Out of the past: Feb. 18

1999

A group of Cape Girardeau doctors and nurses is planning a week-long trip to Jamaica in April, but the visit will be no vacation; the group is participating in a medical mission trip to provide primary health care to rural communities in the township of Carron Hall; the group has been working since August to plan the trip.

Southeast Missouri State University's baseball Indians will enjoy the luxury of an impressive new locker room facility this season; the Indians, who open the 1999 campaign Saturday at home against Creighton, recently moved into the Tiger Joe Uhls Locker Room, located in Houck Field House; the facility contains 30 pro-style lockers, new carpeting, new bathroom and shower facilities and a television/VCR area for the players and coaches.

1974

St. Joseph Catholic School in Scott City will continue to operate next year with lay teachers upon the approval of the majority of parishioners casting secret ballots; of the 201 votes counted Saturday by members of St. Joseph Council of Catholic Women and the school board, 126 favored retaining the parochial school with lay teachers rather than consolidation with St. Augustine School in Kelso; St. Joseph Parish was recently notified by the School Sisters of Notre Dame that at the close of the year, teaching sisters would be withdrawn from the 50-year-old school.

A flu virus which has gripped the area during the past month has reached epidemic proportions at Southeast Missouri State University, where about 50 students per day have been reporting to the university nursing service with flu symptoms for the past five weeks; dormitory directors also report large numbers of students remaining in their rooms with the flu.

1949

Retail coal dealers of Cape Girardeau met yesterday with the City Council to discuss provisions of a proposed ordinance which would, if passed, set up bonded weight masters at each coal yard and prevent short measures of coal brought in by private truckers from outside the city; the ordinance establishes a license fee of $40 per year and makes provisions whereby the purchaser will be notified through his receipt ticket of the exact weight of coal delivered to his bin.

Initial efforts are underway in Cape Girardeau County to organize a rural fire protection association, which would offer fire protection to all county residents; fundamentals of the plan include construction of a fire house near Jackson, the center of the county, where one paid fireman would have living quarters and would maintain a truck and equipment; in each rural town a general fire alarm system would be installed so all residents could be awakened in the event of a fire; also, each community would organize a volunteer firefighting group, which would be instructed by Roy Smith of Cape Girardeau, a fire equipment salesman.

1924

Although the primary election, at which candidates for municipal offices in Cape Girardeau will be chosen, is only a month away, and the last filing date is less than three weeks off, not a single aspirant has filed a declaration of candidacy with the city clerk; in other election news, Cape Girardeau voters will go to the polls tomorrow, for the second time in three months, to ballot on a bond proposal for the school district; school officials are asking for $100,000 to erect additions to two schools and to buy sites for other schools which must be built in the future.

Representatives of five leading women's organizations of Cape Girardeau place their stamp of approval on the plans for improving Courthouse Park, as outlined by St. Louis landscape architect C.C. Combs; the plans will be submitted to the City Council for consideration later this afternoon; the women take the opportunity to urge the city to establish playgrounds in the outlying districts of town.

-- Sharon K. Sanders