Stories from Tuesday, September 21, 1993

A spokesman for a group of downtown Cape Girardeau home owners Monday urged the city council to adopt "as strong" a property maintenance code as possible. Charles E. Kupchella of 303 S. Spanish St. said he and several neighbors are concerned about the council's apparent reluctance to pass the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) version of a national property maintenance code...

A new source of help is available to local flood victims through the Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. The fund of $95,731 has been established through a special collection taken up by the 64 parishes and 21 mission churches in the diocese...

JACKSON - Cape Girardeau County's sales tax receipts are running 7.75 percent ahead of last year after the county received its second highest monthly check ever this month. The September receipts from the county's half-cent sales tax totaled $456,583.53, which is only slightly less than the record monthly check of $469,823 last March...

PERRYVILLE -- Water from the Mississippi River is over the road again along Highway 51, as much as two feet deep in some spots. Motorists traveling between Perryville and Chester, Ill., have been advised to take alternate routes. Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman Sonny Cash said Monday afternoon that the roadway wasn't officially closed. Large trucks may travel the route, but cars are being discouraged from doing so...

SCOTT CITY -- Residents of the 400 and 500 blocks of Maple Street asked the Scott City Council Monday not to further restrict parking on their street. The group of about 25 people assembled to speak against a citizens petition, signed by 73 people, asking that parking be prohibited on either side of the street. The petition was presented at the last council meeting...

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Aldermen awarded a contract for the West Adams/Missouri Street renovation project Monday. The board also amended the city's major street plan to reserve a corridor for the future extension of East Main Street. Two bids were received on the West Adams/Missouri Street project. The low bid of $234,650 was submitted by Fronabarger Concreters Inc. The bid of Penzel Construction Co. was $249,982. The engineer's estimate was $235,000...

MORLEY -- To help bolster a precariously low blood supply, the American Red Cross will hold blood drives this week in Southeast Missouri. The American Red Cross reports that in addition to the normal concerns of possible summer blood shortages, some community blood drives were canceled this summer due to flooded roads and the need to focus on disaster relief for flood victims...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Eugenia K. Potts, 93, of Cairo died Sept. 20, 1993, at Daystar Care Center in Cairo. She was born in France on Sept. 11, 1900. She was a retired seamstress and a member of St. Patrick's Church. She is survived by a close friend, Ida Thomas of Cairo; three grandsons, Jerry and Danny Potts, both of East Cape Girardeau, and Joey Potts of Wickliffe, Ky.; and two granddaughters, Lennie Rundles of Memphis and Diane Potts of East Cape Girardeau;...

Total attendance at the weeklong SEMO District Fair approached 77,000, nearly 4,400 less than last year's total of 81,200. This year's total was 76,827, fair officials said Monday. The fair ended Saturday. Attendance on the final day totaled 15,391, officials said...

TUESDAY, SEPT. 21 At 6:01 p.m. Sunday, firefighters were dispatched for an extrication, but the call was canceled en route. At 10:54 p.m. Sunday, firefighters responded to 509 Bellevue for a report of smoke in the building. At 11:18 p.m. Sunday, firefighters responded to HWI on Nash Road for a report of a fire alarm sounding...

SCOTT CITY - Earl Clayton, 86, of Scott City, died Monday, Sept. 20, 1993 at the Lutheran Home. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

ORAN -- Bernard Eftink, 84, of Oran, died at 5:35 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, 1993, at Chaffee Nursing Center in Chaffee. Arrangements were incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Oran.

CHARLESTON -- Funeral service for James Aubrey Fowler, Charleston Route 3, will be held at 1 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Chapel here. Richard Farquhar will officiate, with burial in Oak Grove Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from noon to service time...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Joseph R. Greer, 70, of Cairo, died Sunday, Sept. 19, 1993, at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Marion. He was born Sept. 23, 1922, in West Point, Ky., son of Roscoe and Hattie Chism Greer. Greer was a retired river boat captain, and member of Cairo VFW Post 2649. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II...

