Stories from Monday, July 15, 1996

Soggy cereal sales over the past couple years prompted manufacturers to lower their prices this spring, resulting in renewed interest in shopping the cereal aisles. Price cuts last month by Post, and followed quickly by Kellogg's and General Mills, resulted in better than ever cereal sales, local grocers say...

Pack the kids' belongings. Stop the daily newspapers. Ask the neighbor to retrieve the mail. Board the pets. Goodbye, routine ... hello, vacation. It's summer, and leisure travelers are hitting the road. A growing economy, healthy consumer confidence and the lapse of the 10 percent federal excise tax on air travel have resulted in increased travel. Some travel officials see no immediate letup...

Legislation signed into law by the governor last week will allow the Missouri Veterans' Commission to create a system of state veterans cemeteries. However, specific locations of those cemeteries and the exact number to be built -- details included in the original version of the bill -- were removed before the final draft. Such decisions will be left to the discretion of the Veteran's Commission...

WAPPAPELLO -- After a two-year grace period, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be writing "tickets for real" for violators of a 1993 regulation requiring a use fee pass for certain outdoor activities at Wappapello Lake. The Corps use fees were a part of President Bill Clinton's 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Many boat-launching and swimming areas on Corps properties were required to charge use fees...

Nobody wants to think about it, but it happens. Children are plucked off the street or out of busy shopping centers, sending their parents and law enforcement into a frantic search. The answer is prevention, police say, teaching children the basics of dealing with strangers. If that doesn't work, the next line of defense is having proper identification for each child -- height and weight statistics along with a current photograph...

A co-worker peeked out of her cubicle the other day and announced, "This story is all numbers. I hate numbers! Why do they make me do number stories?" Or words to that effect. And because journalists would rather commiserate (or in plain English, whine and gripe) than do our jobs, we agreed. Numbers are hell. Numbers are evil. Numbers should not be unleashed on an unsuspecting public, or at the very least, on an unsuspecting newsroom...

Now is an appropriate moment for elected officials to give serious study to the state's hodgepodge commission system, given the hopefully limited damage that has been done to one of our most cherished institutions, Missouri University. Far too many comments on the proposed dismissal of M.U.'s Columbia campus chancellor, Dr. ...

Regardless of the security safeguards built into a county jail and the number of jailers assigned to watch over it, the cunning prisoner with nothing but time to design an escape will try to find a way out. As long as prisoners are permitted outside their cells into common areas, as they should be if they earn the right, the possibility of escape exists. Witness Russell E. Bucklew's crafty exit from the Cape Girardeau County Jail in Jackson last month...

I'M CALLING about the cable rate going up again -- $2.50. I think the city council ought to do something about this. I don't know if the mayor would or not, but I think it's time they did something. They've raised the price three or four times since the city took over. In the paper, they said they were paying the franchise tax. The customers are paying it. I think they ought to do give us better cable or more channels or do something because they're hurting a lot of people...

Once again Jackson's residential growth is being felt by city government, and the city is responding. During a recent hot spell, two of the city's wells pumped water for extended periods of time to meet a growing demand. A couple of days last month the city used almost 2 million gallons of water, compared to an average 1.6 million gallons daily. The city administrator, Steve Wilson, is concerned that a pump breakdown at one of the city's five wells would leave residents high and dry...

To the editor: It is said that doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. Advertising is a powerful and lucrative business. I sometimes think that the advertisers overuse the straw man approach. Remember how that is used in public speaking or in political rhetoric? In that approach, one sets up the competition and then proceeds to try to eliminate him like a straw man. ...

JACKSON -- The state could soon be studying how to slow erosion in the Hubble Creek watershed. Representatives of the Missouri Natural Resources Conservation Service will meet next month with the Cape Girardeau County Commission to discuss whether such a study should be done, what it should entail and what the possible recommendations might be...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "Following the bombing of a U.S. airbase that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia, what do you think should be done to improve the security of U.S. troops stationed there?" Rod Hoffman, Columbus, Ohio "More direct U.S. ...

KELSO -- Paul Aloysius Heisserer, 91, of Kelso, died Sunday, July 14, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 16, 1905, in Kelso, the son of Solomon and Sophia Blattel Heisserer. He married Esther Marie Roth on April 21, 1954, in Chaffee...

AMITY, Ark. -- Leo Carlson, 80, of Amity, died Saturday, July 13, 1996, at his home. He was married Aug. 25, 1951, to Billie Hawkins. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he was a member of the American Legion. Survivors include his wife; two sons, Herschel Carlson of St. ...

PERRYVILLE -- Virginia S. McClure, 88, of Perryville, died Saturday, July 13, 1996, in the Perry County Nursing Home. She was born Sept. 17, 1907, in Perry County, the daughter of Thomas Michael and Nora Elizabeth Monie DeClue. She married Melton P. "Meltie" McClure on July 20, 1932, and he preceded her in death on Feb. 16, 1957...

MALDEN -- John M. Crump, 80, of Malden, died Saturday, July 13, 1996, at Lucy Lee Hospital in Poplar Bluff. He was born May 22, 1906, in Whitewater, the son of Ollie and Augusta Schaefer Crump. He married Clara Glass in 1930 in New Madrid, and she preceded him in death in 1953. He then married Ruth I. Christmas on Feb. 26, 1963, in Dexter, and she preceded him in death Nov. 6, 1986...

