Out of the past: Dec. 30

1992

The search for a new Cape Girardeau fire chief may be over; city manager J. Ronald Fischer says the city has extended an offer to one of three candidates who were here this month for interviews with a fire chief selection review board; he declines to release the name of the finalist.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission formally has approved an application for a Community Development Block Grant to help a new industry in the county; the commission unanimously approved a grant request to the Missouri Division of Community and Economic Development to provide assistance for a plastics-recycling plant that is being constructed by Sanders Enterprises Inc.

1967

Heavy commercial and public construction, which produced no fewer than nine separate projects of at least $100,000 in 1967, overcame slack residential building to give Cape Girardeau another brawny building year; total dollar value of construction in the city in 1967 was $9,266,326 as determined by declared cost on building permits issued and actual contract figures where no permits were required; the total is the second largest in Cape Girardeau history.

BENTON, Mo. -- Abram Hirschowitz of Oran, Missouri, says he will start circulating petitions in the coming week asking for the establishment of a care-service center for the elderly in Scott County; such a center, to be owned and maintained by the county, would have to be voted on by the people.

1942

The removal of streetcar rails, to put the iron into war scrap, began yesterday under the direction of City Commissioner Frank Batchelor on South Frederick Street, near William Street; 30 men, who had been working on the Bertling Street construction job and with the WPA, were transferred to the rail-removal work; the first work will be carried on to determine whether the removal job is feasible.

Continuing its rapid rise, the Mississippi River reaches a stage of 29.8 feet at Cape Girardeau and promises to go above flood stage by the end of the week; the rampaging stream spent its fury on the river's most important construction project yesterday by tearing out a section of the big war emergency pipeline, which had been strung halfway across the river south of Cape Girardeau; despite preparations to avoid damage from the rising water, the river produced a current that tore equipment used in laying the line loose from its anchorings and moved it downstream.

1917

The Boy Scout movement in Cape Girardeau is growing to such proportions it has been decided to secure a regular assembly hall; heretofore, meetings have been held at one of the churches, in the Commercial Club Rooms and at Cape Girardeau Central High School; a committee has been appointed to look into the matter of securing a large hall, where members of all three troops can hold joint meetings if needed.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- By order of the mayor, all business was suspended for an hour yesterday morning as residents gathered at the Catholic church for the requiem Mass honoring Andrew Aubuchon, who was killed in France; Aubuchon, a Frisco fireman running out of Chaffee, answered the call for railroad men in the organization of a regiment of engineers for service in France; over there, he was promoted to engineer on the military railroads running into battle zones; he was the first Southeast Missourian killed in the Great War.

-- Sharon K. Sanders