Stories from Sunday, April 3, 1994

We worry a lot -- as we should -- about what is going on in Russia. Does democracy exist and can it survive? Add yet another worry to our list -- Ukraine. It's a vast nation with a population of nearly 52 million, almost as big as France or the United Kingdom...

The Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School's Single Parent Program is forming a single parent support group for south, central and east Cape Girardeau. Single parents of children attending May Greene are particularly urged to participate, said Dorothy Hardy, director of the vocational school program. The sessions will include lesson on how to identify problems and how to solve them...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Several Southeast Missouri state legislators celebrated re-election to new terms last week with the close of filing, while others now know who they will be up against in efforts to win re-election. For two other area legislators -- Herb Fallert and Dennis Ziegenhorn -- who earlier announced plans not to seek re-election, the close of filing this week meant there was no turning back on their decisions...

JACKSON -- Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller was placing legal advertisements with both newspapers in the county Friday, though he's no doubt hoping no one will respond to the ads. In placing the ads, Miller believed he was fulfilling his responsibility as county clerk ... just doing his job. The awkward part is, the ads being placed by Miller are advising people that even though filing for offices on the 1994 ballot ended Tuesday, they still have five more days to file -- against him...

JACKSON -- Only two races will face voters in Jackson next week, while in Delta, citizens will elect two school board members from a field of six candidates. In Jackson, the only aldermanic race is in Ward 4, where two newcomers, Rodney Ladreiter and Fred Leimer, are running for the seat now held by Alderman LeRoy Brown. Brown will retire from the board of aldermen next week...

KELSO -- A proposition to more than double the Kelso School District tax rate is expected to attract a larger than usual vote here Tuesday. Other than the proposal to increase the tax rate from $1.25 to $2.75, voters in the school district will select two board members for the district's board of education...

Nancy Kerrigan's not the only performer hitting the streets of Disney World. The Cape Girardeau Central High School marching band will be performing along side Mickey Mouse on Tuesday. Director Ron Nall said students will leave Cape Girardeau this afternoon for Orlando, Fla. About 120 students and 25 adults are making the trip...

Glenda Quinn, a member of the Cape Girardeau County League of Women Voters, recently attended a three-day workshop in Palm Beach, Fla., on municipal solid waste, source reduction and recycling issues. The Cape Girardeau LWV joined over 40 other leagues from throughout the United States for three days of intensive training. The workshop focused on recycling, source reduction, education and strategies and skills for resolving environmental conflicts...

Sewers don't make for very compelling election issues. They are expensive. Unlike most capital improvements, they are invisible except when being installed. And about the only time they capture the public's imagination is when they don't work right. ...

Not everyone in Washington, D.C. is decadent, depraved or worse. Consider the following lovely message, which arrived this week, on Maundy Thursday, from a newsletter I subscribe to: Easter and Rebirth "All Washington is stirring. There is a sense of purpose and expectation in the air. ...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Anyone interested in Civil War history is invited to relive the war with the 8th Illinois Volunteers, Company G. Company G is a Civil War re-enacting group that portrays soldiers and civilians from 1861-1865. The group has members from Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and Kentucky...

MARBLE HILL -- Herbert Ferguson, 64, of Madison County died Friday, April 1, 1994, at Cape LaCroix Manor in Cape Girardeau. The body is at Baker Funeral Home in Marble Hill where funeral arrangements were incomplete Saturday.

OAK RIDGE -- Minnie Bartels Underwood, 77, of 10327 State Highway D, Oak Ridge, died at her home Friday, April 1, 1994. She was born Oct. 14, 1915 at Whitewater, daughter of Clarence Mungle and Alpha McElreath Mungle. She first married August William Bartels at Marble Hill on March 16, 1934. He preceded her in death on Aug. 6, 1992...

MARBLE HILL -- Hazel M. Schreiner, 90, of Marble Hill died Friday, April 1, 1994, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Nov. 18, 1903 at Qulin, daughter of William and Quincy Kelley Gentzen. She married Charles F. Schreiner on Oct. 22, 1932. He died on March 28, 1969...

CANALOU -- Ollie Faye Southard, 73, of Canalou died Saturday, April 2, 1994, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born June 25, 1920 in Blytheville, Ark., daughter of Walter Elgin and Rosie Hetty Reed Martin. She was a resident of the Canalou area most of her life. She attended the First Baptist Church of Canalou...

