Out of the past: Feb. 23

1996

Cape Girardeau County sales tax figures for February dipped 13% below the same month last year, flattening total revenue figures for 1996; the county's half-cent sales tax brought in $190,998 this month, significantly lower than the $220,206 received in February 1995.

John Jordan announced Thursday he wants to be Cape Girardeau County sheriff at the turn of the century; Jordan was elected a year ago to fill Norman Copeland's unexpired term; Copeland retired more than two years before his term expired; now Jordan, 35, wants to be elected to his own term, which would put him in the sheriff's seat until 2001.

1971

Southeast Missouri is the only part of the state left untouched by a weekend blizzard that today moves out of Kansas and the rest of Missouri, leaving behind at least five storm-related deaths, impassable roads, hundreds of stranded motorists and isolated communities; the two inches of snow forecast for Cape Girardeau and the vicinity yesterday failed to materialize following a few brief flurries.

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education last night voted to retain for the 1971-72 school year the current salary schedule for classroom teachers in the city's public schools; a teacher with a bachelor of science degree starts in the school system at $6,300 and moves up $190 for each year of experience in the public schools here until reaching a salary of $7,060 the fifth year; with a B.S. degree and 12 hours additional credit, the starting salary is $6,450.

1946

Pouring of concrete was started yesterday on the foundation and footings of the new Esquire Theater in the 800 block of Broadway; Gerhardt Construction Co. had a large force of men working; foundation work is also progressing in the 900 block of Broadway on the new home of the Cape Girardeau School of Beauty Culture; farther west, in the 1100 block, workers are razing the old Adams House, making room for another large new business structure.

Hillard Brewster, state highway landscape architect, has returned to Cape Girardeau County to continue the planting program in Ten-Mile Flower Garden; he and his maintenance crew are rushing the work as there is much to be done before the planting season ends; Brewster is making his headquarters at the Jackson Hotel in Jackson.

1921

Charges are dismissed in police court against L.B. Houck for failure to have the snow removed from the sidewalk surrounding the property at the northeast corner of Main and Themis streets; Houck appears in court and proves the property doesn't belong to him, but is that of Mrs. Houck.

Work of converting the Park Theater in the 200 block of Broadway from what has been exclusively a motion picture house to a "regular theater," with "flies, wings, drops and everything," was begun yesterday by the managers; the building, at the rear, will be remodeled and the roof raised six feet; this will permit personnel to fly scenery above the sage.

-- Sharon K. Sanders