Out of the past: Dec. 18

1998

With eight days left until Christmas, the Cape Girardeau Salvation Army is asking the public to support its annual Tree of Lights campaign; the campaign has collected $115,000 so far, well under its $200,000 goal; contributions to kettles are down by $8,000 this year.

Two statewide citizens groups -- Missouri Transportation and Development Council and the Missouri Highway Corridor Coalition -- want the Missouri Legislature to develop and submit to voters a new transportation and tax plan; they say the plan is needed because the state Highway and Transportation Commission scrapped an earlier plan; they want the Legislature's transportation oversight committee to take the lead in developing a new plan for road and bridge improvements that can realistically be funded.

1973

A Cape Girardeau County Park Board request to erect signs regulating traffic in Klaus Park and establishing closing of the park one hour after sundown was granted yesterday by the County Court; Edward L. Downs, a member of the board, said signs closing the south entry road to the park between Cape Girardeau and Jackson are necessary because of problems encountered when sheriff's officers investigate frequent beer drinking parties; by closing the lower road, there will be only one road by which young people can leave the park.

A proposal to allow Oak Ridge R-6 School District to issue $75,000 in bonds for expansion and renovation of its high school will be put before voters Jan. 8; passage of the proposal, which wouldn't require a tax increase, would enable the district to gain space necessary to provide additional courses required to meet the State Department of Education's AA rating.

1948

With little fanfare, the Cape County Historical Marking Association, as its annual project, has completed about half of an ornamental stone entrance to Missouri Park where it skirts the south edge of historic Old Lorimier Cemetery; a shortage of sandstone has halted the stonemasons' efforts; stone has been secured from various old buildings in the city as they were demolished to make way for new structures, but not enough has been found.

Formal approval of flood control plans by both division and district Army Engineers, and approval of the petition and articles of incorporation for the Main Street Levee Improvement District in Common Pleas Court yesterday have paved the way for further action looking toward construction of a floodwall and levee for the Main Street business district; while the engineers' plans include all reaches in the proposed flood control plan, the petition and articles of incorporation take in only that area from Morgan Oak Street on the south to a projection of Bellevue Street on the north.

1923

Twenty inmates of the Cape Girardeau County Farm move into their new quarters in the new $40,000 county almshouse on the Cape Girardeau-Jackson road, nearly a year after the building was completed; each of the inmates is given a change of clothes and a bath before being allowed to take up residence in the new structure; all comply, in spite of reports that some said they wouldn't bathe; the inmates will all eat together, with the exception of the Blacks, who will have a separate table; all will share the same food prepared by the superintendent's family.

Twenty-five farmers living in the vicinity of Oran and Benton, Missouri, appeared before the Little River Drainage District Board of Commissioners on Monday to protest the proposed construction of a dam across Caney Creek, three miles northeast of Oran; they tell the commissioners that, in their opinion, such a dam would make 3,000 acres of land bordering on the creek unfit for use; and the land, they say, is worth considerably more than $100 per acre.

-- Sharon K. Sanders