Out of the past: Aug. 3

1996

Jackson School District has overflowed its building space; rising enrollment has prompted the district to propose building a new elementary school, an addition to North Elementary School and a new math and science wing at the high school; the total $7.8 million package will reach voters Tuesday in the form of a proposed 20-cent tax levy increase.

Cities and counties throughout the state got an unpleasant jolt in March when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the local portion of a state use tax unconstitutional; on Tuesday voters in 86 Missouri counties -- including Cape Girardeau, Scott and Perry -- will be asked to approve the local use taxes to replace those the high court threw out.

1971

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- After hearing a report on the precarious financial status of the Chaffee Street Department, the City Council last night voted to boost the department's funds by an annual $1,400 allocation from general revenue and drop two employees from its payroll; three employees will be retained: James Stacy, who is in charge, Charles Moit and Mike Mantel.

A new police chief has been hired by the Jackson City Council; David M. Gellatly, 33, of Olathe, Kansas, will assume his duties here Aug. 16; he will replace Ben Schweer, who will remain on the police force as a senior officer.

1946

Coming across Cape Girardeau County from the northwest, a rain, wind and electrical storm brought minor damage here and in the immediate district late last night, with hail striking in Cape Girardeau; two drivers of Broadway Cab Co. have close calls this morning; Leon Higgason, 25, receives a shock when an electrical wire falls across his cab in the 2000 block of Bloomfield Road; and Wesley King is driving on Hopper Road with a passenger, when the door glass next to King is smashed out; King and his passenger escape the taxicab without injury.

Acting to meet a possible emergency, board representatives of the local Infantile Paralysis Foundation chapter, Cape Girardeau City Council members, the Board of Health and representative physicians have made plans for the immediate use of the County Home as an isolation unit for polio cases; so urgent is the need -- St. Louis hospitals cannot handle any more outstate patients -- that all arrangements are made in a matter of hours; crews are moving the old folks and furniture from the County Home to the Arena Building.

1921

With men and women from eight counties of Southeast Missouri celebrating and delegates attending from other points in the state, the Southeast Missouri Agricultural Bureau's exhibit in St. Louis Union Station opens to great fanfare; the sign outside the exhibit room reads: "Southeast Missouri, where everything grows. And that's no josh."

William Henry Harrison, one of Cape Girardeau's and Southeast Missouri's most successful businessmen, dies at the family home, 313 Themis St., in the morning, following a stroke of apoplexy, which he suffered while sitting at the breakfast table; a native of Columbus, Ohio, the 73-year-old Harrison came to Cape Girardeau with his wife and children in 1900, engaging in the lumber business with J.H. Himmelberger.

-- Sharon K. Sanders