Stories from Monday, June 16, 1997

The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission will hold its 29th annual dinner meeting June 24 at the American Legion Hall in Perryville. Cocktails will be at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 and the meeting at 8. Reservations are available by contacting the planning commission...

The Hand Center at Orthopaedic Associates, 48 Doctors' Park, will hold an open house this week in observance of "Hand Therapy Awareness Week." The open house session will be held from 9 to noon Friday.

"Indoor Air Quality" will be the topic for the Professional Secretaries International meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Drury Lodge. Guest speaker Lisa Treece will discuss pollution indoors and its effects on people. PSI represents secretaries, executive-administrative assistants and office managers...

Spartech Corp. has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 5 cents a share, payable July 7, to common shareholders of record June 23. Spartech, a manufacturer of engineered thermoplastic materials and polymeric compounds, reported record second-quarter sales of $129.8 million, net earnings of $6.7 million and full diluted earnings per share of 24...

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri's A- (excellent) rating has been reaffirmed by A.M. Best Co., the nation's oldest insurance rating and information source. A.M. Best also reaffirmed excellent rating for BlueCHOICE and Healthy Alliance Life Insurance Co., wholly owned subsidiaries of Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield...

Guetterman Motors of Cairo, Ill., has received the 1997 Chrysler Five-Star Award for excellence. Guetterman, which offers a complete line of Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, Dodge Truck, Jeep and Eagle vehicles, has received the award nine times. Only one of every four Chrysler dealers earn five-star status...

A new Drury Inn & Suites hotel has opened at Norcross, Ga. Owned and operated by Drury Inns Inc. of St. Louis, this is the third Drury Inn in the Atlanta area, with plans for one more, to open this winter. The latest Drury Inn & Suites has 136 rooms...

The nation's unemployment rate dropped to 4.8 percent in May, a level last seen when Richard Nixon was president. Wall Street cheered, sending stock prices to record levels despite talk the strong economy will push interest rates up. After four consecutive monthly declines, the jobless rate is now the lowest since November 1973...

The new highway that will connect the port with I-55 is under construction. SCOTT CITY -- It looks as if the Southeast Missouri Port Authority's ship is on the horizon and preparing to dock. With the Missouri Department of Transportation expecting to complete a direct route from Interstate 55 to the port, one new business under construction and two more making plans to move to the port -- this could be a banner year for both the authority and Scott City...

The new French government is determined to stick to the timetable and conditions for introducing a common European Union currency by 1999, relieved EU finance ministers said. Doubts about the fate of the single currency project have arisen in the past two weeks because of election promises by the new leftist government in France and Germany's inability to plug an $11.8 billion budget shortfall...

Just weeks before control of Hong Kong changes hands, China Telecom is buying a 5.5 percent stake in Hongkong Telecommunications Ltd. for $1.18 billion from the international telephone operator Cable & Wireless PLC. The deal is the first step in a partnership that could eventually make China's state-run telephone company an equal partner with Cable & Wireless in the lucrative Hong Kong telephone market, while offering Cable & Wireless a foothold in China, a nation of 1.2 billion people...

NPS Corp. of Perryville, Hastings Company Ltd., and the late Warren Steven Hastings were honored during the recent O'Sullivan Industries Vendor Appreciation Conference at Lake of the Ozarks. Patty Hastings, chief executive officer and owner of the company; John Moorman, president and chief operating officer of NPS; and Patrick Rosener, corporate sales manager, attended the conference...

Any day now, the construction and building scene in Cape Girardeau is liable to explode. Cool and wet weather through the first five months has slowed construction throughout the area. Construction is down in Cape Girardeau and the state. During the first four months, construction is down 12 percent in Missouri...

Missouri is on the right track in its efforts to make grade crossings safer, says the state's manager of railroad safety. In the past 20 years, Missouri has used federal and state funds to close some railroad crossings and install signals and gates at others...

ORAN -- More than a year after two people were killed at a railroad crossing here, warning lights and gates still haven't been installed. Signals and gates are slated to be installed at Oran's Shelby Street crossing as part of the state's railroad safety program...

Dogs just wanna have fun. That's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to competing in dog shows. Judges at Sunday's Southeast Missouri Kennel Club's Dog Show at the A.C. Brase Arena Building weren't looking for anything less. "You don't want them to be automatic robots," said Carol Sommerfelt of Collierville, Tenn., a judge in the weekend competition. "You want to be able to look at them but you also want it to be fun."...

City Manager Michael Miller characterizes the budget the Cape Girardeau City Council is expected to adopt tonight as boring because it has few changes from the current one. Still, there are two potential areas of controversy: pay for firefighters and whether the city's sales tax revenues will meet projections...

Preliminary results of a study of traffic in the Woodland Hills Subdivision north of Lexington Avenue has made at least a few residents of Kent Drive happy. The results say that much of the traffic on Belleridge Pike is cutting through the subdivision from Perryville Road to Lexington Avenue and that extending Kent Drive would not divert traffic off Belleridge Pike...

