Out of the past: Feb. 19

1998

The Army Corps of Engineers and Missouri Department of Natural Resources have confirmed that a wetland area exists on the site of the planned Cape Girardeau vocational-technical school and high school campus; a two-person regulatory team from the Corps and the DNR designated just over three acres of the 72-acre property as wetlands; because of the designation, the Cape Girardeau School District must now hire a surveyor to determine the exact size of the area so it can enter a process called mitigation; the process will include submission for a permit to disturb the land and will offer substitute property for the wetlands.

Gibson Center officials won't be going down without a fight on a controversial proposal to operate a halfway house for Missouri parolees; Dick Decker, the center's executive director, wants a public hearing on the special use permit and rezoning the center had requested in order to operate the halfway house.

1973

A scale of Mississippi River stages indicating flood conditions with rapidly rising water is being circulated among more than 100 participant in the mock flood scheduled between St. Louis and New Orleans tomorrow and Wednesday; the simulated flood, under the direction of the Memphis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is held every two years in an attempt to keep those concerned with fighting floods up to date; failure of levees here, Chester, Illinois, and Elsberry, Missouri, will add to the complexity of the exercise.

Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Bill W. Adams comes to the Jackson Rotary Club's meeting expecting to hear a speech from his commander, but he leaves with the Peace Officer of the Year Award; the honor, which, by careful planning among Rotarians and Capt. Wayne C. Brooks, commander of the patrol's Troop E, comes as a surprise to the 10-year patrol member.

1948

Envisioning a building to meet the needs of the college and its district for years to come, the State College Board of Regents, in session yesterday to meet the emergency created by the Houck Field House fire Tuesday morning, set a preliminary estimated cost of $500,000 as the amount necessary to construct an adequate, modern physical education plant; the board ordered that the chairman of the state House appropriations committee be contacted to determine the earliest possible time for a hearing at which the crisis may be presented to the committee.

Fire of unknown origin does considerable damage to a Ford truck owned by Midwest Dairy Products Corp., 25 S. Spanish St., in the morning; fire guts the interior of the cab and burns around the motor; the truck, driven by J.L. Koch Jr., and used on a retail route in the residential district, is at Mill and Fountain streets when the fire starts.

1923

Forecasting the addition of a kindergarten school, a junior high school, evening classes and a department of physical education in the grade schools to the public schools in Cape Girardeau, J.N. Crocker, superintendent of schools, declares in an address to the Central High Parent Teacher circle that the schools of this city rank among the best in America; in a test made by Columbia University of 256 schools of cities the size of Cape Girardeau, it was found that Cape Girardeau ranked 30th in training, 29th in salaries and 24th in experience.

POLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- An examination of the defunct Farmers Savings Bank here shows a shortage of approximately $100,000; depositors will receive less than 50% of their deposits, an no payments can be made before June 1, in the opinion of Francis Kinder, deputy state bank examiner.

-- Sharon K. Sanders