side of Highway 74 near Minnesota; construction has already started on a 10,000-square-foot addition at LaCroix United Methodist Church on Lexington...

Street corners in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City are flooded with activity in the morning as more than 100 YELL volunteers, dressed in aprons and waving flags, hawk newspapers to passers-by; special editions of the Southeast Missourian are sold as part of the Youth Education Literacy and Learning project, in its sixth year...

Along with a pet parade in front of the grandstand yesterday, the SEMO District Fair staged a horse show with about 400 animals in 19 classes competing for honors; today's entertainment before the grandstand will be a demolition derby. NASA astronaut and Southeast Missouri State University alumna Linda Godwin will speak at the school's Sept. ...

The Rev. Bradford M. Robinson was installed last night as pastor of First Pentecostal Church in Cape Girardeau; speaker at the special service was the Rev. W.C. Parkey, pastor of Cornerstone Tabernacle in Poplar Bluff, Missouri; also in attendance was the Rev. Doyle Randol, presbyter of Missouri District United Pentecostal Church; the Rev. Gourley, retiring pastor, has been named pastor emeritus...

Gov. Mel Carnahan announced yesterday that Cape Girardeau will receive an added $738,585 in federal and state money to expand the flood buyout program; this will give residents living in the Meadowbrook Drive neighborhood an opportunity to sell their homes and relocate to higher ground...

Progress carries a price tag; for Southeast Missouri State University, the price tag is $9.8 million for new academic programs and projects over the next three years; they include a new focus on technical training and establishment of an education center in Sikeston, Missouri; the Board of Regents yesterday voted to submit to the state an operating budget request that envisions spending $4 million in fiscal 1998 on new academic projects, $3.46 million in fiscal 1999 and $2.24 million in fiscal 2000; the board also approved a much-discussed master plan that outlines campus improvements for the next 20 years.. ...

September precipitation already has surpassed the tiny little splash recorded in August; Dr. Al Robertson, a climatologist at Southeast Missouri State University, reports that 0.22 of an inch of rain fell in Cape Girardeau last month; so far this month, 0.27 of an inch has been recorded; last month was the second-driest August on record, according to Robertson...

A new organization -- the Friends of the Cape Girardeau Public Library Foundation -- has been established to raise money for the library; to introduce the new foundation, a "Lift Off" celebration is set for Oct. 4; Apollo 13 astronaut and author James Lovell will speak...

Construction of Cape Girardeau's new Mississippi River bridge is slated to start today, but the initial work won't make a big splash; a coffer dam will be built, which will allow work to proceed on construction of the first of two bridge piers; "It is going to look like it is slow moving because it is down in the hole," says Matt Girard, project manager for the contractor, Flatiron Structures Co. of Longmont, Colorado...

Volunteers collect $314,121 from people in the Cape Girardeau and Marion, Illinois, areas as part of the annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon; nationally, Jerry Lewis' telethon raises a record $49.1 million in pledges and contributions for the battle against neuromuscular diseases...

ALTENBURG, Mo. -- Lutheran Hour speaker Dr. Dale Meyer preaches at the outdoor mission festival of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg at the fairgrounds; Pastor Willard Kassulke says the church has tried to get Meyer as speaker for five years and had to book him two years in advance...

In five days, members of SEMO Lifesavers, a chapter of Missouri Right to Life, arranged for two national speakers, 4,400 white, wooden crosses, and more than 2,500 persons for a prayer vigil prior to President Clinton's arrival yesterday; speaking at the anti-abortion rally at the Cemetery of Innocents on Siemers Drive near Interstate 55 were Phyllis Schlafly of St. Louis, president of Eagle Forum, and Penny Lea of Boone, North Carolina, director of "I Believe in Life."...

A shirt-sleeved President Bill Clinton tells a cheering, sign-waving crowd estimated at up to 30,000 people at Capaha Park that he wants to be re-elected to "build a bridge to the 21sth century"; the campaign rally marks the first time in the city's history that a sitting president and vice president -- Al Gore -- visit Cape Girardeau at the same time; Clinton and Gore are accompanied by their wives, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tipper Gore, and the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, although the latter doesn't appear on stage.. ...

Preparation is the key to enjoying the events surrounding President Bill Clinton's speech at Capaha Park Friday; prepare for hot weather, but don't bring a cooler; bring sunscreen, water and a sack lunch; and above all else, be prepared to walk -- parking won't be allowed within close proximity to the park...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Despite Richard Kline's Republican primary win, his party will back Jo Ann Emerson for the 8th District congressional seat; members of the 8th Congressional District Republican committee met here last night; with a vote of 41-0, they nominated Emerson as their candidate in the upcoming special election...

Free tickets are being distributed at various outlets in 25 counties of Southeast Missouri for President Bill Clinton's campaign rally in Cape Girardeau; Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and their wives will attend a rally at Capaha Park Friday afternoon before the campaign hits the road with a bus tour to Memphis, Tennessee...