Once again, we have proof that mind-altering substances and technology are not a good mix. Remember when Paul McCartney died? You played the records backward and noticed he was barefoot on the album cover and came to the only conclusion that any right-thinking rock conspiracy theorist with way too much time on their hands could reach:...

"On deciding guilt and innocence." These words, written after the verdicts of a federal court jury in the case of the United States versus a former Missouri official and three of his friends/associates/cohorts, are neither about absolute guilt nor pure innocence. Rather these observations are about the political process that has existed in some form for more than two hundred years in America and almost that long in our own state...

With the selection of Gary Garner as Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball coach, Indians fans will be anxiously awaiting the start of next year's basketball season and a new era in the school's basketball program. Garner, 53, the head coach at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan., since 1991, replaces Ron Shumate, who left in mid-May after 16 years at the helm of Southeast's basketball program. ...

Thanks to the generosity of people across the region, the Area Wide United Way was able to make more than $19,000 in grants available to 10 different agencies in Cape Girardeau and Marble Hill as part of a One-Time Grant Program. Funding became available after the United Way surpassed its 1996 campaign goal of $525,000...

"Around the wall hung pictures of stern-faced ancestors in ornately carved wood or gilt frames. These were hung high and tilted out at the top, so that one felt `watched' wherever one might be in the room." -- Ruth Brown Shafer, "How I Became Whatever It Is I Am"...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "Do you think mobile homes should only be allowed in mobile home parks in Cape Girardeau?" Doris Dohogne, Cape Girardeau "Right ... Now that's different from modular homes. I think they belong in a park." Mike Meyer, Cape Girardeau...

SIKESTON -- Chad Campbell captured his first professional win on the NGA/Hooters Tour, shooting a 19-under-par 269 for a one-stroke victory in the $100,000 KFVS12 Classic at the BootHeel Golf Club. Campbell, who led by five shots entering the final round, shot a 69 Sunday to hold off Eric Meichtry and win the $15,000 first prize. Meichtry tied the low round of the day with a 7-under-par 65 to finish at 18-under par 270 for the runner-up purse of $8,500...

KELSO -- For the fourth time in the 13 year history of the Kelso Klassic Fast Pitch Softball Tournament, a Kelso team took the title. This year Kohlfeld Distributing went undefeated in the 16-team double-elimination tourney, beating St. Louis Midwest GMC twice on Sunday to secure the title...

MEMPHIS -- The Cape Girardeau Kohlfeld Capahas stayed unbeaten Sunday, limiting Memphis to one run in each game of a doubleheader sweep. The Capahas improved to 10-0 this season as Chad Bogenpohl and Brandon West pitched two seven-inning complete games. Bogenpohl (2-0) won the first game 2-1 and West (2-0) the second 9-1...

IMPERIAL -- Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Senior American Legion baseball team muscled up for four home runs Sunday in an 11-5 win over Imperial. Nathan McGuire, Jeff Lappe, Ross Bennett and Jeff Beasley had the four dingers. Beasley went 3-for-5 and McGuire and Lappe added two hits. Ben Gosche was 2-for-2 with two walks as Ford & Sons totaled 12 hits...

Former KFVS-TV news producer Anthony Knopps says that on the surface, the serial killer in his new book, "Unsuspecting Viewers," is a nice guy. "He sees some guy on the street who needs cab fare and he gives it to him," said Knopps, who now works as a news producer for KCTV in Kansas City. "If he needed a meal, he'd buy that, too."...

PERRYVILLE -- George B. Dover, 42, of Perryville died Saturday, June 14, 1997, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. He was born June 12, 1955, in Cairo, Ill., son of John and Patsy Woods Dover of Waterloo, Ill. He married Carla Brewer on Jan. 21, 1989, and she survives...

ANNA, Ill. -- Donna Jean Nunley Inboden, 67, of Anna died Sunday, June 15, 1997, at St. Frances Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Nov. 29, 1929, in Indianapolis, the daughter of Guy and Lacy Logan Nunley. She married Frank Shearin. She was a rehabilitation specialist at R.A.V.E. Inc. in Anna...

Funeral services for Vernon Barringer Jr. of Cape Girardeau will be at the Centenary Methodist Church at 11 a.m. today with the Rev. Neil Stein officiating. Burial will be in the Memorial Park Cemetery. He died Friday, June 13, 1997, at his home. He was born Sept. 6, 1940, the son of Vernon C. Barringer Sr. and Arlinda E. Huff Barringer. He and Peggy Lehman were married Dec. 26, 1965, at Cape Girardeau. She survives...

She was born Aug. 14, 1903, in Lixville, the daughter of George Thomas and Mary Jane Hahs Henry. On Feb. 22, 1923, she married Freeman Niswonger. He died July 10, 1985. She moved to Whitewater in 1950 from Cape Girardeau. She had worked at the former International Shoe Company in Cape Girardeau for a short time...

ANNA, Ill. -- Augusta May Shrum Sitter, 88, of Anna died Saturday June 14, 1997, at her home in Anna. She was born Aug. 29, 1908, in Bell City, the daughter of Albert and Lydia A. Greer Shrum. On Sept. 23, 1942, she married Oscar Sitter, and he preceded her in death on Aug. 5, 1985...