Stories from Wednesday, July 28, 1993

Less than three percent of the legislation approved this year by Missouri's General Assembly drew vetoes from Gov. Carnahan. He should have lowered the percentage further by sighing House Bille 485, a good measure that would save millions of dollars in the Missouri treasury and give state property owners earlier notice about planned highway projects. The governor's veto was poorly applied in this case and the legislature should take up the matter in the fall's veto session...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Bobby Simmons has been appointed interim police chief here. Simmons, also director of the federal public housing drug task force in Alexander County, was named by Mayor James Wilson to head the police department. He succeeds Harold Nelson, who will leave Saturday...

Cape Girardeau native Anthony Nathan McDaniel of Memphis, Tenn., has been selected to participate in the 1993 Sony Student Project Abroad (SSPA). McDaniel is one of 50 top students in the U.S. on an all-expense-paid trip to Japan. The trip began July 21 with a stop in San Diego, Calif. The group will return home Aug. 6...

Lance Cpl. Jeremy R. Verhines has been named the School of Infantry "Marine of the Quarter" for the period of April through June. Selection of "Marine of the Quarter" is highly competitive and is based on professional attitude, strength of character, performance and devotion to duty...

Free vision screenings are available Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. at Sears Optical locations across the country, including Cape Girardeau. All-American Eye Check Day, sponsored by the National Society to Prevent Blindness, kicks off National Eye Exam Month, an educational and philanthropic event co-sponsored with Sears Optical...

More volunteers are needed to fill sandbags in Dutchtown and other locations in the county to build and strengthen sand bag levees. Cape Girardeau County Emergency Operations Coordinator Brian Miller said that asks that anyone interested in volunteering call the Salvation Army at 335-7000, or the Cape Girardeau County Office of Emergency Preparedness at 243-7703...

Tonight's Cape girardeau Municipal Band concert will feature an operatic duet by Christopher Goeke and Lori Shaffer. The concert is at 8. Special guest conductor will be Craig Felzien. Also on the program are "On the Esplanade" from "Bostonia Suite," "English Folk Song Suite" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Original Dixieland Concerto" by John Warrington, and "An Ellington Portrait" by Floyd Werle...

Margaret Kelly is a Republican and Missouri state auditor. It is time for someone to be truthful with Missouri taxpayers. It's time to stop the lie supporters of the school tax increase are promoting: the idea that a judge ordered the state to increase taxes. He did not. Judge Byron Kinder's order was to increase funding for education, which I agree with, but that doesn't mean we have to increase taxes as well...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- By soliciting participation in a voluntary housing maintenance program, Carbondale officials are able to regularly inspect rental properties, which make up 70 percent of the city's housing. Morris Mc~Daniel, Carbondale's building and neighborhood services manager, said the 8-year-old program enables the city to effectively enforce a minimum property maintenance code that's been on the books since the 1960s...

Cape Girardeau voters Tuesday will decide on two local ballot issues: the annexation of Twin Lakes subdivision and the boundaries for city ward elections. Passage of the annexation issue would expand the city limits west of Interstate 55 along Hopper Road and add more than 200 people to Cape Girardeau's population...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri's new school funding law could make money for Cape Girardeau schools in more ways than one. The district, according to latest data and with its existing local tax levy, is set to receive an additional $1.6 million to $1.8 million in state aid when the new law is fully implemented in four years...

Local-government and Corps of Engineers officials say they are spending a considerable amount of time responding to rumors of impending levee failures and other Mississippi River flood-related problems. Despite almost daily assurances that the Little River Drainage District's Diversion Channel levee is in good condition, officials with the Memphis District of the Corps said they continue to get telephone calls and inquiries from residents who live south of the drainage district levee. ...

A New Madrid juvenile committed suicide Tuesday afternoon at the Juvenile Detention Center in Cape Girardeau. Cape Girardeau firefighters were summoned to the center, situated at 325 Merriwether, at 3:39 p.m. Tuesday for medical assistance. The youth had been transported to the city from New Madrid early Tuesday...

A growing out-county population and lengthy response times outside the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area are reasons to consider changes in how Cape Girardeau County's ambulance services are set up, says Edward Frenzel. "These people are paying the same taxes," Frentzel says. "They should be getting the same kind of rescue service."...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Cape Girardeau's Board of Education found something familiar at its planning meeting in Jefferson City Tuesday flooding. Floodwaters from the rising Missouri River literally lapped at the doorsteps of Capitol Plaza Hotel where the board met, just blocks from the State Capitol...

COMMERCE -- Property owners who live in flood plains areas now have a new alternative following a flood. "They can sell their property to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) if they pass certain criteria," said Ed Lecius of FEMA. "Then, they can rebuild on higher ground."...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Cape Girardeau schools hope to put a crisis plan in place before a crisis occurs. At the Board of Education's planning meeting Tuesday, Superintendent Neyland Clark told board members he has secured help from the National School Safety Center on the campus of Pepperdine University in California to implement a school safety plan...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- In a city where a majority of residents are renters who move frequently, housing maintenance presents a unique challenge. In Carbondale, not only are 70 percent of residents renters, but more than half according to census data have lived in their present home for a year or less...

SIKESTON -- Joe Mills, 67, of Sikeston, died Monday, July 26, 1993, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born April 16, 1926, at Flat River, son of Emmett and Clara Powell Mills. He and Byrdine Parsons were married April 9, 1950. Mills was a member of Pipefitters Local 562, Sikeston Masonic Lodge 310, and Order of Eastern Star 137. He was a veteran of World War II...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Jon Jay Carter of East Prairie will be held at 11 a.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Dave Bowden will officiate, with burial in Dogwood Cemetery near here. The infant, 15 months old, died Sunday, July 25, 1993, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston...

ANNA, Ill. -- Ruth Williams, 79, of Anna, died Tuesday, July 27, 1993, at St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro. She was born Feb. 1, 1914, at Jonesboro, daughter of James L. and Almeada Lewis Turner. She and Bill Barnhart were married May 25, 1933. He died May 12, 1977. She married Arch Williams Jan. 31, 1984, who died Jan. 31, 1992...

CHAFFEE -- A memorial service for former Chaffee Police Officer Daniel Eugene Bedwell of Chaffee will be held at 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Church. The Rev. Cy Smith will officiate, assisted by Wade Bedwell and Marty McPheron. Amick-Burnett Funeral Home at Chaffee is in charge of arrangements...

Thomas Wilson Griffaw, 18, 1557 Trenton, died in a vehicle accident Tuesday, July 27, 1993, four miles east of Fruitland on Highway 177. He was born Jan. 31, 1975, in Cape Girardeau, son of Thomas S. and Susan Fornkohl Griffaw. Griffaw was a 1993 graduate of Central High School, and was farming in Cape Girardeau County. He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church here...

Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Chris Johnston of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:25 a.m. Tuesday, July 20, 1993. Name, Kirsten Ashley. Weight, 8 pounds 3 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Johnston is the former Julie Townsend, daughter of David and Jane Townsend of Chaffee. She is employed at Boatmen's Bank in Cape Girardeau. Johnston is employed at Frontier Food and Kitchen in Fruitland, and is the son of Linus and Nancy Johnston of Jackson, and Ruby Poor of East Prairie...

MARBLE HILL -- Harry Francis Tucker, 78, of Marble Hill, died Wednesday, July 27, 1993, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 15, 1915, at Perryville, son of John and Anna Huff Tucker. He married Forest Owens, April 6, 1940...