Out of the past: June 28

1997

Cape Girardeau's Safe House for Women received a public boost yesterday afternoon from House Speaker Newt Gingrich; the Georgia Republican spoke to a gathering of about 30 Safe House supporters at the Holiday Inn prior to a fund-raiser for Rep. Jo Ann Emerson; Gingrich routinely couples charity events with political fund-raisers in his trips around the country; Emerson also spoke and presented two checks totaling $1,500 to the women's shelter.

The city of Cape Girardeau has been awarded a $446,500 community development block grant for a neighborhood project in South Cape Girardeau; the city was notified Friday it had received funding for the Jefferson-Shawnee Parkway Neighborhood Restoration Project.

1972

Some members of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce -- and for the first time, their wives -- yesterday made the trip from Grand Tower, Illinois, aboard a U.S. Corps of Engineers work barge pushed by the Motor Vessel Crain; entertainment during excursion was self-made, consisting mainly of conversational groups and trips to the pilothouse for better views of the passing Missouri and Illinois countryside; lunch consisted of fried chicken, potato salad, slaw and baked beans, washed down with beer and cold sodas.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- An application for a federal sewage disposal expansion grant for the city of Jackson and continued funding of the regional crime lab at State College in Cape Girardeau were approved last night by the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission.

1947

Attention focuses on the McClure, Illinois, area, where a never-ending battle to keep out the high waters of the Mississippi River so far has proven successful, but where the real test will come over the weekend as the river nears its crest; fearful that a section of the levee in the McClure area may not withstand the high water because of days of pressure on it, some residents of the rich basin are moving out their effects, most of them to the hills to the east; the wheat crop, now matured, goes unharvested because heavy combines are unable to move over the fields waterlogged by this week's rain.

A new prediction received at noon by river observer Lee L. Albert has the Mississippi River cresting at Cape Girardeau Wednesday night at 41 feet, a half-foot higher than the previous prediction and a day later.

1922

A sanitary sewer district, to take in the State Teachers College and other property in the immediate vicinity, is to be formed in order to abate the nuisance of the septic tank at the colleges; the City Council last night ordered city engineer Ed Sailer to proceed with the plans for the organization of the district and to outline tentative boundaries; the Rev. C.H. Swift, representing a number of residents of the area, demanded immediate action, saying the odor from the septic tank is growing worse and is almost unbearable.

Showing their support for the municipal band, members of the Chamber of Commerce decide to hold Cape Girardeau Municipal Band Day Friday and raise a fund with which to maintain the band this season; 35 local musicians have signed contracts to play in the band, under the direction of H.S. Albert; the Chamber of Commerce has agreed to pay the organization $2,000 for the year; upon this basis, each musician will get $60, but he must furnish his instrument, uniform and the music.

-- Sharon K. Sanders