Betty McAuley, 76, of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, Sept. 19, 1993, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Aug. 6, 1917, at Rotts, Ill., daughter of Edgar and Louisa Moskop Conner. She and W.F. McAuley were married Oct. 14, 1944, in Red Bud, Ill. He died April 28, 1974...

Daughter to Shaton M. Hunt of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 5:31 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, 1993. Name, Nigeria Shanelle. Weight, 7 pounds 8 ounces. First child. Ms. Hunt is the daughter of Josephine Newsom of Cape Girardeau, and the late Lloyd Newsom...

Regulations that go into effect Oct. 1 will divert federal funds from highway construction to safety programs in states without motorcycle helmet laws. This is of concern to Illinois transportation officials. "We stand to lose more than $5 million for highway improvement this year," said John Burke, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation at Springfield. "And, if the legislature doesn't pass a bill this year, we could lose up to $13 million next year."...

Martin E. Marty, an expert on religion in America, is the featured speaker Thursday for the Cape Girardeau Bicentennial Lecture Series. The lecture series is sponsored in part by the Baptist Student Center at Southeast Missouri State University. Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Modern Christianity at the University of Chicago...

South African banker Ken Bowers will speak about that nation at the Oct. 4 meeting of the Cape Girardeau Executives Club. Bowers was born and educated in Yorkshire, England. A banker, he emigrated to South Africa in 1948, where he married the daughter of an American missionary...

To the Editor: When we paint with a broad brush, we often miss the lines and lose the message. I think your editorial of Thursday, Sept. 16, dealing with the use of university facilities to promote commercial enterprises that compete with local businesses, painted a little too broadly...

The 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech was commemorated a few weeks ago. As a high-water mark in the civil rights movement, the speech was worth remembering. What resulted in the recent celebration, however, was not on the par of Dr. King's inspirational words; instead, it provided a glum counter-weight to the gains African Americans have made over the last three decades...

To the Editor: I wish to respond to a question posed from one of the Missourian readers regarding the difference in the upcoming October school levy from the earlier request in April. Several factors are different and perhaps the following information will assist in your understanding of the school district's position...

When teaching football, beware of trees, advises physical education teacher Dayna Miles Powell. Powell, who teaches at Franklin Elementary School, said she learned her lesson last year. "During our football unit, a student was practicing punting when, as she punted, her shoe came off and became perched on a high limb in one of our trees," Powell said. "Try as we could, we were unable to retrieve the shoe and had to get administrative assistance."...

If you speak three languages, you are trilingual; if you speak two languages, you are bilingual; if you speak one language, you are American. Donna Ellis, teacher of Spanish at Cape Girardeau Central High School, hopes someday that punchline becomes obsolete...

Ten scholarships for the 1993-94 academic year have been awarded by the St. Francis Medical Center Auxiliary to students pursuing health care careers. The scholarships are awarded annually based on financial need and the willingness of recipients to sign service contracts in which they agree to work at least one year on a full- or part-time basis at St. Francis...

NEW MADRID -- During September and October, state education officials will conduct 10 town hall meetings across the state as a forum for citizens and educators to learn more about the Outstanding Schools Act, the sweeping school-reform law enacted this spring...

Christopher Dry of Cape Girardeau has been awarded a University of Missouri-Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources scholarship for the 1993-94 academic year. Dry received a College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources scholarship from the Kenneth Heath Fund...

Notre Dame High School's largest fund raising event of the year, Activity Week, kicks off Friday. During the week, classes compete to bring in the most money per capita. The winning class freshman, sophomore, junior or senior will have its candidates crowned king and queen at the Activity Week dance Oct. 2...

Four students from Cape Girardeau Central High School have been named semifinalists in the 1994 National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists Yung H. Park, Andrew G. Trueblood, Jessica S. Wagner and Christy L. Wetzel are among 15,000 students named to this group...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Jeannene Sue Ethridge of Cairo has had original poetry published in Distinguished Poets of America, an anthology compiled by The National Library of Poetry. Her poem is entitled "I Had You," and is about her husband. Ethridge has been writing for four years...