Stories from Friday, August 1, 1997

To the editor: "It's your money." That's a cliche heard increasingly. Recently the majority leader of the U.S. Senate mentioned it several times on "Meet the Press." It's becoming ingrained in the national mindset. I go to work every day, I get my paycheck, it's my money. Right?...

With the Team Spirit Leadership Training Conference winding down, plans were formed Thursday night for drunken-driving education programs to be implemented in Cape Girardeau County public schools. The Team Spirit conference, which has gone on since Tuesday at the Victorian Inn, is a series of workshops and demonstrations about laws and the realities of driving while intoxicated. ...

JACKSON -- Jackson Mayor Paul Sander says Jackson isn't trying to piggyback on Cape Girardeau's Cable access Channel 5 without paying its fair share. Sander responded on Thursday to a letter-to-the-editor written by Cape Girardeau Cable-TV Advisory Committee chairman Michael H. Maguire...

On Monday, police served James King with summonses for failing to clean up two lots he owned on the city's south side. By Thursday, King sold one of the lots, and with ecstatic neighbors watching, a man in a backhoe demolished the frame house at 509 Rear Linden, scooping up the house and the junk that filled the house and yard...

News stories about illegal methamphetamine labs are reported much too frequently in this area. The reason is simple: Missouri is the No. 2 state (after California) in the nation for meth labs, and Southeast Missouri has more than its fair share. So far this year, 16 meth labs have been seized by authorities in Cape Girardeau County...

The Kohlfield Capahas baseball team is one of the oldest traditions in Cape Girardeau. More than that, the Capahas, which played its first game in 1894, may well be the oldest baseball team in the nation. Not only does the team have tradition, it has a winning record. ...

To the editor: The following letter was written by Rebecca Bender Van Wagner, a native of Cape Girardeau. Her 17-year-old son, Clayton Van Wagner, was killed in a go-cart and car accident July 10. She is the daughter of Kenneth and Martha Bender of Cape Girardeau. Rebecca and her husband, John, reside in Miami, Fla. The letter was written the night Clay died...

To the editor: Cigarette smoking is a health hazard, and it costs the taxpayers an exorbitant amount of money. How much more has the booze industry cost the taxpayers in money, health and family dissolution? There was the war on drugs. We must still be at war because we still have drugs -- and more than before...

To the editor: The article "Policeman" that was read by Cape Girardeau's police chief, Rick Hetzel, during the recent Chamber breakfast and that was included in Gary Rust's column was one of the most beautiful and truly expressed of the complete duties and sensibilities of a policeman...

St. Mary's Parish has bought some deteriorating houses near the church and is tearing them down with the idea of creating green space or possibly a soccer field. "Hopefully it'll perk up the neighborhood," said Monsignor Richard Rolwing. He compared the project to First Presbyterian Church's flower garden. The church bought the corner lot at North Spanish Street and Broadway, razed the buildings, and in 1991 put in beds of roses...

The Bank of Missouri has received approval to open a full-service bank in Cape Girardeau. The new Bank of Missouri is the former Bank of Perryville, which already has a loan production office in Cape Girardeau. "The loan production office has met with such success that we have moved our timetable forward for a full-service facility," said R. David Crader, president and chief executive of the Bank of Missouri...

The Missouri Department of Economic Development wants to set the table for business growth in the state. "We want to set the table and invite businesses to come and eat," said George Rafael, senior economist for the Department of Economic Development in Jefferson City...

Before moving away from Cape Girardeau two years ago, Doris and the Rev. Jimmy Dace bought and began restoring a house at 218 S. Frederick St. Doris Dace, a former president of the Greater Cape Girardeau Historical Association, estimates the house was built about 1882...

You would think having a son home for just a week wouldn't be such a big deal. But it is. And his absence leaves a big gap we thought we were used to. For seven days, our home was no longer an empty nest. Our younger son, who has been working on a project in Utah the past six months, is moving to San Antonio. In the in-between time, he came home for a week...

SCOTT CITY -- A wood chip mill moving to the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority may be good for the environment as well as the economy. William Moore, Canal Wood Corp. director of operations, said the mill will use the parts of trees logging companies leave as waste. Loggers will cut off the top foot of trees and leave it to rot...

Despite an injury to one of his top players, Jess Bolen likes the Kohlfeld Capahas' chances of faring well in the 1997 National Baseball Congress World Series that begins tonight in Wichita, Kan. The Capahas will open play in the 32-team, double-elimination event at 10 p.m. against perennial power Clarinda, Iowa. Kohlfeld will play again Sunday, either at 10 a.m. or 1 p.m., before returning to Cape Girardeau...

Graveside service for Paul Sylvester Messmer of Cape Girardeau will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in Fairmount Cemetery, with Capt. Robert Gauthier officiating. Military rites will be conducted by VFW Post 3838. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

COMMERCE -- Bennie Lee Wilkinson, 76, of Commerce died Thursday, July 31, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 6, 1920, at Commerce, son of Leroy and Emma Miller Wilkinson. He and Margie M. Riley were married Dec. 24, 1941, at Illmo. She died April 1, 1996...

PERRYVILLE -- Funeral service for Wilbert A. Hopfer of Perryville will be held at 10 a.m. today at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. The Rev. Paul Winningham will officiate, with burial in the church cemetery. Friends may call at Young and Sons Funeral Home from 6:30-8:30 a.m. today...

JACKSON -- Clara Marie Bingenheimer, 87, of Jackson died Thursday, July 31, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 8, 1910, in Longtown, daughter of August and Clara Marie Meyer Ochs. She and William P. Bingenheimer were married Sept. 29, 1929. He died March 10, 1980...

Blanche Turner, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, July 31, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Funeral arrangements are pending with Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel.

WASHINGTON -- With a strike deadline near, negotiators for UPS and the Teamsters union returned to the bargaining table with a federal mediator Thursday night to try to prevent a midnight shutdown of the delivery service. UPS, based in Atlanta, has 302,000 U.S. employees, about two-thirds of them Teamsters. Only the U.S. Postal Service employs more workers under a contract...

Flora Riley, 92, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, July 31, 1997, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Feb. 16, 1905, in Keysport, Ill., daughter of Ira and Rosie Harp Tune. She and the Rev. John Edward Stephens were married in October 1923, at Kennett. He died in 1943. She also married Albert Brooks, Merl Inman and George Riley, all of whom preceded her in death...

Son to Mike and Kimberly Hunter of Berger, Christian Hospital in Florissant, 6:50 p.m. Wednesday, July 23, 1997. Name, Trey Matthew. Weight, 9 pounds. First child. Mrs. Hunter is the former Kimberly Cooper, daughter of Ken and Diane Cooper of Cape Girardeau. She is a sixth grade teacher at New Haven School. Hunter is the son of Tommy and Maryann Hunter of Sedalia. He is a football coach and teacher at Hermann High School...

KENNETT -- Graveside service for Dolores June Hargrove of Kennett was held Thursday at Baker Cemetery in Marble Hill. Liley Funeral Home at Marble Hill was in charge of arrangements. Hargrove, 62, died Wednesday, July 30, 1997, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau...