Out of the past: June 7

1998

The Rev. J. Michael Davis has been appointed as pastor of Hobbs Chapel United Methodist Church; he will begin work June 14; Davis has served as pastor of Sedgewickville-Crossroads (Missouri) United Methodist Church for the last four years.

ST. LOUIS -- Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh has agreed to take back the city's school desegregation case; Limbaugh oversaw the case for several years before handing it off to Senior U.S. District Judge George F. Gunn Jr. in 1991; Limbaugh was asked to resume control of the case after Gunn died May 20 of cancer; Limbaugh said his first task will be to familiarize himself with new state legislation in the case; the desegregation bill, passed last month on the last day of the legislative session, provides a framework for the future of the area's voluntary school desegregation plan.

1973

Sandbagging operations aimed at ridding water from Illinois Highway 146 just east of the Mississippi River bridge gets underway, but if more volunteers don't show up, it will be a slow process; only about a dozen youths had reported to the inundated 1,200-foot stretch of highway by 10 a.m., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says, but more are expected later in the day; Alexander County Civil Defense had requested about 75 volunteers to help place sandbags on either side of the highway so it could be reopened to the East Cape Girardeau, Illinois, development.

Cape Girardeau may gain another 57.25 acres of parkland at no cost to the city, if a government grant for half the value of the land is approved; the acreage, adjacent to Twin Trees Park in the northeast part of the city, is owned by the Renfrow family, which will contribute the other half to Cape Girardeau's park and recreation system.

1948

Cape Girardeau boys and girls turn out well for the opening of the summer playground program; today is used primarily for registering all the children who wish to use the facilities of the playgrounds during the summer.

Jackson Mayor J.R. Bowman casts the tie-breaking vote favoring the purchase of parking meters for the city; 216 meters will be purchased from the Kar-park Corp.; in other City Council action, $450 is appropriated to fund a summer playground for children; the recreation program will be supervised by the Jackson Board of Education with high school principal W.V. Hill acting as supervisor.

1923

Telephone communications in many sections of Southeast Missouri are badly demoralized due to last night's high winds; trees were uprooted at many points, and some barns and outbuildings were blown down, but there is no great damage done anywhere in the district.

An effort to use an old horse-drawn street sweeper, abandoned three years ago, is to be made by the city street department with the hope of keeping the streets cleaner, says Commissioner Louis Wittmor; the machine was tried out earlier this week and, although it didn't prove as satisfactory as a new one, it did work; the contraption is a simple one, having a cylinder broom on an iron frame and rolling on wagon wheels; it is drawn by two horses and is operated by two men; it kicks the dirt and debris to the gutter, where human street sweepers with their brooms and cans remove it.

-- Sharon K. Sanders