Out of the past 6/10/05

25 years ago: June 10, 1980

William M. Dickey, who received the most votes in last week's three-way race for Scott City mayor, says he has asked an attorney to research the possibility of formally contesting a planned runoff election; Dickey received 510 votes in last week's election, compared to incumbent Mayor Alvie Modglin's 467 and John Z. Smith's 60.

Seven of the initial 14 sirens in the Cape Girardeau disaster warning system are now operational according to city officials, who add that individual sirens will be tested throughout the city on Wednesday and Friday afternoons prior to another attempt next week to activate all the sirens.

50 years ago: June 10, 1955

Sale of tickets for The Missourian-Tom Packs Circus gets off to a substantial start in the morning with 358 reserved seats and a number of general admission and children's admissions by mail and over the counter within 1 1/2 hours after sale officially opens.

A start on the Main Street flood-control project moves ahead when the House appropriations committee recommends to Congress that it appropriate $750,000 -- the amount previously recommended by the Bureau of the Budget -- to initiate construction; it marks the first time that an appropriation, aside from a $100,000 planning grant made several years ago, has gone so far.

75 years ago: June 10, 1930

Population of 10 counties in Southeast Missouri, as revealed by the 1930 census, is 253,230, an increase of 21,331 over the enumeration in 1920.

Excavation begins for the foundation of a new restaurant building for James Laskaris on the south side of the 500 block of Broadway; the structure, to be Spanish in design, will be built with two-tone colored brick and have arched entrances and windows; the building will have about 25 feet frontage and be about 50 feet long, having but one floor; Tom Rickard, local contractor, is building the structure.

100 years ago: June 10, 1905

Frank Burt, a theatrical man of New York, N.Y., and his wife, formerly of Jackson, arrive in Cape Girardeau aboard the steamer Cape Girardeau; they bring their automobile along and go over to Jackson to visit B.M. Morgan.

John Metz is building a summer resort at the rear of his saloon at Dutchtown; he will soon be ready to entertain his friends in a cool, shady place near the waters of Hubble Creek.

-- Sharon K. Sanders