Stories from Monday, June 1, 1998

The Cape Girardeau Area Industrial & Recruitment Association won an EDDY award, presented during the Governor's Conference on Economic Development, held at Lake of the Ozarks. In the EDDY category, for materials designed to promote economic and community developments, awards were presented to:...

Glen Birk Farms of Jackson is a new member of the American Angus Association, and Joseph Rubel, of Cape Girardeau, is a new junior member of the American Angus Association, headquartered in St. Joseph, Mo. The Angus association records ancestral information and keeps records of production on individual animals for its members...

Unemployment in deep Southern Illinois followed the state trend by declining in all but one of 22 counties, according to the Department of Employment Security report for the area. The only increase in unemployment in the southern area was in Pulaski, where the rate was 9.9 up from 9.8 percent a month ago...

J. Fred Waltz of Oliver, Oliver and Waltz has been honored by the Cape Girardeau County Legal Secretaries as Boss of the Year. Beverly Miller was recognized as Member of the Year, and Peggy Rellergert was named Legal Secretary of the Year. Miller was installed as president of the group. Other officers are Claudia Tritabaugh, vice president; Jackie Givens, secretary; Cheryl Amos, governor; and Barbara Ward, secretary...

A Farmer's Market will open at Sikeston June 6. The market, to be held each Saturday this summer, from 8 a.m. to noon, will be held along Malone Avenue in downtown Sikeston. This is the second year for the market. Other Farmers Markets are held throughout Southeast Missouri, including one each Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. at Galleria Parking Lot in Cape Girardeau...

With Microsoft in the Department of Justice's gun sights and INTEL being lined up as well, the PC industry may be getting ready for a major shake up that will only cost you the consumer more money. The Microsoft side of the lawsuit has to do with the fact that every 18 to 24 months the Operating System is upgraded. This is how you keep revenues growing, and it drives stock prices up as well. The typical way to cause people to upgrade is to add new features with added stability...

Susan Heinemann posed for the Sony Digital Mavica, a camera slightly larger than the floppy disk inside it, at Staples. Those of us who have taken the plunge into computerdom have encountered the quandary. Eugene Staten III faced it a few days ago: What do I buy?...

Ma and Pa's Discount Grocery has opened at 630 Good Hope. Evelyn and Don Howard are owners of the new grocery, which offers canned goods, cereals, coffee and other grocery items. "We do not have meats or produce," said Don Howard. Evelyn Howard serves as manager of new business, which is open six days a week...

Cape Electrical Supply, 325 Christine St., has acquired the electrical related business of Arrow Wholesale Supply in Dyersburg, Tenn. The Dyersburg business will be operated as Dyersburg Electrical Supply at its current site, 338 Highway 51. The new company will be a full-line electrical distributor concentrating on residential, commercial and industrial supplies...

This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Investing in the stock market requires a great deal of discipline. It's easy to lose sight of long-term objectives when other investors are taking profits and experts are predicting a major market correction...

Huffy Bicycle Corp. will increase production at its plant in Farmington, Mo., which currently employs about 500. The bicycle company announced last week it was closing its Celina, Ohio plant by the end of the year, shutting down almost 1,000 jobs. Thomas Frederick, vice president of finance and chief financial officer, said the company will continue buying bicycles from Asia and begin importing them from Mexico. ...

Missouri selected its "Exporter of the Year" last weekend during the 40th annual Governor's Conference on Economic Development, held at Lake of Ozarks. Hagale Industries, of Ozark, was honored as "Exporter of the Year." Missouri exports reached an all-time high in 1997, at 7.6 billion, up 21 percent over 1996 totals...

Cape Girardeau, Florence of the Mississippi River Valley? Maybe not, but plans unfolding on a number of fronts are encouraging to supporters of the arts. "The arts in Cape Girardeau are right on the verge of exploding," says Greg Jones, executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri...

The Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau promotes the city's history, its architecture, its many murals and its connection to Rush Limbaugh III in its many brochures intended for tourists. But the city has been slower than some others -- Paducah, Ky., for example -- to invest in the arts as a means of priming its economic pump...

More and more Americans are turning to round-the-clock, online auction sites as they search for bargains on the Internet. The number of auction sites has jumped from just a handful two years ago to more than 150 today, which offer auction items from antiques and collectibles to computers and stereo equipment or other electronic gizmos. These Web sites piled up sales of more than a billion dollars in 1997...

Riverfest celebrates its 20th anniversary with a new layout and a focus on music. Riverfest will be held June 12 and 13 in downtown Cape Girardeau. Friday's events begin at 4 p.m. Saturday's events begin at 10:30 a.m. and conclude following fireworks at 9 p.m. on the riverfront...

Moving the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Lab to a larger facility in Cape Girardeau and improving the lab rests upon its ability to raise the funds needed for the move, says Director Dr. Robert Briner. The lab, which serves law enforcement agencies in 21 counties in the Southeast Missouri region, has been housed in a 2,000-square-foot building since it began operations in 1969...

