Out of the past 2/17/11

25 years ago: Feb. 17, 1986

The signing of a lease agreement by Southeast Missouri Hospital and Saint Francis Medical Center has cleared the way for construction and delivery of a mobile MRI unit some time this summer.

Saying that the issue is "fairness," Cape Girardeau Mayor Howard C. Tooke calls for a change in the proposed sewer rate increase that would result in a slightly smaller increase for the average residential customer than originally proposed.

50 years ago: Feb. 17, 1961

The Old McKendree Chapel Board of Trustees has approved a plan for developing Old McKendree; a fence will be built immediately from the county blacktop road to the chapel lot and around the land purchased last year; other improvements planned include widening the road to the chapel, landscaping the grounds, digging a deep well and building a log museum.

Carl Ritter of State College has taken over the lead in the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association individual basketball scoring race with 147 points in eight games for a 19.7 average.

75 years ago: Feb. 17, 1936

The 24-year-old convicted slayer who escaped from the Scott County jail at Benton, Mo., six days ago, is back in the lockup; he was found last night, half asleep in a restaurant at Charleston, Mo.

A $12,000 Works Progress Administration project for improvements at the Science Building of State Teachers College has been approved, and $3,000 has been released for expenditures between now and March 15; improvements to the building include refinishing interior walls and the laying of a hard maple floor in the main hallways and stairways.

100 years ago: Feb. 17, 1911

L.S. Joseph & Co., which for several years conducted an extensive bank burglary insurance agency in Cape Girardeau, has made a long-term contract with the Empire State Surety Co. of New York and has opened spacious offices in the Pierce building in St. Louis, where the business will be enlarged and a general casualty business transacted.

During the past year, the introduction of the automobile into Cape Girardeau has been remarkable; Southeast Missouri Motor Co. sold 71 cars in the past year and the Cotner & Hope Co., 49.

-- Sharon K. Sanders