Out of the past: Aug. 23

1993

For the first time since it was closed in early July, the Mississippi River was opened yesterday afternoon for limited commercial use between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois, but on a highly restricted basis.

With the filing period opening in less than two months, at least two members of the Cape Girardeau City Council are considering running for mayor next spring; Gene Rhodes, Cape Girardeau's mayor since 1986, has indicated he may not seek reelection to a third term; but two councilmen -- Melvin Kasten and Melvin Gateley -- are considering mayoral campaigns.

1968

Ozark Airlines has cleared the way for Cape Girardeau City Council action on the terminal expansion program at the municipal airport; the airline, in a letter received this week, gives final approval to plans for its additional facilities; Ozark also accepted a rental rate of $4 per square foot per year for additional space, an increase of $1.57 per square foot over what it now pays.

The conservation commission has decided Lake Girardeau at Crump is beyond the help of drawdowns, partial poisonings and other corrective measures and has decided to renovate the lake; the existing fish population will be eliminated and a new one will be established.

1943

The return of several thousand glass bottles is essential if Cape Girardeau is to avoid a shortage of beverages, says R.C. Parham, manager of the local Ne-Hi Bottling Co.; all stores handling beverages or milk make refunds on the returned bottles.

Holding that the county has no legal claim to Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau, on the site of which the government proposes to erect a new federal building, the County Court, by formal motion, orders the adoption of a waiver of claim; in an amended petition, filed last week by the government to take the property, the county was made a defendant in the suit.

1918

Walter Black, for several years a city councilman from the First Ward in Cape Girardeau, but who has been living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the past year, has returned to this city with his family to take up residence at his former home, 426 North St.

The Schuchert Band plays its last concert of the evening at Courthouse Park; several organization doing patriotic work are on hand with ice cream and cold drinks, the proceeds from the sale of which will be used for war relief work.

-- Sharon K. Sanders