Out of the past: April 2

1998

The much-talked-about El Niño has wreaked devastation on the West Coast, but local school administrators hail the weather system as a winter marvel for Southeast Missouri; the weather system provided a veritably snowless winter in Southeast Missouri, which means weather-watching school administrators have been able to sleep easy.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Perry County School District Board of Education wants to build a high school to ease overcrowding in the district; but board members are worried about selling the project to district voters; it carries a price tag of nearly $14 million; the board and administrators met Wednesday with architect David Kromm of Kromm, Rikimaru and Johansen to review preliminary plans for a new, 141,000-square-foot school with room for 1,000 students.

1973

The flood fight along the vast system of levees that holds billions of cubic feet of Mississippi River water off farms and towns went on without surcease over the weekend against a rising wall of water that will set a new flood record at Cape Girardeau; the National Weather Service predicts the river will reach a stage of 43 feet here Thursday, six-tenths of a foot higher than the 42.4 feet record established in 1943; the river is expected to crest at Cape Girardeau on Saturday at 43.5 feet.

Negotiations are in progress to extend the scope of the K-Mart center to be built this year in the 2200 block of Independence Street; Thomas L. Meyer of Meyer Realty Co. was informed over the weekend by E.N. Maisel and Associates of Oak Park, Michigan, owners of the tract, that the negotiations are progressing on location of a major food center in conjunction with the big store; this building, from 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, will be erected on the south end of the K-Mart structure.

1948

Purchase of the Cape Girardeau-Illmo sector of the Southeast Missouri Bus Lines system is announced by Bernard H. Bremermann of Cape Girardeau, who takes over operation of the route in the morning; until two weeks ago, Bremermann was connected with the St. Louis-Cape Bus Line, a position he took after returning from military service.

Construction work on Pine Crest Camp, a summer assembly site for the Missouri District of the Church of the Nazarene to be built six miles south of Fredericktown, Missouri, will start April 12, says the Rev. C.E. Fleshman, who will supervise construction; the church will ultimately spend $100,000 on the camp, which will serve the 65 churches of the denomination in Missouri as a Youth Camp, Young People's Institute and District Assembly; its facilities will also be offered to other churches in the district when not in use.

1923

Construction of 52 buildings, to cost approximately $200,000, was started in Cape Girardeau during the first three-month period of 1923, a survey by The Missourian shows; most of the houses have been started within the past month, due to the cold and rainy weather of the first two months of the year, and they are being pushed rapidly to completion; it is predicted that double that amount of buildings will be started during the next quarter; two of the largest structures now underway are the Education Building at the State Teachers College and the Farmers & Merchants Bank building in Haarig.

Cape Girardeans tomorrow will ballot in the regular school election to name a county superintendent of schools, to elect two directors of the Board of Education to serve three-year terms, and express themselves on a tax levy for maintenance of the schools similar to one which now stands; J.T. McDonald, present superintendent, is running unopposed; candidates for the board are incumbents L.L. Bowman and Charles W. Stehr, and newcomer J.A. Withers.

-- Sharon K. Sanders