PERRYVILLE -- David R. Manche, 50, of Perryville, died Saturday, April 2, 1994, at John Cochran VA Hospital. He was born Oct. 23, 1943, at Belgique, Mo., son of Roy and Olive Beinlein Manche. He married the former Dolly Lowes on Nov. 9, 1963. She survives...

PERRYVILLE -- Ruby Mae Hager, 79, of Perryville, died Saturday, April 2, 1994, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 30, 1914 in Perry County, daughter of James and Ada E. May Taylor. She married Carl Valentine Hager on Nov. 30, 1933. He preceded her in death on Sept. 11, 1982...

SCOTT CITY -- Elmer "Hap" Wadlington, 83, of Scott City, died Friday, April 1, 1994 at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 21, 1910, at Blodgett, son of Robert and Laura Adell Dean Wadlington. He married the former Goldia Ilene Brooks at Fornfelt on May 5, 1934. She preceded him in death...

CHAFFEE -- Arthur Crump, 74, of Maryland Heights, formerly of Chaffee, died Friday, April 1, 1994, at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis. He was born in Chaffee on Nov. 20, 1919, son of John and Zada White Crump. He was a retired plastic tool builder for McDonnell Douglas. He was a member of Bosco Catholic Church in Maryland Heights...

Dr. Elmo Argo Biddison, 94, of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday, April 2, 1994, at Fountainbleau Lodge. He was born Feb. 19, 1900 at Exline, Iowa, son of Robert Eddy Biddison and Trissie Lula Johnson Biddeson. He married the former Bessie Caster on Dec. 6, 1921 in Centerville, Iowa. She preceded him in death April 27, 1993...

MARBLE HILL -- Terry W. Phillips, 34, of rural Zalma, died at his home Friday, April 1. He was road-grader operator for Pike Township in Stoddard County. He was born at Mt. Vernon, Ill., Nov. 22, 1959, son of Willie and Stella Benthall Phillips. They survive, of Columbia, Ill...

Son to Mary West of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 5:35 p.m. Friday, March 4, 1994. Name, Adam Michael. Weight, 5 pounds 1 ounces. First child. Ms. West is the daughter of Ken and Mary Barker of Jackson. Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Nick Sachse of Lonoke, Ark., Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark., 10:49 a.m. ...

Cape Girardeau voters Tuesday will choose between two different personalities in mayoral candidates Melvin Gateley and Al Spradling III. Spradling, a local attorney who has served six years on the Cape Girardeau City Council, sees himself as a tough negotiator with a platform of specific issues he intends to address if elected...

Several Southeast Missouri legislators acknowledged having some concern last week that voters of Missouri could reject a constitutional amendment Tuesday legalizing riverboat gambling in the state. "I see it failing or I see it passing. I'm just not confident either way," said Sen. Danny Staples, D-Eminence, chairman of the committee that deals with tourism and a proponent of riverboat casinos...

City officials are hoping voters Tuesday will see two local ballot issues as a painless way to alleviate a long-standing problem and allay a more expensive solution in the future. The ballot issues -- an extension of the city's quarter-cent sales tax for capital improvements and the issuance of $25 million in sewer revenue bonds -- will enable the city to separate combined sanitary and storm sewers in the city...

JACKSON -- A severe weather spotter training seminar will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Jackson American Legion Hall. The speaker is Lloyd Miler, director of the Poplar Bluff and Butler County Emergency Management Agency. Miler is a 28-year veteran in emergency services...

SCOTT CITY -- When Scott City voters go to the polls Tuesday, they will have to decide between candidates running for council seats in wards 1, 2 and 4. Incumbent Ladonna Phelps is running for her second term on the council. The Ward 1 councilwoman is serving as chairman of the council's planning and zoning committee...

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller predicts a strong voter turnout in Tuesday's elections, spurred on by municipal contests, tax and revenue bond issues in Cape Girardeau, and a statewide riverboat gambling issue. "I think we'll have a bigger turnout than normal," Miller said Saturday...

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Two Illinois residents died when two vehicles collided on Route 145 about seven miles north of Metropolis Saturday morning. The victims were identified by Illinois State Police as Todd R. Butler, 37, of Pekin, driver of one of the vehicles, and Kenyari Lindsey, a 19-year-old woman, of Harrisburg, a passenger in the second vehicle...

