Out of the past 1/18/13

1988

Slick streets caused by heavy fog in the morning makes driving hazardous and results in a rash of minor accidents in the area; the majority of the accidents involved vehicles sliding off roadways into ditches.

Polar Therm, which manufactures cellulose insulation by grinding up old newspapers, has been told it must meet zoning- and building-code requirements to stay in business; the company, near the corner of Independence and Frederick streets, has been the subject of air pollution complaints.

1963

Newly activated automatic traffic signals on Broadway all have been linked together into a cohesive system, says Police Chief Percy R. Little; the Fountain Street signal was tied to the others overnight to complete the linkage from Fountain west to Caruthers Avenue.

The R.B. Potashnick-D.L. Harrison Co. was the low of two bidders for Cape Girardeau's major Highway 61 urban improvements, but it will be 30 days before a decision is made on any contract award.

1938

One of the largest projects attempted along the Mississippi River in the Cape Girardeau area since the federal government began to tame the stream is underway: The changing of the channel of the stream at Grand Tower, Ill., 26 miles north of Cape Girardeau; the government is cutting a 2-mile-long channel through a portion of Grand Tower Island and extending southward to meet the existing channel.

Adj. Gen. Lewis M. Means has filed in the county recorder's office in Jackson the names of 1,369 men who were drafted or offered their services during the World War; those files had been kept in Jefferson City, Mo. until now.

1913

J.B. Miederhoff, who left Cape Girardeau County 16 years ago for Colorado, has decided to come back home; he has closed out his livery business in Victor, Colo., and will move back to the county.

A large number of stockholders of the Cape Girardeau Fair & Park Association attend a meeting at the courthouse in Cape Girardeau to decide the future of the annual fair; with the association about $7,000 in debt, a resolution is passed offering to sell the fairgrounds to the city, so the "park may be maintained as a park for all time."

-- Sharon K. Sanders