Out of the past 5/12/11

25 years ago: May 12, 1986

Area artists have until 4 p.m. to submit design entries for the downtown mural project; plans call for the mural to be painted on the south wall of the Jones building, just north of the parking lot at Themis and Main streets.

Approval of a $37,500 grant to determine feasibility of a plant that would burn solid waste and other materials to produce energy, and application for another grant that would be used to design such a plant at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority site, are announced.

50 years ago: May 12, 1961

The high water crisis on all fronts on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers is at hand; the Mississippi at Cape Girardeau is expected to crest at 40 feet Sunday night; at Cairo, Ill., and across the Mississippi in the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway, the crest of 54 feet is also predicted to come Sunday.

Allen Robinson of the Chamber of Commerce announces Cape Girardeau will join the nation's current four-year celebration of the Civil War Centennial, probably in 1963, with a re-enactment of the Battle of Cape Girardeau fought on April 26, 1863.

75 years ago: May 12, 1936

Plans for submitting a resolution calling for a bond issue election to fund construction of a new public school at the old Lorimier School site were made at a school board meeting last night; it is tentatively planned to submit a bond issue for $85,000 to voters at an election June 1.

Sleepless residents of the West End are circulating petitions asking the city council to control carnivals that are using a lot on West Broadway, just west of Perry Avenue, for their noisy shows; petitioners say the loud entertainments are disturbing nearby residents, as well as patients at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

100 years ago: May 12, 1911

Dr. R.P. Rider of William Jewell College at Liberty, Mo., president of the Normal School here 30 years ag, is here visiting with the family of his nephew, W.H. Quarles.

With the streetcar company providing free passage, the little tots being cared for at the day nursery of the West End mission will be treated to daily outings in Fairgrounds Park; the trips will continue through the hot season.

-- Sharon K. Sanders