AREA RESIDENTS SET TO OBSERVE FINAL HOLIDAY OF SUMMER

Cape Girardeau area residents, along with millions of other Americans, will flock to parks, hold backyard barbecues or participate in other end-of-summer activities on this final holiday weekend of the summer.

The three-day Labor Day weekend started at 6 p.m. Friday and ends at midnight Monday.

All federal, state, county and municipal offices, as well as banks and other financial institutions in the area, will be closed Monday.

Jackson, Scott City, and Chaffee hold their regular Monday night board of aldermen meetings on Tuesday due to the holiday.

The Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Chaffee license fee offices will be closed Labor Day and will reopen at their normal hours on Tuesday.

There will be no driver's or commercial driver's license exams given Monday at the Jackson National Guard Armory. Testing will resume in Jackson on Sept. 14.

All area post offices will be closed Monday. There will be no carrier or rural-route deliveries, although express and special delivery mail will be handled on Monday.

There will be no window or post-office box service, collections or out-of-town dispatch of mail from post offices outside Cape Girardeau. However, Cape Girardeau Postmaster Mike Keefe said there will be a Labor Day pickup of mail at the designated 5 p.m. pickup drop boxes located throughout the city. Mail will also be dispatched Monday night from the Mail Distribution Center in Cape Girardeau, he added.

There will be no Monday trash pickups in Cape Girardeau, Jackson or Scott City. Chaffee will make its regular Monday pickup. Residents there should have their trash containers at curbside Monday morning.

Cape Girardeau's Monday trash pickup route will be run Tuesday, and Tuesday's route will run Wednesday. There will be no Wednesday special pickup this week only. The regular schedule will resume Thursday.

Scott City will make its Monday pickups on Tuesday and the Tuesday pickup route on Wednesday.

In Jackson, the Monday trash pickup route will be consolidated with the Tuesday pickup route.

All area schools, including Southeast Missouri State University, will be closed Monday. Offices at the university will also be closed Labor Day. Classes will resume Tuesday.

Both swimming pools in Cape Girardeau will be open during the Labor Day weekend. Today's hours are 1-6 p.m. The pools will be open from 3-6 p.m. Monday.

The Central High School swimming pool will close after Labor Day to allow for maintenance and the erection of the canvas bubble cover. The pool is expected to reopen in October.

The Capaha Park swimming pool will remain open until further notice for regular and lap swimmers. The early bird swim will be from 5:30-8 a.m., Monday through Friday, and 9-11 a.m. on Saturday.

Regular hours for swimming at the Capaha pool will be from 3-6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 1-6 p.m., Saturday. Daily operation of the pool will depend on the weather, officials said. No date has been set at this time for the seasonal closing of the Capaha pool.

The Jackson swimming pool will be open over the weekend and Labor Day, and it will close for the season on Monday evening. The Chaffee and Scott City swimming pools have already closed for the season.

In addition to weekend family activities, the Horseshoe Lake Chamber of Commerce will sponsor its annual Labor Day Festival at the chamber of commerce building in Olive Branch, Ill.

The event will begin at 6 a.m. with a pancake breakfast. The barbecue will begin at 10 a.m. and continue until all the food is sold.

This year, there will be games for the kids starting at 1 p.m. and continue throughout the afternoon. At 1 p.m., there will be a Kids Corner at the First Freewill Baptist Church, where children can participate in a play, puppet show, flannelgraph story, children's choir and a pantomime.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be live entertainment. There is no admission charge to the festival.

The DuQuoin State Fair continues today through Labor Day. Admission to the fair is free, but there is a $2 parking fee.

The Missouri Highway Patrol and Illinois State Police will be patrolling major highways and interstates over the holiday weekend as part of Operation CARE (Combined Accident Reduction Effort).

The study showed speeding and alcohol were the greatest contributing factors in Labor Day holiday accidents, fatalities and injuries.

Patrol Superintendent Colonel C.E. Fisher said extra troopers will be assigned to patrol the interstate highways and other high-volume traffic highways to watch for speeding and drunk drivers. "I urge all motorists to drive in a responsible manner throughout the weekend," said Fisher. "I also remind everyone to buckle up and wear their seatbelt for protection against death or serious injury in case of an accident."