Out of the past: Sept. 2

1997

The Cape Girardeau City Council approves an agreement with DSW Development Corp. to have it supervise the construction of an extension of Siemers Drive to the new state Highway 74; under the agreement, the city will pay DSW up to $515,000 to supervise the work; it is the third time this summer the city has contracted with an outside party to build a major public works project cheaper and faster than the city could do it on its own.

The Jackson Noon Optimist Club is getting attention on the international level for its cyclist-friendly section of Jackson Park known as Safety City; the paved mock-neighborhood located west of Rotary Lake on Optimist Hill was created in 1992; the club recently won top honors in the best safety category in an international Optimist competition.

1972

Cape Girardeau City Public Works Department employees will have a 40-hour work week after Jan. 1 through their acceptance of proposed solutions to job issues; the proposals were made after discussions between City Manager W.G. Lawley and representatives of the various workers in the street department, garage and sewage treatment plant; salaries for the 40-hour week will be figured on the same monthly pay rate as the salaries for the 44 hours some employees now work each week.

Construction is progressing on a four-lane bridge across the Mississippi River at Caruthersville, Missouri; the 7,098-foot span is being built jointly by Missouri and Tennessee and will become a link of Interstate 55 south of Hayti, Missouri, terminating at Dyersburg, Tennessee.

1947

First-day enrollment in Cape Girardeau's public schools, with pupils from added territory attending for the first time, totals 2,505, reports Supt. Louis J. Schultz following the half-day session; the number is 33 greater than a year ago.

Lightning put on a spectacular display in the Tri-City area of Illmo, Fornfelt and Ancell Sunday morning, knocking out fuses, causing some home damage to electrical equipment and burning a large barn on a farm owned by W.A. Georger of Ancell on the Ancell-Chaffee Road two miles west of Illmo; greatest loss was to the barn on the Georger farm, which is occupied by Theon Reiminger; he lost a quantity of farm machinery and 1,200 bales of hay.

1922

Coroner Dr. E.M. Popp of Altenburg, Missouri, conducted an inquest at Wittenberg, Missouri, yesterday afternoon over the dead from the early-morning wreck of the southbound Frisco train 805, which plunged through a trestle at Starland, two miles south of Seventy-Six, Missouri; A.T. Warmouth of Gibson, Tennessee, and J.M. Yearta of Hayti, Missouri, previously unidentified, were killed; among the 50 or so seriously injured is the Rev. August Schultz, Lutheran minister at Menfro, Missouri, who boarded the train at Wittenberg to attend a conference; he is in critical condition with a fracture of the skull, a bruised leg and internal injuries.

Crit Jones, furniture dealer, has closed a deal in which he obtained the property formerly owned by the Minton-Thompson Motor Co., at the corner of Independence and Spanish streets; he purchased the property from Albert Losse of Illmo, who secured it from the motor corporation; Jones says he won't consider moving into the property before the first of the year.

-- Sharon K. Sanders