Out of the past: Aug. 28

1998

Law enforcement officers have a new weapon in their fight against the spread of methamphetamine use and production; a new law goes into effect today stiffening penalties for the manufacture and distribution of meth; the law makes it a felony to possess precursor chemicals for the purpose of producing the drug and provides for the establishment of drug courts whose purpose is to guide nonviolent users -- as opposed to manufacturers -- into treatment rather than the penitentiary.

Erika Glock has been named city administrator at Scott City; Glock, a St. Louis native who has been working at Indiana University for four years, becomes the city's second administrator; the position has been vacant more than two years.

1973

Cape Girardeau taxpayers need no longer try to dodge city and county assessors on the theory of possibly saving tax dollars by filling out their own personal property assessment lists; the County Court yesterday decided the county assessor will no longer pay those annual visits to property owners in Cape Girardeau for the purpose of obtaining personal property assessments; instead, he will mail the lists; the county assessor also handles Cape Girardeau's paperwork, because the city has been without its own assessor since the death of Harold E. Andrews in March.

Work on improvements to the Arena Building in Arena Park is tentatively set to begin shortly after close of SEMO District Fair Sept. 16, says architect for the projects, Thomas C. Holshouser; projects include re-roofing the building, air conditioning, refinishing the exterior and installing an acoustical ceiling; priority is being given the roofing project; presently, the building has a barrel-type, wooden truss roof, which allows considerable contraction and expansion, resulting in hairline cracks; an attempt will be made to improve the slopes of the roof for better drainage.

1948

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the company, employees of the Cape Girardeau plant of the Marquette Cement Mfg. Co., and their families -- some 1,000 of them -- assemble in the evening at Arena Park for a barbecue supper followed by a stage show and fireworks; the general public is invited to the vaudeville show and to view the fireworks display.

A resolution accepting a grant of $94,198 from the government as its share in the improvement of the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport is passed by the City Council in joint session with the airport board; passage of the resolution and endorsement of the agreement with the Civil Aeronautics Administration to share cost of the program clears the way for actual construction work on the runway extension and improvement project.

1923

Fire that originated in the rear of the Thomas S. Lilly feed store, Middle and Independence streets, swept the entire half-block-wide Houck building shortly before midnight Monday, causing damage estimated at $30,000; the blaze burned furiously two hours, sweeping the entire structure and leaving five businesses in the building a mass of ruin; only the building, owned by Louis Houck, was covered by insurance; the losses are estimated as follows: Lilly feed store, $1,200; G.W. Vaughan, contractor, $5,000; Blore Bros., painters, $1,000; Joe Sandman, tinner, $2,000; Pollack Bros., hides and junk, $10,000, and the building, $10,000.

The City of Cape Girardeau is to gain possession of the site of the old Frisco Railroad passenger depot on Water Street near Broadway; the depot, long a landmark, was razed recently by railroad employees in accordance with an agreement with the city that the building would be torn down when a new depot was constructed; according to the terms of the franchise with the city, the property will revert back to Cape Girardeau when Frisco relinquishes possession.

-- Sharon K. Sanders