Out of the past: Jan. 28

1998

Improvements to the city's sewer, water and stormwater systems make up more than half of Cape Girardeau's proposed $80.5 million capital improvements program; the City Council is reviewing a draft of the program, a five-year plan outlining proposed capital expenditures for fiscal 1998 through 2003; the latest program allocates $45.39 million for sewer, water, stormwater and solid-waste projects; most of the funding -- $39.1 million -- comes from revenue bonds approved by voters and issued by the city.

Construction could resume in May on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge; the Missouri Department of Transportation is scheduled to open bids March 20 for jet grouting work to address a bedrock problem in the Mississippi River and construction of the Illinois approach span; the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission could award contracts for the work when it meets April 3; the $50.8 million construction project for the main span of the bridge at Cape Girardeau was terminated in December by mutual agreement of the contractor and the Department of Transportation.

1973

A grant of $6,477 has been awarded Cape Girardeau County by the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation in the Department of the Interior to aid in the development of the County Farm as a park; these funds have been earmarked for development of approximately 109 acres of land at the intersection of Interstate 55 and Highways 61 and 34 in the east-central part of the county for outdoor recreational use.

Former operator of Mississippi Valley Printing Co. and Cape Girardeau Auxiliary Police chief for 12 years, Melvin R. "Bob" Eckelmann, 56, dies at Deal Nursing Home in Jackson; Eckelmann had resigned Nov. 1, 1967, from his job as chief of the auxiliary police because of poor health resulting from a leg operation.

1948

The mercury sinks to an official 2 degrees above zero in Cape Girardeau early in the morning as the full force of the third frigid wave of the current cold season bore down on the community; the forecast is for continued cold weather tonight, with the low mark to be between zero and 10 above.

A recommendation to the U.S. Engineers that the Mississippi River be widened at Gray's Point, Missouri, seven miles south of Cape Girardeau, is contained in a resolution adopted this week by the Mississippi Valley Association in St. Louis; it was presented to the association by B.C. Hardesty of Cape Girardeau and adopted unanimously; it is felt that widening the river at this point, which at present is about a quarter of a mile wide, will rid the river of a bottleneck which has hampered navigation and added to flood problems for many years.

1923

Nearly $5,000 is raised by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at morning services to pay for a lot recently purchased by the congregation; the amount actually raised is $4,555, but of this only $2,050 will be needed to pay for the lot; the remainder will be made the "nest egg" for a building fund; the lot, located south of the parsonage on Sprigg Street, will be improved and made into a playground for the children and young people of the church.

The Frisco Railroad is spending more than $500,000 on the improvement of the road between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis, laying heavy steel rails and ballasting the roadbed, says Col. F.J. Jonah, chief engineer of the Frisco; of this amount, $200,000 is being spent in the raising of the roadbed near Neelys Landing and other points to make it safe from future floods.

-- Sharon K. Sanders