Out of the past 10/24/05

25 years ago: Oct. 24, 1980

The cost of higher education in Cape Girardeau will go up next year by $15 per semester in accordance with a measure approved by Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents; the enrollment cost is presently $180 per semester.

Norman Weiss, director of the Cape County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Missouri Association of County Office Employees; Weiss has served as ASCS county director since 1953 and prior to that was a community and county committee member.

50 years ago: Oct. 24, 1955

The city council turns down a request by the City Advisory Traffic Committee to place a four-way stop at North Fountain and Mill streets; local residents had petitioned the committee for the change to halt some of the fast driving along Fountain near Washington School.

Bid forms are distributed to seven general contractors who have been invited to submit bids on the $1 million addition to Southeast Missouri Hospital; five of the firms are from St. Louis, one is from Illinois, and the last -- Gerhardt Construction Co. -- is from Cape Girardeau.

75 years ago: Oct. 24, 1930

Professor Fred Lewallen, superintendent of schools at Anniston, Mo., is elected president of Southeast Missouri Teachers Association by the Assembly of Representatives preceding the opening of the convention sessions of the association at the Teachers College.

The paving of West Main Street in Jackson and the construction of the West Main Street bridge are nearing completion, but it will be several days yet before the jobs will be finished; in fact, it will take several weeks to finish the bridge, which is the largest in width in this county, having a floor span of 40 feet wide.

100 years ago: Oct. 24, 1905

The street car tracks have been extended out Broadway to the fairgrounds; while attorneys for the gravel road company argued in a Jackson court for an injunction to stop the work, the track-laying crews hustled through the day and into the night; as the deputy sheriff drags from bed to serve the injunction papers, the railroaders finish their work at 11:15 p.m. and head home.

An immense boiler has arrived for the Normal School, and the contractors are having a time getting someone to haul it to the school.

-- Sharon K. Sanders