Out of the past: Jan. 4

1999

The worst of the season's first round of ice and snow passed through the region Saturday, followed yesterday by blustery winds and bitterly cold temperatures that dipped at times into the single digits and the wind chill index below zero; although the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, doesn't anticipate any significant precipitation this week, there is still the possibility of periodic snow showers and flurries; the dangerously cold temperatures are expected to continue several days.

The Cape Girardeau City Council paves the way for major road improvement plans, approving plans for a number of Transportation Trust Fund projects; they include long-anticipated improvements to Broadway and Bloomfield Road; Mayor Al Spradling III says the street improvements include some of the key projects voters had been promised in approving the half-cent transportation tax in 1995.

1974

A successor to Dr. Mark F. Scully, longtime president of Southeast Missouri State University scheduled to retire in June 1975, is being sought by a special committee authorized by the Board of Regents; the identity of the new president should be known a year from now, according to a timetable set by the nine-member committee, which is headed by C.A. Juden of Cape Girardeau, a board member and a business man and property owner.

William Street was ice-slicked and dangerous to travel Thursday, void of sand or cinders because of a disagreement between the State Highway Department and the City of Cape Girardeau over which was to maintain it; the city was of the opinion that the highway department, which is rebuilding the thoroughfare, was ready to assume full maintenance of William, and therefore didn't sand the street Thursday morning; after talking to the highway department, the matter was resolved and city workers sanded the street Thursday afternoon.

1949

A warning that if action isn't taken some 10 or 12 blocks of city streets "will go to pieces" startled the Cape Girardeau City Council yesterday afternoon into a $1,000 appropriation for mud-jacking operations to save the pavements from falling into holes beneath; a partial list of the blocks involved include Park Avenue from Whitener to William, Harmony from Hanover to Broadway, Normal from West End Boulevard to Park, West End from Normal to Broadway, from Harmony to Independence and from Merriwether to William, and William from Henderson to Park.

The I. Ben Miller building at 429-433 Broadway has been purchased by the families of Robert C. Bauer and Alvin "Bud" Haas, the purchase being made from the Miller family; the drug store and confectionery operated in the building were closed last weekend; the building was bought as an investment and won't be occupied by the new owners.

1924

That 22,000 acres of land in Mississippi County, purchased from the Hunter Land Co. this week, will be divided into small tracts and sold to homeowners by the new owner, Edward G. Rolwing, this according to W.J. Hunter of Benton, who is a visitor in Cape Girardeau; financial circles here believe that the consideration was approximately $5,000,000, making it one of the biggest land deals ever consummated in Southeast Missouri.

A total of $372,503.04 in taxes has been collected in Cape Girardeau County, according to a report made by the county treasurer's office; this is better than 93% of the total taxes collectible in the county, an unusual record, according to county officials.

-- Sharon K. Sanders