Stories from Wednesday, June 21, 1995

The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education needs to come out of the closet. In its efforts to choose a new commissioner of higher education, the board has cloaked its actions in secrecy, refusing to even release the names of finalists for the position...

A changing economic climate changes attitudes. It wasn't long ago that towns fought prisons or chemical manufacturers from locating nearby. Now communities can often overlook the potential risks of such industries when they bring million-dollar payrolls with hundreds of jobs...

JACKSON -- An interactive video conference to discuss the impact of recent congressional decisions on Missouri's human services systems will be held Tuesday. The conference will be broadcast from Jefferson City to 10 sites, including the Cape Girardeau County Extension Center, 815 Highway 25 South in Jackson. The broadcast will run from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m...

Today, instead of limiting our subject matter to special constructions, we offer another mix of bloopers that seem too timely to bypass. In a report on the floods caused by the overflowing Mighty MO and its various tributaries, a CBS networker announced that the water "creeped" into people's houses before they could move out...

Capital Bancorporation Inc., a multibank holding company headquartered in Cape Girardeau, has announced an agreement to sell to Union Planters Corp. of Memphis, Tenn. The banking company, the second ever founded in Cape Girardeau County, more than a century ago, under the banner of Cape County Bank, operates 31 facilities through five subsidiary banks in Southeast, central and eastern Missouri and northern Arkansas...

At 73, Woody Sadler figures he's too old to fight Mother Nature. He would rather move. Sadler and many of his Red Star neighbors want to be bought out, but Cape Girardeau officials said the federal buyout program could cost the city $250,000 to $300,000. The money would be the local match to buy and demolish some 40 structures in four areas of the city...

Residents along Highway 177 reviewed flooding of their main passageway to and from Cape Girardeau from several angles Tuesday night. They discussed the emergency management issue and how floodwaters prevent ambulances and fire engines from quickly getting where they need to go...

I don't usually have too many 8:30 a.m. interviews. There is a simple explanation for that. The morning coffee doesn't usually kick in until 9, just in time for the daily planning meeting. But this was one of those interviews that promised to be more like a casual conversation than a question and answer session...

I DO not want an increase in taxes any more than anyone else, but we need the streets in our city to be improved, repaired and rebuilt. The only way to do this, as I see it, is by taxes. We don't have a fairy godmother who can wave a magic wand and do this for us. I think the fairest is a sales tax. This way everyone who uses these streets will help pay for them instead of just those who live inside the city limits...

JACKSON -- The Cape Girardeau County Commission hopes a program that made a big impact on Wayne County's littering problem will work here. Commissioners are looking for a litter control officer, a person to work with the sheriff's department to enforce Missouri's anti-littering laws...

When Cape Girardeau and Ames, Iowa, were selected from among 31 sites being investigated for a new single-engine jet aircraft manufacturing facility, each started on a level playing field. One of the two sites, VisionAire Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive officer James O. Rice Jr. said, will be selected for the facility...

SCOTT CITY -- City officials approved the 1995-96 budget at Monday's City Council meeting. The budget, which takes effect July 1, lists more specific categories than in the past, City Administrator John Saxton said. "More categories create more accountability," Saxton said. "It was a desire for more detail."...

Not all 1993 flood victims have woeful tales to tell. Just ask Mid-South Steel president Albert L. "Sunny" Underwood. Underwood credits the 1993 flood for nudging his business to expand. Mid-South moved from the Red Star District in Cape Girardeau earlier this year into its $500,000 facility in the Corporate Circle development area...

Friends of the Cape Girardeau Public Library and the library will join to present two steamboat programs in July. The first, "Steamboats on the Western Waters," will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 19. Danny Back, a local steamboat enthusiast, will speak about the rise and fall of the steamboats, the role of steamboats in Cape Girardeau and about the American Queen, which will be docking in Cape Girardeau three times over the next few months...

BENTON -- Scott County commissioners met with Sikeston architect John Sargent Tuesday to discuss courthouse renovations. The renovations are necessary to make the courthouse handicap accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requirements...

OAK RIDGE -- Basketball games will sound like basketball games again at Oak Ridge High School. The gold and blue carpet on the gymnasium floor is being replaced with a more traditional wood floor. Installation of the new floor is scheduled to begin today and will cost $30,850. Superintendent Roger Tatum said the wood floor was originally included in an improvement and construction plan for the high school, which voters approved in April...

Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents is expected to approve a $71 million budget for fiscal 1996 when it meets today. The budget includes nearly $57 million in the general operations budget and $14 million for auxiliary services such as housing, vending services and the Show Me Center...

Local families are needed to help board 18 members of the American Wind Symphony who still lack accommodations during the performing group's stay in Cape Girardeau this week. The 45-member symphony arrives Thursday and will play a schedule of 10 performances at various locales between Thursday and Sunday...

