Out of the past: Oct. 21

1997

The Cape Girardeau City Council last night approved an ordinance outlining where halfway houses can operate within the city; under the ordinance, halfway house programs will be allowed to operate with special use permits in most of the city's commercial, manufacturing and industrial zones.

Swinging horses on the playground of Cape Girardeau County Park South have been removed as a precaution after an inspection of playground equipment last week; the heavy, molded plastic swings might be dangerous, said Bruce Watkins, park superintendent; no one was hurt, but warnings have been issued by the Consumer Products Safety Commission concerning some molded plastic swings.

1972

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rusby C. Crites violated no Missouri law by running legal notices of the August primary election in the county's two independent newspapers and not in publications designated as Republican, an opinion issued by Atty. Gen. John C. Danforth maintains; County Prosecuting Attorney A.J. Seier sought the opinion in September following allegations by Gary W. Rust, publisher of the Cape Girardeau Bulletin and Jackson Journal that Crites violated election laws by not running advertisements of the election in his newspapers; instead, the required legal ads were placed in the Southeast Missourian and Jackson Post and Cash-Book, both of which are independent newspapers.

Bids for construction will be received Nov. 1 for a five-story luxury apartment building to be erected at 719 Bellevue St. by Larry Haertling; Thomas C. Holshouser is architect for the building, which will contain 15 luxury apartments, a ground floor for parking tenants' vehicles, a recreation room and a hydraulic type elevator to serve the upper floors.

1947

Struck by an automobile on Highway 61 a quarter mile north of Highway 74 at 7:55 a.m., Thelma McNeely, 5-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George McNeely, is fatally injured; the family lives 200 yards east of the scene of the accident; a few children from the neighborhood were congregating near that point to go to Marquette School, where the McNeely child was a first-grade pupil; the bus was due to arrive within a few minutes.

Contracts and agreements among the city, special road district and State Highway Department for Highway 74 development were authorized yesterday by the Cape Girardeau City Council; the move by the council cleared the way for securing the right-of-way for relocation of the highway from near the Sprigg-Boundary Street intersection to Highway 61 near the Hamilton-Wilson Road intersection; the city has agreed to pay a third of the cost of right-of-way for property lying inside the city limits.

1922

Two lawsuits brought by Cape Girardeau citizens -- Circuit Judge Frank Kelly and Henry Koechig -- to force the city to provide adequate drainage facilities to take care of the flood water at the corner of Pacific and Independence streets are won in the St. Louis Court of Appeals, which ruled the attorneys for the city "failed to comply with court rules"; by action of the court, the city will be forced to make arrangements to eliminate the flooding at that intersection.

It is announced that the Sherman clothing store on Main Street will close; according to Samuel Sherman, the sudden drop in prices after the war has caused the store's failure; he had hoped to recover from the effect of the sudden deflation of prices and was getting along very well until the store was robbed about a year ago; while Sherman has no plans for the future, he does intend to remain in Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders