Out of the past: July 28

1998

Southeast Missouri State University has begun construction of a $60,000 fountain in front of Kent Library; the fountain will feature a waterfall punctuated with a number of limestone boulders; former university president Dr. Kala Stroup proposed the project shortly before she left in August 1995 to take a job as Missouri's commissioner of higher education; she and her husband, Joe, donated $37,000 to the project, and the university plans to spend an additional $23,000; university construction crews are doing the work.

A little rain and cool weather was just what area farmers needed to give growing crops a respite from July's scorching sun; temperatures over the weekend didn't top 80 degrees, and a steady rain fell over most of Southeast Missouri; the wet weather comes at a good point in the growing season, after the wheat harvest is finished and before the corn harvest in late August.

1973

Costs of Cape Girardeau's sewage treatment and disposal system in its 10 years of operation have spiraled to the point where the city spends more on running the system than it does on retiring nearly $1.6 million in bonds that financed construction of a large portion of the system; what this means for city taxpayers, who recently received their sewer service charge statements, is that prospects for a rate reduction are dim, even after the bonds are paid off in 1986.

Walls are rising rapidly on the new K Mart store being built along the east bank of Cape La Croix Creek, just off Gordonville Road; earlier, the site was raised several feet above the surrounding ground.

1948

The Cape Girardeau Airport Board accepts the bid of the R.B. Potashnick Construction Co. for runway construction and other improvements; but the board also receives verbal notice from E.L. Peerson, owner of Allied Construction Co., that he will file a written list of exceptions to enjoin the city from what he terms an "irregularity" in the manner in which the bids were made; J.A. Juden, chairman of the airport board, answers Peerson, saying the board had given notice to bidders that it had the right to reject any and all bids.

Members of the Retail Merchants Association spent a good part of their Tuesday noon meeting making tentative plans for the greatest Christmas parade ever staged in Southeast Missouri; Marie Friant enthusiastically reported on her committee's recommendation for the event, which she calls a balloon parade; not the ordinary balloon, but the gigantic, inflated type that features openings of Christmas seasons in large cities; if members agree, the parade will contain 38 balloon units, which will require 200 boys to handle.

1923

Dozens of tourists from practically every state in the union have taken advantage of the two motor camps for travelers established by the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club, one at Fairground Park and the other at Giboney Park; 30 campers, representing six different states, were at the two tourist camps last night; many of them made special efforts to reach Cape Girardeau, having heard of the camps.

Southeast Missouri was swept by a general rain overnight, which farmers say will be worth thousands of dollars to growing crops in this section; breaking a Cape Girardeau drought of nearly two month's duration, the rain came in time to save the corn crop, which would have been materially damaged if the dry spell had continued, farmers say; the intense heat wave, which had enveloped the Midwest for the past three weeks, is also broken by the rain, and today's temperature is lower than at any time in the past week.

-- Sharon K. Sanders