Out of the past: Jan. 10

1998

When Cape Girardeau County made the switch to a first-class county a year ago, county commissioners pledged not to overwhelm citizens with a lot of new ordinances; true to their word, commissioners approved a grand total of one law during 1997, the first year the commission had the power to enact county ordinances.

Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield's chairman and chief executive officer says MedAmerica HealthNet Inc. filed bankruptcy to avoid its share of the losses from a state insurance contract; in a letter to the editor, John A. O'Rourke said MedAmerica HealthNet "agreed to share 50-50 in any gains or losses" through Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield's contract with Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan; O'Rourke wrote, "We view the bankruptcy filing as an attempt by MedAmerica and certain of its providers to avoid their share of the losses"; Wade C. Adams, executive director of MedAmerica HealthNet, denied O'Rourke's claim.

1973

Fire that starts in an upstairs apartment at 631 Broadway claims the life of a Cape Girardeau man; Floyd L. Hefner, 60, is found dead inside a back doorway of the apartment when firefighters arrive at about 4:40 a.m.; he was apparently trying to escape; the building housed the Missouri Division of Veterans Affairs office and Ed's Barber Shop, a one-chair operation by Edgar H. Seabaugh.

Cape Girardeau is in line to become a central office for at least three area county draft boards in a Selective Service reorganization plan that will reduce the number of draft board officers in Missouri and the rest of the country.

1948

Plans to perpetuate the old covered bridge at Burfordville were again considered at a meeting of the Cape Girardeau County Commission and representatives for the State Highway Department in the county courtroom at Jackson yesterday; after much discussion, the commissioners decided to ask the state department to develop the half-mile stretch leading from Highway 34 through Burfordville to the bridge, then maintain the bridge in easy stages to hold down costs and thus preserve it as a valuable historical object, as well as serve the Burfordville community.

Monroe L. Rhodes, health educator for the state Division of Health, announces that the delta area of Cape Girardeau County has been added to the residual DDT spraying program in Southeast Missouri and that approximately 3,000 houses will be serviced; previously, the spraying has been carried out only in the lower counties of the district.

1923

Twenty editors and publishers of Southern Illinois newspapers, meeting yesterday in East St. Louis, Illinois, made plans to assure Southern Illinois of a state park, with the Cohokia Mound district as its center; an organization was effected that will direct the preparation of a memorial to the Illinois General Assembly from city councils, chambers of commerce, civic organizations and residents of the southern part of the state, asking that the Cahokia Mound area be purchased for a state park.

The Lions Club, assembling for the first time in its new meeting place -- the White Kitchen Cafe -- has a very interesting program, all of which is related to Haarig, both past and present; J.A. Kinder speaks on that section of the city from the time he came to Cape Girardeau, 23 years ago, to the present.

-- Sharon K. Sanders