Out of the past: Aug. 20

1996

Cape Girardeau voters will decide whether to issue $26.5 million in water system improvement bonds and pay for them with a quarter-cent sales tax; at its meeting yesterday, the Cape Girardeau City Council unanimously decided to put two separate issues -- whether to sell the bonds and how to pay the debt service -- on the Nov. 5 ballot; if both pass, the bond money will be used to fund expansion of Water Plant 1, drill 21 wells near the plant and improve the city's water distribution system; a quarter-cent sales tax, expected to generate $1.75 million annually for 20 years, would retire the debt; if the bond issue passes and the sales tax doesn't, water customers likely would see a 59% rate increase to pay the debt.

A newly acquired grant will enable Scott City to build a much larger public works and recycling center than originally proposed; the grant came through the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission; the city was looking to construct a 30-by-30-foot building at a cost of approximately $20,000; now, due to the grant, it will probably have a 30-by-64-foot structure at a cost to the city of approximately $25,000.

1971

Officials of Admiral Plastics Co. and the Cape Girardeau plant of the 7-Up Bottling Co., assessing the damage to their plants, are unable to give estimates of the losses in the devastating fire which struck them Thursday afternoon, but authorities believe they won't exceed $500,000; two Cape Girardeau fire captains, two firemen and a civilian who joined in to fight the intense fire were felled by heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation; released during the night from a local hospital were captains Calvin Lynch and Ronald Moss, firemen David Suttles and James Foister, and Gene Huckstep.

Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe will headline the Country Music Jamboree to be sponsored by the Southeast Missourian for the benefit of Cape Girardeau's 1971-72 United Way campaign; the show is scheduled for Sept. 30 at the Arena Building.

1946

Reflecting the increased cost of municipal government, the Cape Girardeau City Council yesterday gave first reading to an ordinance appropriating $141,000 to the general revenue fund for operating expenses during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1947; the amount is $22,900 more than the appropriation for the year just past.

An electric motor used at Lutesville, Missouri's municipal water plant burned out Friday, resulting in a failure of the community's water supply; the motor was rushed to the Missouri Electric Works on Morgan Oak Street here that afternoon, and special telephone orders to St. Louis resulted in needed parts being shipped immediately; repairs were made quickly, and the motor is ready to be re-installed this afternoon.

1921

George Middlestead of Germany, 17-year-old nephew of A.R. Zoelsmann, is expected to arrive here this afternoon to visit his uncle; Zoelsmann left yesterday for Memphis to meet his nephew there; the youth comes direct from Germany and has never been to America before.

Cape Girardeau's largest tree, a stately oak of uncertain age and giant proportions, is a victim of lightning; yesterday one of the two main trunks, branching from the main portion about 25 feet from the ground, fell with a crash and reduced to kindling a fence extending around the Mary E. Berry property on Bend Road; 10 days ago, during a severe electrical storm, the mammoth oak was hit by a lightning bolt.

-- Sharon K. Sanders