Out of the past 5/2/11

25 years ago: May 2, 1986

The city of Cape Girardeau may have to increase its subsidy of the taxi coupon program by as much as $3,360 in the coming fiscal year because of rising insurance rates experienced by the local taxi company; the subsidy may have to be increased by 25 cents per coupon.

C.O. Hodges of Oran, Mo., was injured yesterday when four cars of a Burlington Northern Railroad train derailed south of Highway 91 west of Morley, Mo.; Hodges, a brakeman on a caboose on the 90-car train, is in fair condition at a local hospital.

50 years ago: May 2, 1961

Tractors began moving dirt in a 40-acre wooded tract yesterday, the first work on the $8,297,400 Interstate 55 job in Cape Girardeau County; workers are clearing the woods to lay the land bare for a borrow pit for earth to be used in the fill for the new highway; site of the pit is in the hills a short distance northeast of the old Highway 74-Highway 61 intersection near the Viaduct.

Bus fare in Cape Girardeau is going up; the City Council has authorized Cape Transit Co. to increase its fares for single passengers and for ticket-book riders, both adults and school.

75 years ago: May 2, 1936

Faced with a certain deficit and with the necessity of borrowing money to operate the city in the late summer months, Cape Girardeau's new municipal administration must decide before budget-making time in June whether to make a drastic curtailment in expenditures or seek additional sources of revenue.

The Golden Troopers, Cape Girardeau's champion American Legion drum and bugle corps, have accepted an invitation to participate in a special Legion program at the Missouri State Fair at Sedalia in August.

100 years ago: May 2, 1911

Among communications received by the City council last night was one signed by nearly every citizen of South Cape asking that a policeman be appointed for that part of the city.

J.A. Brooks, a native of Cape Girardeau and a graduate of the University of Missouri, has been elected superintendent of Dallas public schools; he has taught there for the past 19 years, having been principal of the Cumberland Hill school 18 years.

-- Sharon K. Sanders