Out of the past: Feb. 19

1999

Contractors on the new Cape Girardeau elementary school won't meet their June 30 deadline, says school superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent; he updated parents on construction progress within the district during a Parent Teacher Association meeting at Alma Schrader Elementary School last night; parents also met candidates for the upcoming school board elections during the meeting.

More than a third of the retail sales generated in Cape Girardeau County come from people who live outside the county; according to Chauncy Buchheit, deputy director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission, Cape Girardeau has a good retail base, boasting "great diversity in retail products and attracts buyers from a wide area."

1974

The City of Jackson will amend its Circuit Court annexation lawsuit in an attempt to allow those areas where there is no opposition to being annexed to enter the city as soon as possible; city attorney Kenneth L. Waldron plans to file an amended petition to the suit this week.

A large tract of land on South Sprigg Street, between Plane and LaCruz, has been cleared, scraped of debris and graded after 11 houses were torn down through arrangements of First National Bank as trustee for the Juden estate and Dorothy Sigmund under a lease agreement; they were the last of about 60 houses torn down by the trustee; some other houses along South Sprigg and elsewhere in the area are also being torn down and burned; the clearing process is a combination of the property owners' efforts, the Mississippi River floods of last spring, city condemnation and the Small Business Administration, which made loans available for some property owners to buy or rent elsewhere.

1949

Opening of a cancer diagnostic clinic under supervision of the American Cancer Society and operated by Cape Girardeau physicians appears to be probable within the next 30 days, after a conference by George B. Larson of Jefferson City with the cancer committee of the Cape County Medical Society; Larson says the only thing lacking before formal opening is finding suitable office quarters and a person to take charge on a part-time basis.

One of Cape Girardeau's newest industries is Missouri Electric Works, 400 S. Middle St.; in 1945, Tom Zimmerman came here from Illinois and set up the business in the old brewery building at Morgan Oak and Middle streets; the business repairs heavy and light industrial motors and transformers and other types of heavy industrial equipment.

1924

Action on the improvement plans for Courthouse Park, submitted by C.C. Combs, St. Louis landscape architect, and those presented by C.F. Mullen, local landscape architect, were delayed by the City Council yesterday until tomorrow, when a special meeting will be held.

Judge C.A. Vandivort tells The Missourian the County Court at its first Monday meeting in March may let the contact for moving about 4,800 yards of earth on Hobbs Hill, 5 miles north of Cape Girardeau; this work was contemplated last fall, but was not done.

-- Sharon K. Sanders