Out of the past: May 22

1994

BENTON, Mo. -- Vote counting in Scott County isn't an exact science, even when the totaling is being done by a $33,000 optic scanning machine; ballots cast in the April 5 election on riverboat gambling were run through the machine twice Friday as part of a statewide recount; the tally came out different each time, and both recounts varied from the election-night totals.

The American Wind Symphony Orchestra is returning to Cape Girardeau in July for its seventh appearance on the Mississippi riverfront here; the Pittsburgh-based orchestra last performed here in 1988; it plays aboard a one-of-a-kind, self-propelled, $4 million floating performing arts center named the Motor Vessel Point Counterpoint II.

1969

A proposed plan for a municipally operated garbage and refuse collection to be financed through a $375,000 bond issue and increases in the gross receipts tax on residential utilities and the telephone franchise tax was formally adopted by the Cape Girardeau City Council last night; the bond issue would require voter approval.

The Cape Girardeau City Council approved a request to sublease the Minnesota Riverboat Corp.'s boat anchored on the river here to an individual for operation as a restaurant; in other business, the request by The Southeast Missourian for a one-day lease of an area in Arena Park for the purpose of bringing a circus to the city was granted.

1944

Sgt. Eugene L. Crafton, 19, a veteran of 28 months service with the Marines in the Southwest Pacific, is here visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lowell Crafton; the Marine went through the entire campaign on Guadalcanal and in the Samoa group, escaping without any illness and only received a superficial wound, a tiny piece of shrapnel grazing his right eyebrow.

S-Sgt. Albert Cottle recently was injured, evidently in connection with his training duties in England, according to unofficial information received by his wife, who resides at the Southeast Missouri Hospital nurses' home.

1919

The Cape Girardeau Home Guard voted unanimously at a meeting last night to contribute $1,500 toward a municipal swimming pool, and city officials say work will start on it immediately; the plans provide for a pool 56 feet wide and 120 feet long, with slightly oval ends; dressing rooms with showers will be made of concrete under the veranda of the club house.

Fred Schuchert, grandson of Mrs. E. Schuchert of Cape Girardeau, is here visiting his relatives; he recently returned from overseas, where he spent about two years; he landed in Newport News, Virginia, on April 28 with the 128th Regiment and paraded with them in St. Louis.

-- Sharon K. Sanders