A 240-acre industrial site in Nash Road Industrial Park is listed for sale in New America Network's National Sealed Bid Event, a list of 48 properties in 20 states; the property described in the 58-page publication is leased for farming purposes that generate $16,500 a year; however, the lease may be canceled by either party with a 60-day notice; the site, between Nash Road and the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, is a half-mile from Interstate 55 and potentially can be subdivided into three 80-acre parcels.. ...

After 38 years in the ministry -- 32 of them at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, the Rev. Louis Launhardt is retiring; beginning Sept. 15, he will be coordinator of chaplaincy at Missouri Veterans Home; Launhardt delivers his final sermon as pastor of St. Andrew in the morning...

Cape Girardeau County Commissioners are asking the EPA for clarification on cleanup of the Kem-Pest Superfund site; Elizabeth Knote, whose family owns the six-acre site, met with commissioners this week to discuss her concerns that the EPA isn't leaving a clean site; Knote said she found contaminated soil below what used to be the formulation building on the site; the soil was found about 15 feet below the surface...

In a bid to recapture the spirit of his 1992 bus tour, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore will travel from Cape Girardeau southward through Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee during their two-day bus tour that starts here Aug. 30; the president's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Gore's wife, Tipper, will accompany the campaign caravan; the tour will include a stop in Southern Illinois, probably Cairo...

President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore will jump out of the campaign starting gate following next week's Democratic National Convention with a visit to Cape Girardeau; an official with the Democratic presidential ticket's Missouri campaign office in St. Louis said Clinton and Gore are scheduled to visit Cape Girardeau Aug. 30...

The amount of litter on Cape Girardeau's streets led some to declare this summer the most trashy ever; members of the Chamber of Commerce's Beautification Committee want to change people's attitudes about litter, making them care about their community's cleanliness; litter trouble spots include much of Good Hope Street, a path between Central High School and McDonald's, the area around Don's Store 24 and Capaha Park after weekends...

Cape Girardeau voters will decide whether to issue $26.5 million in water system improvement bonds and pay for them with a quarter-cent sales tax; at its meeting yesterday, the Cape Girardeau City Council unanimously decided to put two separate issues -- whether to sell the bonds and how to pay the debt service -- on the Nov. ...

After having three restaurant operators in as many years, those running Cape Girardeau Regional Airport are ready for some permanence; they hope Ronald and Glenda Woodard can give it to them; the Cape Girardeau City Council will decide tonight whether to let the Woodards, who own a family restaurant of the same name in Jackson, lease the airport restaurant; members of the Airport Advisory Board have suggested councilmen approve the arrangement...

Fifty years ago, the aviation industry devised a cross-country race to prove that small airplanes were safe; although the race was designed as a proving ground for airplanes, radios and engines, it has become a proving ground for female pilots; some of those female pilots met yesterday for a reunion of the 1966 race, which stopped in Cape Girardeau, and the club that made that stopover possible; the Cape Girardeau Area Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international club, named for the 99 women who showed up for the first organizational meeting in 1929, is for women pilots only... ...

Jackson city officials have found a historical precedent for establishing a citywide curfew; but Mayor Paul Sander says residents won't be too thrilled if aldermen decide to follow that model; a 1908 curfew ordinance required residents 18 and younger to be off the streets by 9 p.m., unless they were working or at a school event; aldermen have been considering whether or not to establish a curfew for juveniles in the city...

A malfunction could have caused a fire early Thursday in a fuel tanker being unloaded at Lone Star Industries Inc., but Lone Star's fire-suppression system might have prevented a disaster; Fire Marshal Tom Hinkebein says the Cape Girardeau Fire Department was called to the waste-fuel recovery unit of Lone Star at 3:58 a.m.; when the first units arrived, firefighters found a fuel tanker in an unloading bay spouting flames about 2 or 3 feet out of a top vent; an entry port on top of the tanker had been opened slightly to alleviate the gas pressure inside; something sparked the venting fumes to start the fire.. ...

In an effort to save part of his yard, a local periodontist last night submitted plans to the Planning and Zoning Commission for the New Madrid-Henderson street intersection; Dr. Taylor Bahn lives near the hazardous spot, and recent plans to realign the streets would have taken a sizable portion of his property; his plan, along with a 1986 plan drawn up by former city engineer Kinsey Russell, have been referred to the city's engineering department for further study...

Voters will get to vote twice Nov. 5 in the 8th District congressional race, once in a special election and once in the general election; Gov. Mel Carnahan set the special election; the winner of the special election will fill the unexpired term of Bill Emerson, who died June 22; the winner of the general election will serve the congressional term beginning in January...

The lights were off, the classrooms and offices empty Monday at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri; the community college's 120 employees, from administrators to custodians, boarded three buses and traveled to Southeast Missouri State University for a day-long visit with their higher education counterparts; officials from both schools say the visit will improve the working relationship between Three Rivers and Southeast...

ANNA, Ill. -- About 37 workers at the Veterans Home in Anna stage a demonstration protesting wages that are lower than at any other veterans home in Illinois; eight protesters left their jobs Saturday as part of a union strike and have since lost their jobs...

