Out of the past: Aug. 16

1991

State and federal funding cuts have delivered a major jolt to operation of the Center for Earthquake Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. Two of the three members of the center's staff will lose their jobs as a result of the funding cuts.

A paving project underway at Arena Park will eliminate all gravel streets and roadways in the park. The project should be finished before the SEMO District Fair, Sept. 8 to 14.

1966

Cape Girardeau's Board of Education again is facing a perpetual crisis of lack of school space. Dr. George D. Englehart, director of building services for the State Department of Education, submitted a list of recommendations for relieving crowding on the high-school level to the board yesterday. They include changing the high school back to four years, grades nine through 12, and creating a two-year junior-high school, grades seven and eight.

The Jackson City Council last night voted to reject the 50 percent increase on automobile assessments ordered on the county by the State Tax Commission.

1941

The SEMO District Fair is assured of the return of one of its most popular exhibits of last year, but on a greatly increased scale -- the display of the Conservation Commission of Missouri. Instead of just a small space, the exhibit this year will be given the entire stage of the Arena Building.

Regulations requiring trucks entering and leaving the city to use certain streets and to avoid the use of others are announced by Police Chief E.W. Barenkamp, who has written the owners of truck lines operating through here, advising them of the new setup. The regulations were adopted because of many complaints by residents of Broadway of the noise created at night by the trucks and by the general traffic congestion that resulted.

1916

The circus is in town. Howe's Great London Show gives two performances before large crowds on the Langlois lot on Bloomfield Road. Hundreds of people are here from Cape Girardeau, Scott, Stoddard and other counties to attend the entertainment.

Joe Tenninger, a 20-year-old plumber, was shocked seriously last evening during a violent electrical storm. Tenninger was walking from his home in the Red Star Addition to the downtown district. When he got to the shoe-factory corner on North Main Street, he was blinded by a bolt of lightning. He stepped forward, placing his foot on a live wire which had been blown down. His brush with death apparently left him with no permanent injury.

-- Sharon K. Sanders