Out of the past 3/4/05

25 years ago: March 4, 1980

Construction of a $700,000 Jackson public safety building may hinge on voter approval of a $500,000 general obligation bond issue later this year; city administrator Carl L. Talley says city officials hope to finance construction of the police and fire complex through federal revenue sharing funds, sales tax money and a bond issue.

By more than an 11 to 1 margin, voters in Illmo and Scott City approve a set of proposals establishing a new government for the consolidated community, naming the merged town Scott City.

50 years ago: March 4, 1955

Two squirrels which bit two people at Trinity Lutheran School grounds Wednesday have been found to have rabies; the city council and conservation authorities are working on a program to forestall the spread of rabies by quarantining all domestic animals and eradicating all squirrels in the Lutheran school area.

GRAND TOWER, Ill. -- Kenny Bullard, 23, an iron worker from Texarkana, Texas, was seriously injured yesterday when he fell 50 feet from the suspension bridge across the Mississippi River being erected by the Texas-Illinois Natural Gas Pipeline Co..

75 years ago: March 4, 1930

"How's everybody?" shouts Dr. Lincoln McConnell as he piles off the Sunnyland train at noon, fresh from Florida and here to lead the two-week evangelical meeting at Centenary Methodist Church.

Mr. and Mrs. Emil Hirsch move from 724 Good Hope St., where they have been residing, to a small farm on the Bend Road, where they will take up poultry raising and horticulture on a small scale.

100 years ago: March 4, 1905

A meeting of the Civic Improvement League was held last night, and the work for the coming year was mapped out; two men will be kept at work on the streets, one attending to Broadway from Spanish Street west, and the other will take care of Main Street, the levee and other downtown streets.

The steamer Chester passes up her best friend this morning; the boat goes down the river with a full head of steam and doesn't even recognize Cape Girardeau with a whistle.

-- Sharon K. Sanders