Out of the past: April 8

1997

Members of Cape Girardeau's Board of Education elected Dr. R. Ferrell Ervin president of the board and Terry Taylor vice president at a special meeting last night; Ervin said the board is heading down a road paved by community involvement and voter approval following the April 1 election; the first step down that road is sale of $14 million in bonds for school improvements approved by voters; at the meeting, the board gave A.G. Edwards authority to sell the bonds.

Workers Monday started digging 43 relief wells along the south side of the Diversion Channel levee to help prevent subsurface deterioration of the levee; Phillip Boykins and Dave McCarty of United Geosciences of Villa Ridge, Missouri, spent the morning taking soil samples along a 1-mile stretch at the base of the levee near Interstate 55 and Nash Road; after that they began digging a series of preliminary wells that will be lined with a screen and made permanent.

1972

A research project which could result in an improved method of predicting tornadoes has been set up in the physics department at State College by the U.S. Department of Commerce through its Wave Propagation Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado; the object of the research is to learn how to predict the occurrence of tornadoes by monitoring electrical activity of severe storms; Dr. Harley D. Rutledge, head of the college physics department, is in charge of maintaining the study's equipment.

For the second consecutive day, Cape Girardeau escaped the path of heavy hail and thunderstorms yesterday, while other Southeast Missouri areas to the south report considerable damage; hardest hit was Bloomfield, where hail the size of hen eggs broke numerous windows, damaged roofs and dented unprotected motor vehicles.

1947

Saturday's high wind was indirectly the cause of a conversation at yesterday's Cape Girardeau City Council meeting; the direct consequence of that discussion was a passed motion that hereafter all persons desiring to erect signboards along the city's streets must present their cases to the Board of Adjustment; the strong wind blew down a sign at the corner of Sunset and Broadway; residents in the area, claiming the board had created a nuisance, asked the mayor if the city could prevent its reconstruction.

Having met with the Cape Girardeau and Jackson city councils in the morning, the County Court, by a 2 to 1 vote, adopts a motion "in favor of a milk inspector under right conditions, these to be investigated"; while the City of Cape Girardeau has offered to contribute financially to hiring an inspector, Jackson has declined; the County Court, before making a final decision, wants to know who much Cape Girardeau is willing to contribute.

1922

Three yeggs, who at 2 a.m. blow the safe in the Bollinger County Bank at Lutesville, Missouri, and escape with less than $8 in nickels and pennies, are captured at 5:30 a.m. by a posse of farmers and residents of Whitewater, when they are one mile east of that place on a railroad right of way; a quantity of nitroglycerine, fuses and caps, as well as two revolvers, one identified as the one taken in the robbery of the bank, are found on the men; the loot is also recovered.

Organization of a six-team City Baseball League in Cape Girardeau has been perfected; Roy Brissenden, city commissioner and baseball enthusiast, was elected president of the league, and Juel Mosley was named secretary and treasurer at an organizational meeting last night; the six teams are International shoe factory; R.J.R.'s, a second team from the shoe factory; Fred A. Groves Motor Co.; National Guard; American Legion and Teachers College; the last team will withdraw from the league in the event the Knights of Columbus team comes into the league.

-- Sharon K. Sanders