Stories from Thursday, March 21, 1996

Moving crews began relocating the helicopter hangar at St. Francis Medical Center Wednesday afternoon. The project was expected to be complete today, said Jay Wolz, a marketing and public relations specialist for the hospital. The ground-level hangar was moved about 100 to 150 yards north of the old site, Wolz said. "It was being moved because it was directly in the footprint of the medical office building that will be going up between the parking garage and the existing hospital," he said...

DALLAS, Texas -- Bobby McFerrin meets Astor Piazolla meets the Kronos Quartet. That's how Norbert Gerl describes Cafe Noir, the adventurous ensemble he and partner Gale Hess formed in Dallas some 10 years ago. That would be Bobby McFerrin, the prodigiously creative jazz-pop vocalist, and Astor Piazolla, an Argentinian composer who adapted the tango to modern classical music, and the Kronos Quartet, a group that employs traditional classical instrumentation to play anything from Jimi Hendrix to the most modernists abstractions.. ...

Chicago gallery owner Eva Cohon was in Cape Girardeau Wednesday to tell university art students and townspeople who are artists what the real art world is all about. It is, she says, "a business." That reality dictates the types of art and which artists are exhibited...

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson's battle against lung cancer won't keep him out of the 8th District congressional race. But it did prompt him to file for re-election by mail rather than in person. Emerson mailed his filing form Wednesday to the Missouri secretary of state's office in Jefferson City...

ORAN -- A year of confusion over Oran city finances should end tonight when staff from the state auditor's office announce their findings. The public meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the Oran Public School cafeteria on Church Street. The debate began in November 1994 when an annual audit uncovered a several-thousand-dollar shortfall for the 1993-1994 fiscal year. Former alderman Walt Madigan began a petition drive to get state auditors to study Oran's finances...

Residents in four Cape Girardeau school neighborhoods shouldn't be surprised to find volunteers on their doorsteps with surveys in hand Saturday. Volunteers will hit the streets for Caring Communities' asset-mapping survey in the May Greene, Washington, Franklin and Jefferson school neighborhoods...

A Republican promise to repeal the federal ban on assault weapons has local gun enthusiasts cheering. The ban was part of the 1994 crime bill, passed by a Democratic majority in Congress. Political tides changed soon after, and now House Republicans plan to get the repealing issue through the Rules Committee and up for a vote by Friday...

During the tax seasons of years past, anyone could walk into the Federal Building in Cape Girardeau any weekday with a question for the taxpayer services representative at the Internal Revenue Service. But this year, the representative only works 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. two days a week, Monday and Tuesday...

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the strictest standards yet for controlling air pollutants generated by burning hazardous waste. The tentative regulations would affect 162 commercial incinerators and 22 cement kilns nationwide that combined burn 4 million tons of hazardous waste annually...

March 21, 1996 Dear Julie, Snow arrived with the first day of spring. Is it a sign or just a disappointment? DC says the Farmer's Almanac predicts we'll get still one more dose of winter, but nobody here can stand the thought of it. DC and lots of others were hoping for one last "snow day," a final breather from this interminable winter, but the big snow missed us and plastered the East...

Proper tools are needed to finish a job, and to get through life, one needs educational tools like reading, math, science and history, says Nell Holcomb principal Jack Mann. Mann told Nell Holcomb fourth-graders about the essentials of good education at an assembly Tuesday. Afterwards, a group of Boy Scouts planted 10 Dogwood trees along the school driveway...

Better utilization of forage to enhance profitability for beef and dairy farmers will be discussed at the annual Graze and Hay Day at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Jackson March 28. "Programs will feature local information and technology on grazing," said Gerald Bryan, University of Missouri Extension agronomy specialist. "We address such topics as warm-season grass costs, nutrition and gains, weeds and management strategies."...

After two people were killed when a Burlington Northern train smashed into a car at an Oran railroad crossing recently, residents of the small Scott County community wonder what it will take to get safer crossings. The deaths were the fifth and sixth at the same Oran crossing since 1957. The town has three railroad crossings, but there are no gates and only one has a lighted signal...

During the record floods of 1993, help for flood-affected farmers and residents poured in from throughout the nation. This year, farmers in Southeast Missouri had the opportunity to return the favor. When prairie wildfires swept through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas earlier this month and wiped out grains and pasture that feed western cattle herds, the University of Missouri Extension organized a statewide hay lift to help the Western ranchers...