Is anybody else ready for fall? Now that it's June, it's officially summer as far as I'm concerned. I know the solstice isn't until June 21, but the temperature's already gotten to 90, and above in some places, so as far as I'm concerned, the grilling season has arrived...

I AM a very senior citizen, and I just learned some shocking news. Senior citizens are the major carriers of AIDS: Medicaid, Band-Aids, walking aids, hearing aids, aids for our children. The golden years have come at last, and these golden years can kiss my petootie...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department's plan to establish two police substations -- one in the Good Hope District and another on the West Side -- is an idea whose time has come. The substations, which police call community offices, are being set up to establish a greater police presence and visibility in those areas. The first office is expected to open in June in a building formerly occupied by Dr. George Ringland at 629 Good Hope. Plans are to open the other in October in West Park Mall...

Some alarming statistics regarding accidents involving drivers who run red lights recently came out of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The number of fatal crashes involving red-light running has increased 15 percent, from 702 in 1992 to 809 in 1996, and from 1992 through 1996, there were 3,753 crashes caused by a motorist running a red light. Those crashes killed 4,238 people and accounted for 3 percent of all fatal crashes...

To the editor: It is estimated by those who are in a position to know that our government -- which in reality is we, the people -- owes somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion. No one can accurately state the exact amount, because spending and wasting go on at such a fast rate that by the time one figures it out, the amount has already risen by several billion dollars. To those who have never given it a thought, maybe it's time you did, because part of this was your money...

SIKESTON -- Sikeston won the championship of the Chaffee American Legion VFW baseball tournament by rallying past Fenton 4-2 Sunday afternoon. Sikeston finished the tournament with a 4-0 record. Fenton led 2-0 when Sikeston scored four times in the sixth inning, the big blow being a three-run homer by Josh West...

7:30 p.m. Monday, June 1 Study session 5 p.m. Public hearings -- A public hearing on the request of Mitch Shelby and Jeff Overbeck for a special use permit for seven self-storage units at 920 Perry Ave. in a C-1 local commercial district. -- A public hearing on the annual operating budget for the fiscal year 1998-99...

ST. LOUIS -- Kenneth Lee Estes, 72, of St. Louis died Sunday, May 31, 1998, at St. Joseph Hospital in Kirkwood. He was born Feb. 9, 1926, at Millersville, the son of Jesse and Ollie Seabaugh Estes. He was married to Lora Harris. Estes worked on the assembly line at General Motors...

OAK RIDGE -- Carrie Catherine Surface, 89, of Oak Ridge died Sunday, May 31, at her home. She was born Sept. 25, 1908, near Millersville, the daughter of John W. and Lula Winkler Niswonger. She and Glen Surface were married Nov. 20, 1935. He died Feb. 14, 1989...

ST. CHARLES -- Mildred Welter Miget Nilges, 79, of St. Charles died Saturday, May 30, 1998, at National Health Care in St. Charles. She was born July 21, 1918, at Scott City, the daughter of Charles and Regina Essner Welter. She married Frank Miget on Feb. 22, 1941, at Kelso. He preceded her in death on April 29, 1983. She married Albert Nilges on Jan. 4, 1992, at St. Louis. He preceded her in death on April 29, 1998...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Betty Jane Spiller, 73, of Savannah, Ga., formerly of Cobden, died Saturday, May 30, 1998, at the Memorial Medical Center in Savannah. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden.

DEXTER -- Larry Nunn, 46, of Dexter died Sunday, May 31, 1998, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. He was born Dec. 10, 1951, at Sikeston, the son of Everett and Geraldine Nunn of Dexter. He was a former resident of Ferguson and moved to Dexter eight years ago. He attended the Cerebral Palsy School in St. Louis and the Day Activity Center in Dexter...

BENTON -- A Sunday morning fire in the Scott County Courthouse, that apparently began when a candle was left burning in the prosecutor's office, was quickly extinguished without major damage to the building. Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell said Sunday that the fire was detected shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday when deputies from his department and Officer Roy Moore of the Benton Police Department heard an alarm and detected smoke coming from the office of Scott County Prosecutor Cristy Baker-Neel...

SCOTT CITY -- Some new events will highlight the 22nd Annual Scott City Mid-Summer Festival June 19-20 at the Scott City Community Park. For the first time, people who go to the festival will experience a magic show, a Karaoke contest and the sounds of Classy Chassy Country and Jon Paul and the Band...

7:30 p.m. Monday, June 1 City Hall Action items Power and Light Committee -- Consider motion authorizing interest payment of $20,368.75 on Jackson Missouri Electric System Refunding Revenue Bonds, Series 1998, due July 1, 1998. -- Consider a bill proposing an ordinance accepting dedication of easements for the construction, maintenance and repair of a water line from Lanny and Margaret Lannom, Paul and Peggy Fisher, George and Emma Wright, and Earl and Dorothy Peetz...

Howard McGee, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, May 31, 1998, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete at Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel in Cape Girardeau.