Out of the past: May 24

1996

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Sikeston will receive more than $18,000 in state funds for its Weed & Seed program, Gov. Mel Carnahan announced during a visit yesterday; Operation Weed & Seed, conducted through the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis, was introduced in Sikeston about a year ago in an effort to control the city's drug problem and the resulting violence; the Department of Social Services will issue an $18,000 grant to pay a Weed & Seed director's salary for one year; the Department of Public Safety will give money to the city's community-oriented policing program.

Brucher Street residents are looking outside at finished asphalt instead of gravel today for the first time; it is the first gravel street improved under the new Transportation Trust Fund, established with a half-cent sales tax passed in August 1995; on Thursday, ASA Asphalt of Advance, Missouri, finished paving Brucher's entire length, which runs between Wayne and Bertling streets; only cleanup work remains.

1971

Cape Girardeau County Court met with representatives of the Jackson City Council and Chamber of Commerce last week to discuss alternatives regarding a new county jail, the court reveals; although nothing official was done by either the court or the city councils of Cape Girardeau and Jackson, a citizens' committee appointed recently by the Cape Council is studying the feasibility of a single jail facility serving the entire county; Associate Judge J. Ronald Fischer says he believes a common jail to serve all uses won't be practical, but a cooperative agreement could serve nearly as well.

Gov. Warren E. Hearnes appoints Cape Girardeau attorney Jerry S. Estes as Cape County magistrate; the 40-year-old Democrat replaces the late Roland G. Busch of Cape Girardeau, who died April 20.

1946

Cape Girardeau, like the rest of the nation, is beginning to feel the impact of the rail strike with scarcely a single phase of community life left untouched; the northbound and southbound Frisco passenger trains at noon are the last to operate through the city; trucking companies appear to be taking up the slack, especially hauling groceries and other perishables.

Like many other institutions, the Southeast Missourian has been hard hit by the rail strike; the morning mail is a mere trickle and, if there is anything the newspaper business depends on, it is the mail; in order to deliver newspapers to carriers in many towns, it has been necessary for circulation staffers to drive the papers to such towns as Bell City, Caruthersville, Clarkton, Crowder, Gideon, Hayti, Lilbourn, Malden, Marston, Morehouse, New Madrid, Parma, Pascola, Portageville, Risco, Rockview and Vanduser.

1921

Cape Girardeau's Carnegie Public Library will be erected in Courthouse Park, probably on a spot to be selected by an expert to be employed for the purpose, it is decided at a meeting of the Library Building Committee; the vote in favor of that location, instead of nearby sites under consideration, is 5 to 4; by locating the library in the park, the city stands to save from $5,000 to $7,500, which can be used to furnish and equip the facility.

Jack Stone, for more than 20 years one of the best known racing horse men in America, is in Cape Girardeau with his string of runners for a short visit with his old friend Billy Stubblefield; Stone doesn't expect to train his race horses here for speed, as the track at Fairground Park is a minefield of holes; he expects to remain here until July, when he will ship to Maryland to start campaigning on the big tracks of the East.

-- Sharon K. Sanders