Out of the past: Oct. 11

1996

A $1.6 million federal grant awarded the Missouri State Highway Patrol Wednesday will put more troopers on the road and initiate a statewide computer-aided dispatch system; the COPS MORE grant was awarded under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The city of Cape Girardeau has seen a decline in sales-tax revenue while sales-tax growth in Cape Girardeau County has been sluggish; that concerns city and county budget officials; the downturn is in sharp contrast to the last four years, when both experienced a healthy growth in sales-tax revenue.

1971

Work begins in the morning on the new Saint Francis Hospital site, with heavy construction equipment used for the first pre-construction preparation; the new hospital, which is scheduled to be built in mid-1972, will be located at Gordonville and Mount Auburn roads; the preliminary development of the site by Crites and Sailer Construction Co., will bring the ground to within six inches of the required grade.

DEXTER, Mo. -- All 59 patients were safely evacuated early yesterday afternoon, when fire destroyed Green Meadows Nursing Home on Highway 25 south of Dexter; some patients received minor scratches, but there were no serious injuries; the blaze started in the furnace room of the one-story frame building and apparently burned some time before being discovered.

1946

Teachers of the district swing into the final day of the annual Southeast Missouri Teachers Association meeting, following an opening day packed with information and entertaining features, with the attendance on par with that of pre-war days; the meeting will close tonight with a band concert by 10 high school bands in Houck Field Stadium.

One additional feature -- an antique fire engine once used at Cairo, Illinois -- is added as the Cape Girardeau Jaycees make final plans for tonight's street parade to wind up its week-long observance of Fire Prevention Week.

1921

Arthur Wielputz and wife have gone to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and will make their home there, Mr. Wielputz having charge of the interests of the Wielputz Baking Company in that city; the firm has purchased a bakery there and is constructing a $50,000 building which will be ready for occupancy in several months.

The great oval roof on the New Broadway Theatre building is completed, which means work can now proceed without interruption regardless of weather conditions; bricklayers finished up a week ago, after having laid over 400,000 bricks and vast quantities of Post Brothers hollow tile; the stage part of the building runs up 65 feet in the air, or about as high as the Liberty National Life (H.-H.) Building; this great height is necessary to accommodate the scenery which will pull straight up instead of being rolled.

-- Sharon K. Sanders