Scott County Sarah and Dan Craig to Ruby M. Williams; Albert L. Dockins Jr. and Kathy Dockins to Robert J. and Cheryl L. Brown; Richard L. and Barbara Jean Schiwitz to Henry M. and Ella Dean Schiwitz; June P. Edwards to June P. Edwards and Georgia M. Houchens...

Albert E. Stevens, 82, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, June 20, 1995, at The Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 15, 1912, at Davenport, Iowa, the son of William D. and Ellen M. Thurlow Stevens. He married Pauline Stevens on June 16, 1990, in Cape Girardeau. She survives...

Melissa Stanley, stillborn infant of Paul and Theresa Schultz Stanley of Jackson, died Thursday, June 15, 1995. Survivors include her parents; maternal grandparents, Clarence and Margie Schultz of San Marcos, Texas; and paternal grandmother, Mary Alice Stanley of Milroy, Ind...

PORTAGEVILLE -- David Arthur Middleton, 81, died Monday, June 19, 1995 at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Oct. 17, 1913, in Henderson County in Tennessee, son of Will and Monnie MIddleton. He married Helen Baxter April 25, 1933. She preceded him in death...

PERRYVILLE -- Joe D. Dodd, 75, died Monday, June 19, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Dec. 9, 1919, in Wheatall, Ill., son of O.L. and Edith Dodd. He married Edith Collier June 18, 1960, in Perryville. She survives. Dodd was retired from General Motors. He was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, American Legion Post 133 and is a World War II Air Force veteran...

Thelma Masterson, 71, of 2138 Otto Drive, Jackson, died Tuesday, June 20, 1995, at her home. Arrangements are incomplete. McCombs Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Berisimo Scheffer, 56, formerly of Scott and Mississippi counties, died Tuesday, June 20, 1995, at his home in Victorville, Calif. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston is in charge of arrangements.

Donald E. Lacy, 1501 Scott St., died Tuesday, June 20, 1995, at his home. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel.

CHARLESTON -- Denise Gillespie Fennell, 28, of Charleston, died Sunday, June 18, 1995, at the St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 22, 1966, in East Prairie, the daughter of Creacy Gary Gillespie of Bertrand, and the late Theodore Gillespie Jr...

ARBOR -- Grace Lee Jones, 89, died Tuesday, June 20, 1995, at Cape Girardeau Nursing Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 4, 1906, in Bollinger County, daughter of Francis and Louella Lincoln Stevens. She married Harl James on March 31, 1929, at Hurricane. He preceded her in death...

ADVANCE -- Mae Hefner, 78, died Tuesday, June 20, 1995, in Cape Girardeau. She was born April 3, 1917. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Arrangements made by Morgan Funeral Home of Advance.

CHAFFEE -- Cape Ford & Sons Legion and Chaffee Legion played to a split in a doubleheader ultimately ended by lightning Tuesday night. Chaffee captured the first 9-2 before Cape bounced back with a 4-2, six-inning victory. Lightning knocked out the lights at Harmon Field in the top of the seventh...

There was a day not so long in the distant past that Rex Crosnoe dreamt of playing professional baseball. He no longer carries that dream, as evidenced by his presence in Cape Girardeau. Crosnoe, the OVC player of the year this past season for Southeast Missouri State University, departed two weeks ago for Florida after he was drafted by and signed with the Cleveland Indians...

ST. ALBANS, Mo. -- Defending champion Tyler Shelton of Fairway, Kan., and Marty Sallaz of Overland Park, Kan., each shot 4-under-par 68 Tuesday in the opening qualifying round of the 88th Missouri Amateur tournament. Colby Robertson, who will be a senior at Poplar Bluff High School in the fall, was two shots back and three golfers shot 71s at the Country Club of St. Albans...

Naturalist Denise Dowling will give a slide presentation titled "National Wonders of Missouri: State Parks" at 7 p.m. July 13, at the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Dowling has worked in the state park system for two years, spending the last few months at Trail of Tears. Her program will present ideas for summer day trips...

Area high school students are attending the American Legion Boys State program this week on the campus of Central Missouri State University at Warrensburg. The program began June 17 and runs through this Saturday. About 985 boys from across Missouri are attending, including 86 from the Southeast Missouri district...

SIKESTON -- Bootheel Archaeological Society will hold its annual Indian Relic Show from 8 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Ramada Inn in Sikeston. Admission is free. Collectors will display arrowheads, pottery and other relics. Ribbons will be awarded for the best displays. Some people will sell, buy and trade items...

Rose growers eagerly await the month of June when the All-America Rose Selections are announced for the coming year. The four new roses for 1996 are Carefree Delight, Livin' Easy, St. Patrick and Mount Hood, bringing a kaleidoscope of colors into the rose garden. In order, they are an ivory white grandiflora, a pink landscape shrub, a green tint of a yellow hybrid tea and an apricot orange floribunda...

Glen Smart showed off a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly that had been attracted to his yard by a Butterfly Weed plant. Birds can be attracted to a yard with bird houses and by planting various flowers which also attract humming birds and insects...