Out of the past: Dec. 10

1992

The Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission has revised its list of priorities for five-year major street projects in the city; while keeping the Lexington Avenue project and a Sprigg Street extension to the arterial at the top of the list, the commission added construction of a new Hopper Road from Mount Auburn Road to Kage Road and improvements to Perryville Road.

Former state Rep. Marvin E. Proffer, now a lobbyist and fundraiser for Southeast Missouri State University, says he talked with Lt. Gov. Mel Carnahan about taking a job in his administration two weeks ago; Proffer’s name has been mentioned as a possible commissioner of the Office of Administration and as director of the Department of Revenue.

1967

The Rev. Carl Bay is the new pastor of Free Trinity Pentecostal Church; this is his first pastorate, and he has been in Cape Girardeau about two weeks; before this, Bay was an evangelist and held services in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

An open house is held at the new parsonage of Centenary Methodist Church, 700 Bellevue St.; this recently acquired addition to the church property was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Harris to Centenary; pastor of the church is the Rev. J. Ray Trotter.

1942

The old wildcat whistle, located at the Missouri Utilities Co. plant on North Main Street, which years ago used to summon Cape Girardeau youngsters off the streets under penalty of a curfew law that assessed a $5 fine if not obeyed, will come into use again for Monday night’s blackout; for a number of years before and after World War I, the old whistle, with its rising and falling tones, could be heard throughout the city; it was forgotten until someone suggested it would make a particularly audible air-raid warning signal.

Seventy-three men, a portion of whom already have enlisted and won’t report to Jefferson Barracks for induction, are announced by the Cape Girardeau County Selective Service Board as members of the first of four contingents scheduled for call up in December.

1917

The coldest weather Cape Girardeau and the district have experienced in many years struck a hard blow Saturday night, Sunday morning and again last night and this morning; the official thermometer at the Normal School registered a drop to 8 degrees below zero early yesterday morning; this morning, the mercury sinks down a half-degree farther, remaining there as late as 7:30 a.m.

Louis B. Houck, coal administrator for Cape Girardeau city, announces he has decided to fix a price of $5.50 per ton as the maximum the coal dealers here may charge residents for such fuel; coal is costing dealers here $2.80 at the mines in Illinois; the freight rate from the points where the usual supply originates is 90 cents, making a cost for coal and transportation $3.70 per ton.

­— Sharon K. Sanders