Wesley Wrucke is installed as the new principal of Trinity Lutheran Christian Day School during the morning worship service at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau; Wrucke comes to Trinity from Lebanon Lutheran School in Watertown, Wisconsin, where he served as principal and teacher...

A fire at Sample's Floor Covering destroys the shop's entire stock and puts a family out of the carpet business; Doyle and Cora Lee Sample, owners of Sample's Floor Covering and Bob's Pizza next door, say they might put another business in the 401 N. Clark building after it is remodeled; "But it won't be carpet," Doyle Sample says...

Helen Rodriguez doubled her patients yesterday at the intensive care unit of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri; five ducks from the Capaha Park Lagoon were brought to the clinic after park workers discovered they were ill; all the birds were limp and lifeless, but no one knows why; five birds already have died...

Overflowing classrooms won't be a problem in Jackson public schools much longer; voters Tuesday approved a $7.8 million bond issue that will fund construction of an elementary school, an addition to North Elementary School and a math and science addition at the high school; the proposal passed 2,335 to 1,220...

Kenny Hulshof went from defeat to victory in a matter of hours early Wednesday; the Columbia, Missouri, attorney, whose roots are in Southeast Missouri, narrowly won the 9th District GOP primary; he will oppose incumbent Democrat Harold Volkmer for the northeast Missouri congressional seat in November...

Major renovation work on Southeast Missouri State University's oldest building -- the Social Science Building -- has closed sections of two campus streets and turned them into dead-ends; the closing of Cheney and Circle drives has eliminated 120 faculty and staff parking spaces; those streets will remain closed for the next 18 months...

The celebration is over, and hospital visitors walk through a newly completed lobby at Southeast Hospital; yesterday, the hospital threw a party for the community to celebrate the lobby's opening and the culmination of Southeast's five-year development plan...

The Rev. Ron Meyr, a Cape Girardeau native, returns to his hometown to deliver the sermon at Good Shepherd Lutheran Chapel; he is serving as a missionary at large for a new Lutheran mission congregation at Viera, Florida; he served congregations in Saskatchewan, Canada, from 1980-1986, and in Lakehurst, New Jersey, from 1986-1995; Meyr is the son of Harold and Doloris Meyr of Cape Girardeau...

Jackson School District has overflowed its building space; rising enrollment has prompted the district to propose building a new elementary school, an addition to North Elementary School and a new math and science wing at the high school; the total $7.8 million package will reach voters Tuesday in the form of a proposed 20-cent tax levy increase...

A Cape Girardeau man arrested in St. Louis on Wednesday is accused of robbing a Mercantile Bank branch in Cape Girardeau; the 30-year-old suspect was returned to Cape Girardeau yesterday, where he is charged with the July 26 armed robbery of the bank in Town Plaza Shopping Center...

When TWA Flight 800 exploded recently, killing 230 people, Southeast Missouri State University graduate Joe Lychner's wife and two daughters were among the casualties; the university and his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers plan to remember the family with a wreath-laying ceremony Sunday outside the Wehking Alumni Center on Sprigg Street...

Cape Girardeau teachers received an average 3.5% raise yesterday when the Board of Education approved a salary schedule for the 1996-97 school year; the Community Teachers Association had unanimously approved the salary package earlier in the day. Tomorrow will be christening day for the new Dorena-Hickman Ferry -- The Dorena -- which will run between Hickman, Kentucky, and a landing near Dorena, Missouri; the boat is a 40-foot vessel, 13 feet wide, powered by a pair of 250-horsepower John Deere engines, and includes the latest safety equipment: radar, radio and other communications and safety lighting.. ...

Almost a month after they asked questions, landowners who would be affected by a Bollinger-Cape Girardeau County lake will get the answers they've been waiting for at a meeting this evening at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Jackson; the lake project was first proposed in 1990 and resurfaced last summer; the 7,680-acre recreational lake would be built near Millersville and would affect about 200 landowners; it would be funded by a 1-cent sales tax in both counties...

Surprise 8th District congressional candidate David Zimmer files for office on the Natural Law Party ticket; the Cape Girardeau businessman is one of six Missouri candidates running for congressional seats on the Natural Law ticket; Zimmer, 43, is president of MVP Communications...

1996 A baseball cap, a wig and pony tail believed used in the armed robbery Friday of a Mercantile Bank branch were found in a fourth-floor restroom at Southeast Missouri Hospital; no arrests have been made, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Cape Girardeau Police Department are continuing to investigate the daylight robbery of the bank in the Town Plaza Shopping Center...

An undetermined amount of cash was taken from a Mercantile Bank facility in Cape Girardeau Friday evening; a white male entered the bank branch in Town Plaza Shopping Center, flashed a handgun and demanded money; a teller managed to slip a "dye-pack" into the bag with the cash; as the car was speeding away on Merriwether Street, the "time-delayed" dye-pack exploded, filling the car with pink dye; in efforts to rid the car of the dye, a number of $20 bills were thrown out the window; no arrests have been made.. ...