Out of the past: Feb. 10

1998

The Cape Girardeau City Council yesterday toured the police headquarters on South Sprigg Street and found a facility crammed full of officers, dispatchers, desks, jail cells, communications consoles, crime lab equipment, police records and stored evidence; the council is looking at an $80.5 million capital improvements program for the next five years that would include construction of a police annex with an estimated price tag of $4.8 million.

A southside community group wants old Saint Francis Hospital demolished; members of the Haarig Area Development Corp. voted Monday to ask the Cape Girardeau City Council to demo the old building, built in 1913 and used until 1976; the decision came after various proposals to make use of the long-vacant and frequently vandalized structure have fallen by the wayside.

1973

Norman W. Wood, representing Titan Land Development Co., announces plans for another motor lodge which, added to one previously announced and a sizable addition to another, will greatly upgrade Cape Girardeau's capability as a convention and service center for visitors; a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge and accompanying Howard Johnson Restaurant will be built on the Siemers family property at the southwest corner of Route K and Interstate 55; construction is expected to begin in late spring or early summer.

Cape Girardeau this week became part of the U.S. air traffic control network linked by computer for the first time; the linkup was accomplished by completion of Phase 1 of the automation of the Federal Aviation Administration's National Airspace System; previous to this hookup, flight plans from the Cape Girardeau FAA station at the airport were handled manually in filing them with the Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center.

1948

Cape Girardeau is on the verge of having an official name for its city-owned airfield following a recommendation yesterday by the airport board that Harris Field be re-designated by the City Council as the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport; Mayor R.E. Beckman says the council has been awaiting action by the board in recommending a name so the necessary ordinance can also include new names for two parks as recommended by the City Plan Commission.

A public meeting at which two two-man teams would debate the pros and cons of the city manager form of government was projected by the Cape Girardeau Jaycees at its meeting last night after a lengthy debate on the organization's position on the matter; as an outgrowth of the discussion, it was decided to make plans for a public debate on the topic prior to the election Feb. 24.

1923

A hearing before the State Public Service Commission to end the fight between the Cape Girardeau Northern Railway and the Frisco Railroad, which has resulted in a complete tie-up of freight relations between the two railroads, will be held in Jefferson City Tuesday, local shippers are notified; the hearing has been called by the commission in an effort to lift the embargo placed on the C.G.N. by the Frisco on Jan. 21, as a result of which the Frisco has refused to allow the Cape Girardeau railroad to handle car shipments from the Frisco line.

There is no organization of the Ku Klux Klan in Cape Girardeau, according to report given out for publication by C.D. Unsell, who is said to be the KKK organizer for Southeast Missouri; according to Unsell, total KKK membership in Southeast Missouri is around 4,000.

-- Sharon K. Sanders