Monday, July 15 at 6 p.m. Vocational-Technical School, Room 214. New Business -- Consent agenda items. -- Information reports. -- Ad Hoc Committee reports. Educational Facilities committee Finance Committee Action Items -- Consider bids for occupational therapy services...

City Hall Monday, July 15, 7:30 p.m. Appearances -- Appearances before the City Council on items listed on the agenda. -- Appearances before the City Council on items not listed on the agenda. Consent Ordinances -- Amend the city code by changing the zoning of the southwest corner of the northern intersection of Kingshighway and Boulder Crest Drive from R-1 to C-2...

Monday, July 15, 7:30 p.m. Public Hearings -- Hearing to consider the proposed voluntary annexation of property owned by Gerald and Catherine Stoverink. -- Hearing to consider a Special Use Permit request for the storage of petroleum products in an I-2 district as submitted by W.D. Harris of MFA Oil Co., Inc...

Kowloon Chinese Buffet Restaurant is for sale. The restaurant, which opened at 2146 William in 1993, has closed. "We want to sell the business," said Sonnie Lam, owner of the restaurant that features a variety, including special orders from Kowloon's menu of Mandarin, Szechwan, Hunan and Cantonese-style foods...

American Way Mortgage Co. has opened an office at 2037 Independence in Cape Girardeau. The new company, which provides home and home-improvement loans, is the first American Way facility in Missouri. "We specialize in seeking credit for those who have had problems obtaining credit," said Paul F. House Sr., president of the local office...

The Drury Lodge is taking on a new look at Cape Girardeau. New banquet facilities and special lighting in the Mississippi Center offer settings for special events -- weddings, conventions, meetings -- for up to 400 people. Complete renovations of the Missouri and Lincoln rooms offer space for 85 to 90 people, and a new board room is designed to accommodate up to 15 people...

Horrell Powder Coating (HPC) has moved from the basement to a commercial operation. The 3-year-old company, which has been operating out the Scott Horrell home, opened recently at 3527 Perryville Road in Cape Girardeau. Horrell, owner and operator of the business, discovered the powder coating technique when he was restoring a car more than three years ago...

Karen Hendrickson, assistant administrator and chief nursing officer at Southeast Missouri Hospital, has been elected president of Sigma Theta Tau, Lambda Theta Chapter. Hendrickson recently graduated from The University of Memphis with a doctor's degree in education. A graduate of the Barnes Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Hendrickson also earned a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's degree in psychological counseling from Southeast Missouri State University...

Auto Trim Design opened at 606 S. Kingshighway recently. "The move has more than doubled our space," said Dillard Dale, president of Auto Trim Design, which was formerly at 807 Enterprise. "The new location offers us more room, great visibility; our showroom is three times as big."...

The Apple Creek Limited, an arts and crafts and gifts shop that opened at 350 N. Kingshighway last month, is holding it grand opening through Wednesday. The store, which features a number of local crafts, along with matted and framed prints, and other gift items, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday...

Six industries and farm-related businesses are on the schedule for the Jackson Chamber of Commerce's annual agribusiness tour Wednesday. Buses will leave the Jackson High School Gymnasium at 8:45 a.m. for one of three sites -- Associated Sheet Metal, Knaup Greenhouse or Unistar. Groups will alternate between the businesses...

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. continued to lag behind its Big Three competitors in June, reporting that U.S. sales of its cars and light trucks were down just over 2 percent from a year ago. Overall, it was a flat month for the Big Three. Ford, which reported its sales last week, along with General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. saw their combined sales fall 1 percent largely because of softer demand for cars...

The changeover for telephone callers in eastern Missouri using the new 573 prefix instead of the long-established 314 went well, says Southwestern Bell Telephone. The final changeover a week ago followed a six-month trial period. There were no major problems or complaints. Everything was fairly smooth, according to telephone company spokesman Tom Pagano...

Gannett, which publishes USA Today and 91 other daily newspapers, is selling its outdoor advertising division to Outdoor Systems Inc. of Phoenix for about $690 million. The sale of the Outdoor Division provides an opportunity for Gannett to focus its attention on its core businesses, said Gannett chairman John J. Curley...

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce will co-sponsor a "TimeQuest" program at the Chamber office Sept. 25. "TimeQuest," with Franklin Quest as co-sponsor, is a daylong seminar designed to provide principles for managing time. The seminar begins at 8:30 a.m...

Lambert's Cafe has been selected for a 1996 Readers' Choice Award by Southern Living Magazine. Lambert's at Sikeston was selected as one of the top three small-town restaurants in the South. Others in that category were the Blue Willow Inn Restaurant in Social Circle, Ga., and Patti's 1880 Settlement in Grand Rivers, Ky, at the north end of Land Between the Lakes (Kentucky and Barkley)...

Fru-Con Construction Corp.'s staff at the Procter & Gamble Paper Products plant north of Cape Girardeau reached 3 million safe-labor hours in May. Fru-Con, headquartered at St. Louis, has maintained a continuous on-site staff at the P&G facility here for more than 12 years, and has not had a lost-time injury at the plant since April 15, 1990. On an average, Fru-Con maintains more than 200 employees in engineering, construction management and technical services at the plant...

Spartech Corp. has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 6 million shares of common stock. Proceeds from the stock sales will be used to help purchase the plastic extrusion, color and molding division of the Hamelin Group Inc. Spartech, headquartered at Clayton, produces thermoplastic materials and polyeric compounds. ...

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours will be held Thursday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Holidome. The monthly meeting is designed for chamber members to meet in a relaxed atmosphere and to make new business contacts...