Out of the past: April 21

1997

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education announces it has purchased 75 acres of land for a vocational-technical school nearly dead center in the school district; the property is between Silver Springs Road and South Kingshighway southwest of the Kingshighway-Southern Expressway intersection; the district's long-range plans call for construction of a high school on the same tract; the board agreed to purchase the property from Earl Norman for $1.475 million; Norman agreed to donate $100,000 to the school district, so the net cost is $1.375 million, or $18,333 per acre.

Jackson city employees will be able to live outside the city limits; the Board of Aldermen passes a revised ordinance that amends the city residency requirements of full-time employees; previously, all city employees were required to live within the city limits.

1972

Central Foods Inc. here, which has the only remaining hog-slaughtering operation in the immediate area, will stop purchasing hogs for slaughter within the next three to six weeks, according to company president George H. Wrape; the company is being forced to cease its hog-slaughtering operations because its beef-buying market has increased significantly and its cooling facilities are limited, Wrape said.

Cape State College moves a step closer to changing its name to "university," when Gov. Warren E. Hearnes signs a bill authorizing the switch for the five state colleges; the new name for the Cape Girardeau school still has to be approved by the Board of Regents and probably won't become official before midsummer.

1947

The County Court, by a 2 to 1 vote, agrees to contribute an amount not to exceed $1,500 for a one-year period to hire a county sanitary milk inspector; this, with the previous commitments from the Cape Girardeau City Council and milk producers, will make a $4,000 fund available for salary and expenses; Cape Girardeau will contribute $1,500 toward the fund, the Sunny Hill and Midwest dairies $400 each and Schonhoff Dairy $200.

In the first special city bond issue election in 10 years, Cape Girardeau voters will go to the polls tomorrow to cast ballots on the issuance of $115,000 in bonds to secure land and make improvements at Harris Field; a second issue is to extend the city limits to include developed areas to the west and north of the city's present boundaries.

1922

The Mississippi River fell one-tenth of a foot at Cape Girardeau last night; the stage at 8 a.m. is 37.8 feet; indications are that the fall in water wasn't entirely due to breaks in levees, but to a general fall; while there's no noticeable difference in the level of floodwaters in downtown Cape Girardeau, residents of Smelterville and South Cape report a distinct fall in the water has been noted.

Illinois farms lying between Grand Tower and McClure and villages in Alexander and Union counties across the river from Cape Girardeau are under water, varying in depth from 2 to 15 feet; livestock that hadn't been transported to the hills has been drowned; people living near the river near Reynoldsville are in destitute circumstances and are unable to get out of the flood.

-- Sharon K. Sanders