To the editor: I oppose House Committee Substitute 1363, a telecommunications bill our state Legislature is currently considering. The bill threatens the quality and availability of telephone service, especially in rural areas. First, HCS1363 will increase rates. ...

THEBES, Ill. -- Thelma Farris Clutts, 78, of Thebes died Wednesday, March 20, 1996, at her home. She was born March 8, 1918, at Texas City, Ill., daughter of Samuel S. and Luanna Wheeler Farris. She and Richard Clutts were married April 27, 1940. Survivors are her husband; a son, John Clutts; and a daughter, Janet Kay Clutts, all of Thebes...

DEXTER -- Dorothy Ashworth, 83, of Dexter, died Tuesday, March 19, 1996, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. She was born April 26, 1912, near Dexter, daughter of William James and Cynthia Ellen Weatherly Ashworth. Ashworth moved to Dexter in 1990 from Dudley Route 1. She attended the General Baptist Church...

BURFORDVILLE -- Funeral service for Carl F. Davenport of Lakeland, Tenn., formerly of Burfordville, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday at McCombs Funeral Chapel in Jackson. The Rev. Earnest Garret will officiate, with burial in Russell Heights Cemetery at Jackson...

JACKSON -- Funeral service for Eleanor L. Woeltje of Jackson will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at McCombs Funeral Chapel in Jackson. The Rev. Sam Roethemeyer will officiate, with burial in Jackson City Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home Friday from 11 a.m. to service time...

James Scott Bremmer Jr., 40, of Bremerton, Wash., died Sunday, March 17, 1996, at Harrison Memorial Hospital. He was born Oct. 11, 1955, in St. Charles, son of James S. and Marsha Frick Bremmer. He married the former Kim Hecht of Cape Girardeau. Bremmer was a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. He was a broker-manager with McCormick Foods...

ANNA, Ill. -- Jack W. Treece, 72, of Anna, died Tuesday, March 19, 1996, at Union County Hospital. He was born Jan. 29, 1924, in Anna, son of Rolla and Edith Anderson Treece. He and Bonnie MacGill were married May 16, 1950. Treece worked at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft 36 years, retiring as a foreman. He later worked at Bunny Bread in Anna. He was a member of SAGE Retirement Club of McDonnell Douglas and member of Anna Heights Baptist Church...

ANNA, Ill. -- Billie Jean Wright, 61, of Anna, died Tuesday, March 19, 1996, at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. She was born Nov. 9, 1934, in Reno, Ark., daughter of Jesse V. "Dock" and Virgie M. Barton Lambert. She and Rollie J. "Blue" Wright were married Nov. 3, 1951, in Murphysboro...

BLOOMFIELD -- Edith Hester, 79, of Bloomfield, died Tuesday, March 19, 1996, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. She was born Oct. 24, 1916, at Clines Island, daughter of Ira and Lucy Stafford Young. She and Wayne Hester were married March 2, 1935. He died May 12, 1988...

Son to Dale and Beth Allen of Warrensburg, Overland Park Regional Medical Center in Overland Park, Kan., 9:40 a.m. Monday, March 4, 1996. Name, Ryan Joseph. Weight, 6 pounds 5 ounces. First child. Mrs. Allen is the former Beth Doll, daughter of James and Cynthia Doll of Delaware, N.J. She is an accountant. Allen is the son of Harry and Marie Allen of Cape Girardeau. He is stationed at Whitman Air Force Base...

The launch of space shuttle Atlantis with Oak Ridge astronaut Linda Godwin aboard has been postponed until Friday because of high winds at the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility in Florida. The shuttle had been scheduled to launch at 2:35 a.m. today for a nine-day mission to link up with the Russian space station Mir...

JACKSON -- Shelby Jean Erlbacher, 56, of Jackson died at her home Monday, March 18, 1996. She was born Feb. 13, 1940, at Neelys Landing, daughter of Harry and Alpha Warren McClard. She married Robert Erlbacher Oct. 15, 1983. He survives. She is also survived by a son, Francis McClard of Jackson; two brothers, Raymond "Pete" McClard and John McClard, both of Jackson; and two sisters, Allene Helderman and Irene Hodge, both of Jackson...