Out of the past: June 16

1997

City Manager Michael Miller characterizes the budget the Cape Girardeau City Council is expected to adopt tonight as boring, because it has few changes from the current one; still, there are two potential areas of controversy: pay for firefighters and whether the city's sales tax revenues will meet projections.

ORAN, Mo. -- More than a year after two persons were killed at a railroad crossing here, warning lights and gates still haven't been installed; signals and gates are slated to be placed at Oran's Shelby Street crossing as part of the state's railroad safety program; but it could be the summer of 1998 at the earliest before the equipment is installed and operating.

1972

There will be few changes, if any, in most area magistrate and municipal courts pending further clarification of this week's historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling that grants the right of council to any indigent person charged with a petty crime; this is the general opinion expressed by judges about the court's 7 to 2 decision, which guarantees the right of legal counsel to millions of poor people who are prosecuted for petty offenses and misdemeanors.

Real estate and personal property tax assessments for Cape Girardeau County have increased by 4.1% for 1972, totaling $95,109,165, says County Clerk Rusby C. Crites; after review of the county's tax books by the State Tax Commission and any adjustments made by it or the County Board of Equalization, they will go to County Collector Harold D. Kuehle for extension of taxes due on the assessments, billing and collection.

1947

Floodwaters of the Mississippi River, rolling upward over the weekend toward the crest predicted to come at 6 tonight, spread out over the low sections of Cape Girardeau and again moved into a portion of the Main Street business district; the predicted crest of 38 1/2 feet would be only 2 1/2 inches below the crest registered April 30, when the first flood of the season moved downstream.

The air age education program at State College, to be part of the curriculum until July 23, gets underway with 60 in attendance at an organization meeting; Harold D. Weatherly, aviation engineer of the state Division of Resources and Development, speaks on "Needed Fundamental Knowledge for the Air Age"; tomorrow morning's lecture in the Little Theater of the campus library building will be on "How and Why an Airplane Flies"; two two-hour laboratories each day will be held in the Training School gymnasium.

1922

I.R. Kelso, counsel for the Missouri Public Utilities Co., with headquarters in St. Louis, but still a resident of Cape Girardeau, has been making a fight to have the coal producing states declare coal mines a public utility and thus have the price of coal regulated by state commissions, just as the price of gas and electricity is regulated; in his efforts, Kelso this week addressed a detailed letter to Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, who is endeavoring to protect the people from coal profiteers.

A silver loving cup, emblematic of the "jazz championship of Cape Girardeau," is presented to Fischer's orchestra at the New Broadway Theatre in the evening, following the victory of that group in a friendly contest at the theater last night; the audience favored the Fischer Fussers over the Hirsch Novelty Five in a close contest; it is said the Peg Meyer orchestra, a popular local aggregation, will challenge the Fischer combo for a contest; Meyer was unable to compete last night owing to the absence from the city of pianist Jess Stacy, who is vacationing in Memphis, Tennessee.

-- Sharon K. Sanders