A Cape Girardeau police officer was listed in serious condition at an area hospital after being involved in an accident Saturday morning while on duty. Officer Dan Niswonger was operating one of the department's motorcycles, assisting with a running event near the Show Me Center, when the accident occurred...

Al Spradling has raised nearly four times as much money as Mel Gateley in his campaign to be elected mayor of Cape Girardeau Tuesday, according to campaign finance disclosure reports on file with the county clerk's office. The reports, that state law required to be filed seven days before the April 5 election, showed Spradling with receipts of $12,331, expenditures of just over $8,000, and a balance in his campaign account of $4,320...

Some Cape Girardeau voters will go back to the polls, likely in August, to elect a fourth new council member. On Tuesday, voters in Wards 1, 2 and 6 will select three councilmen, and voters city-wide will select a new mayor. Because both mayoral candidates are sitting council members with two years remaining in their terms, a special election must be held to replace the new mayor...

MARBLE HILL -- Adrian Shell wants voters to elect him twice. The Marble Hill mayor wants voters to re-elect him to a second, two-year term Tuesday. But he's also hoping to be elected as Bollinger County collector later this year. The Republican candidate is one of six candidates seeking to succeed longtime Collector Dale Bollinger...

PERRYVILLE -- Only one race is contested in Perry County Municipal Elections Tuesday. Three candidates -- Dennis R. Martin, Carol Laws and Diane K. Edwards -- are on the Perry County School District Number 32 ballots, vying for two three-year positions...

MARBLE HILL -- The field of candidates for Bollinger County collector is a crowded one. Six candidates -- three Republicans and three Democrats -- are seeking to replace longtime Collector Dale Bollinger, a Democrat, who is retiring. The collector's race is just one of many for Bollinger County offices. The filing period ended Tuesday...

A certain sinking sensation occurs as the scale's digits fly, finally registering a number inconceivable a few years past. With weight and health consciousness climbing in America, stepping onto the scales has become an integral part of morning rituals...

How long have we been seeing the rock throwing battles in the Holy Land? Five, ten, fifteen years? Not as swift as bullets are the rocks, yet thrown with such force, should one hit a head, it could be as effective as a bullet. Where do all the rocks come from? Are the same ones thrown back and forth all the time? Are they retrieved and used again as did Indians their arrowheads? Are there rock gatherers employed to go outside the cities and towns, scour the rocky hillsides and bring them in to stash behind barricades like snowballs behind snow forts? Are they gathered from within the towns from demolished buildings? Uprooted streets?. ...

Mid-America Teen Challenge will celebrate its 25th anniversary April 8 with a banquet at the Show Me Center. Special guests include several alumni who have remained drug-free. They will give testimonials. Also on the program is a performance by The New Creations, a Mid-American Teen Challenge student choir. They presently tour in more than a 17-state region. Their concerts are featured at high schools, civic functions, city-wide meetings, conventions and churches...

Becky A. Heuer and Shirley Tiehes of Cape Girardeau were among 200 county University Extension council members from across the state who participated in the Missouri Extension County Council Leadership Conference March 25-26 in Columbia. The conference is designed to help county extension council members better understand and expand their role as a partner with the University of Missouri system and Lincoln University in providing educational programs...

Southeast Missouri State University named 1,298 students to its Dean's List for academic achievement during the fall 1993 semester. Students named to the list earned at least a 3.5 grade point average on a four-point scale and completed at least 12 degree-credit hours during the semester...

JACKSON -- Warranty deeds issued at the office of Janet Robert, Cape Girardeau County recorder of deeds: Farm & Home Savings Association to Housing and Urban Development; the Ocia E. Crites Trust to Jacqueline and William D. Kurre; First Federal by receivership to Marjorie Morrill...

Four blood drives are planned this week in area communties. On Monday, a drive will be held at the Delta High School from 1-5:30 p.m. Bill Price is the blood drive coordinator. On Wednesday, two drives are planned. One will be held at the Scott City High School, sponsored by the National Honor Society, from 1:30-6:30 p.m. Rick Brown is coordinator. Another is planned at the Bell City High School from 2-6 p.m. Pauline Pikey is coordinator...