Out of the past: Feb. 2

1990

Cape Girardeau will proceed with a recycling project this spring, but it will be run on a limited basis because of the inability of the city and Southeast Missouri State University to obtain a state grant.

PERRYVILLE, MO. -- Tension runs high in the evening at a meeting between those who are trying to justify the closing of St. Vincent High School and those who are opposed to its closing; financial struggles have caused officials of the parish to begin a discussion about closing the school.

1965

Cape Girardeau and the area is seized in the frigid grip of winter, the temperature dropping to 8 degrees below zero in the morning at the municipal airport; the mercury has slipped blow the zero mark on three of the last four nights; ice cakes continue to form on the Mississippi River and threaten to block it at a narrow stretch from just north of Cairo, Illinois, to Goose Island Bend south of Commerce, Missouri.

Mike Gross continues to lead the State College basketball Indians in scoring; he has scored 313 points in 18 games for a 17.4 average; Jack Becker is second, followed by Kermit Meystedt.

1940

Two ice gorges formed in the Mississippi River in the Cape Girardeau over night and a third is collecting opposite the downtown section as the stream becomes more firmly ice-locked; the other jams are at Gray's Point, Missouri, and at the mouth of Little Flora Creek 3 miles north of Cape Girardeau.

Workers begin razing what is left of a frame house at 112 N. Fountain St., which was gutted by fire Jan. 19; E.L. Markham, the owner, says he won't build on the site until it is determined where the proposed new post office building will be.

1915

Jackson Mayor R.K. Wilson last night resigned that position; it is almost certain he will be appointed post master of the town; post office department rules say he cannot hold both jobs.

The city of Cape Girardeau has receive a report from the state university at Columbia, Missouri, saying the city's water is contaminated by sewage; the report indicates the water supply isn't pure and should be boiled before it is used for drinking or cooking; a copy of the report is to be sent to the state utilities commission at Jefferson City.

-- Sharon K. Sanders