Out of the past: Dec. 2

1997

Parents, teachers and neighbors opposed to the proposed halfway house for clients of the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole turned out in force last night to voice their objections to the program, slated to operate in the Gibson Recovery Center, 1112 Linden; they never got the chance; Jeff Hine, an attorney for the Gibson Center, asked the council to table action on two issues -- a request for rezoning the center from R-4 multiple family residential to C-1 local commercial and the special use permit -- that would allow the program to begin operations; the issue will go back before the City Council at its Jan. 5 meeting.

A city subcommittee reviewing Cape Girardeau's hotel, motel and restaurant tax tinkers a little further with the language for a proposed revision in the tax; one of the changes agreed on would make the 1% tax applicable to fountain drinks purchased at convenience stores or other sites not traditionally considered restaurants.

1972

Missouri's highest military award, the Meritorious Service Award, is presented to a 33-year veteran of the Missouri National Guard, CWO Walter A. Funk of Cape Girardeau; his is one of seven awards presented at the annual Christmas party of the 135th Engineer Battalion at the Holiday Inn by Maj. Gen. Laurence B. Adams, Missouri's adjutant general.

A committee of trial lawyers has been appointed by Circuit Judge-elect Stanley Grimm to make suggestions for physical changes to the three courtrooms in the 32nd Judicial Circuit; appointed chairman of the group was Don P. Thomasson; other committee members are Stephen E. Strom, W.S. Rader and John L. Oliver Jr. of Jackson and Albert C. Lowes of Jackson.

1947

Dr. Thomas E. McGurk, 45, a physician and surgeon who came to Cape Girardeau two months ago from St. Louis, was killed instantly last night when his new automobile crashed into the left side of the Highway 61 bridge over Williams Creek, seven miles northwest of Cape Girardeau; going toward Jackson, he was alone in the new Pontiac.

Construction begins on the Standard Oil Co.'s new Mississippi River terminal expansion project in South Cape Girardeau, with excavation of footings for one of four storage tanks to be erected; also included in the project will be a railroad tank car loading dock on the west side of the acreage, replacing a smaller one; in the future a large warehouse and operations, as well as a truck loading dock, will be built.

1922

Resumption of afternoon train service over the Frisco Railroad between Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, has been delayed again indefinitely; it is hoped the Moose train will begin operating again in a week.

The first of three Kroger stores to be opened in Cape Girardeau starts business in the morning in a building in the 600 block of Broadway; W.A. Dell is the supervisor and H.L. Cook is manager; another Kroger store is to be placed in the building now occupied by the Farmers & Merchants Bank on Good Hope Street, and another in a building near the Salvation Army barracks on Independence Street.

-- Sharon K. Sanders