Out of the past 8/20/07

25 years ago: Aug. 20, 1982

Presiding Cape Girardeau County Court Judge Gene E. Huckstep expresses disappointment at the amount recommended by Gov. Kit Bond from the first phase of the statewide bond issue for the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority; just $34,500 was included in the bond package for the port.

Cape Girardeau firefighters averted disaster last night when they contained fumes from a spill of more than 30,000 gallons of gasoline from a Standard Oil storage tank on Petroleum Road near the banks of the Mississippi River; plant manager Clayton Kinsey was hospitalized after being overcome by fumes.

50 years ago: Aug. 20, 1957

The slow-moving effort to return the Common Pleas Courthouse Park to Cape Girardeau ownership and the post office building to federal authority grinds on; yesterday, the city was asked by federal prosecutor Harry Richards of St. Louis to execute a quitclaim deed to the United States for the post office property.

The temperature dropped to 59 degrees the past 24 hours for the second lowest reading of the month; the lowest was on Aug. 6 at 55 degrees; yesterday's high was 82 degrees.

75 years ago: Aug. 20, 1932

Bids for construction of 15.5 miles of pavement on Illinois Highway 150 between Cape Girardeau and Chester, Ill., which will complete all but four miles of the road to St. Louis on the east side of the Mississippi River, will be received Sept. 7 by the Illinois Highway Department.

Finishing touches are being applied to the annex to the Federal Building in Cape Girardeau; the annex provides additional post office facilities; contractor for the building is Gerhardt Construction Co.

100 years ago: Aug. 20, 1907

E.A. Berberich of the Busy Bee candy factory in St. Louis is spending his vacation in Cape Girardeau with his old friend, B.F. Kerr, of I. Ben Miller's store.

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education yesterday selected the books that will be used in the coming school term and ordered their purchase; teachers were also assigned to the schools; principals will be May Greene at Lorimier School, James McDonald at Jefferson and O.L. Hargrove at West Broadway.

-- Sharon K. Sanders