Out of the past 8/4/11

25 years ago: Aug. 4, 1986

Members of the Cape LaCroix-Walker Creek Levee District are more than halfway to their $1 million goal, with an announcement that $655,000 has been pledged toward the flood-control project.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is holding its summer meeting in Cape Girardeau this week to consider 14 historic sites for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places; Hanover Lutheran Church is one of the sites being considered.

50 years ago: Aug. 4, 1961

The long-awaited repair of Independence Street, between Frederick and Benton streets, is scheduled to begin early Monday, when the Missouri Pacific Railroad throws a crew of 50 men into the job of rebuilding its tracks.

With only two weeks to go before go-kart racing begins in the World's International Kart Championship Rose Stakes here, the men behind construction of the World's International Kart Association track at the municipal airport are having their own race; the speedway project, which was started about April 15, is two-thirds completed; head of construction is Robert Erlbacher.

75 years ago: Aug. 4, 1936

Workers are putting in shape the old Cape Foundry Co. property on the north side along the Frisco Railroad tracks in preparation for opening a gray-iron casting foundry in two weeks; the site and old plant were purchased by Thomas C. Gundelfinger and his son, Herbert E., of St. Louis.

With the proposed occupational tax ordinance being defeated in a tie vote by the city council yesterday, Cape Girardeau city officials must now consider their next move to bolster the city's coffers; Mayor Charles G. Wilson indicates some employees, including police, may have to be fired.

100 years ago: Aug. 4, 1911

Louis Wittmor is the new councilman from the Second Ward; he was elected yesterday in a light vote, succeeding the late Dr. B.R. Hempstead; Wittmore won over W.H. Bohnsack Sr., 161-49.

The weather man is ugly again, glowering at the people in this part of the country all day; as a consequence, the crowds at Pain's "Last Days of Pompeii" aren't as great as the previous nights, there being only about 2,000 spectators at the rainy fairgrounds.

-- Sharon K. Sanders