Stories from Tuesday, December 17, 1996

A train traveling 55 miles per hour takes a mile -- up to two and-a-half minutes -- to come to a stop. A motorist seeing an oncoming train really can't tell how fast it is moving. These sobering facts are worth remembering when we recall the grim truth on fatalities at rail crossings in Missouri...

A Honor Roll Twelfth Grade -- Toby Allen, Jenny Anderson, Shannon Beauchamp, Kyle Bilek, Trish Brandes, Mindy Bruckerhoff, Ryan Buchheit, Jason Buerck, Teresina Buerck, Jason Carbaugh, Joshua Dippold, Magen Farrar, Cicely Guth, Michelle Heider, Chrsitie Hoehn, Karl Kasten, Christopher Layton, Jolene L'Hote, Andrew Lichtenegger, Amy Lorenz, Matthew Meyr, Kristi Oehlert, Celeste Ramsey, Jamie Robinson, Catherine Roth, Renee Saindon, Carrie Schamburg, Jaclyn Schremp, Dana Seibel, Kimberly Stakes, Mindy Torbert, Chris Vaeth, Gretchen Vowels, Tracey Weber, Carrie Weinkein, Jeffrey Welker, Shauna Zahner.. ...

A Honor Roll Eighth Grade -- Jamie Amberger, Stacy Baer, Jamie Brown, Tyler Buchheit, Katrina Buerck, Amber Burnham, Jennifer Crowder, Lindsay Ernst, Melanie Evans, Joey Hahn, Jennifer James, Chris Laws, Katie Martin, Alicia McWilliams, Nathan Moore, Brad Neathery, Melissa Riney, Michael Schmidt, Stephanie Schumer, Renee Taylor, Julie Triller, Jonathan Tucker, Brooke Winkler, Carrie Womack...

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a $12 million city budget for 1997 on Monday. The new budget reflects almost a 3 percent increase over the 1996 budget. However, Larry Koenig, the city's director of administrative services, said not all the funds appropriated for expenditures this year were spent. The exact amount of carryover funds will not be known until the end of the year...

SCOTT CITY -- Nearly every city water user who lives outside the city limits and is dissatisfied with their new contracts has had the chance to meet with the Scott City Public Works Committee. The committee has been inviting each user to attend one of their planning meetings to discuss individual needs for water use...

PERRYVILLE -- Perryville may have another ready-mix-concrete business if annexation plans are approved. City Council members met at noon Monday for a public hearing on the matter. At the request of two Ste. Genevieve businessmen, the city may annex a quarter-mile south of the city limits along Highway 51...

The workday and the school day are synonymous for some fifth-graders at Charleston's Warren E. Hearnes Elementary. That's because these students are responsible for keeping the school store up and running every morning. "It's quite an operation," said fifth-grade teacher Mary Jane Whitehead, who acts as the store's general manager. "We probably make a couple of thousand dollars each year."...

Cape Girardeau Central High School's Student Senate collected 7,000 cans of food in a food-drive competition with Jackson. Cape Central won the competition by collecting 5,000 more cans than Jackson. All the cans went to FISH. Central also held a Christmas dance Saturday, with the proceeds going to Toy Box...

The deadline for nominations has been extended until Friday for the fourth annual Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Educators of the Year Awards. The awards are presented by the chamber's education committee. Designed to focus attention on excellence in education, the awards will honor an educator in each of four categories: elementary, secondary, vocational-technical and administration...

WHILE LOOKING up a lot of names in my new telephone directory, I became sick with a headache. Southwestern Bell, you should be ashamed to send out new books with print so fine that hardly anyone can see them, especially people who have to wear glasses or maybe even don't have any glasses. This is a crime and a shame to expect people to use this kind of directory when they can't see very well as it is. Southwestern Bell, you can do better than this...

Less than five years through its troubled life, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission has formally decided to scrap the ambitious 15-year plan announced with great expectations back in 1992. Given the flawed assumptions on which it was based, there probably wasn't any alternative. ...

Margaret McCain uses childhood experiences to inspire her students everyday. She grew up extremely poor, which she said gave her knowledge about the value of education. It is this knowledge she strives to instill in the fifth- and sixth-graders she works with in the Shawnee Unit District 84...

CYBERTIP: Plan ahead for surfing with your children. The three plug-ins you will need to fully utilize many sites are Quicktime, RealAudio and Shockwave. Each takes about 7 to 10 minutes to download and install. So start about 30 minutes before you call the children to the computer...

With only two days left before Cape Girardeau Jaycees Santas suit up for delivery, volunteers are more optimistic than ever that they will be able to meet the Christmas wish lists of needy children. "We're going to keep on working every night until all the bags are filled," said Kerry Reeves, co-chairperson of Toybox. "I'm not sure how many more bags are left, but I believe it's in the neighborhood of 90 bags."...

JACKSON -- While the 10 members of the new Cape Girardeau County Planning and Zoning Commission represent a wide range of backgrounds and professions, most share the view that reasonable limits to zoning regulations are needed. "There must be some rules, but they should not be so stringent that people can't live with them," said commission member Gene Wills, owner of Wills Insurance Services in Jackson...

Kent Street has sparked a number of debates over the last six years and may be the cause of many more to come. One Cape Girardeau resident indicated the issue won't be settled until Kent reaches Lexington Avenue, as its original development plan showed it would...

Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois residents were surprised when they awoke Monday to the first significant snow of the season. A 30-mile-wide area from Poplar Bluff to Marion, Ill., received 3 to 8 inches of snow. It closed schools, created slippery roads and stranded motorists in portions of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois...

Cape Girardeau's Board of Education Monday night moved a step closer to a 10-year, multiphase master plan by deciding to ask voters for a 69-cent tax increase April 1. The board approved three measures that will be placed on the April 1 ballot. Voters will be asked to approve the sale of $14 million in bonds to fund construction projects that include a new vocational school and new elementary school. Retirement of those bonds is estimated to cost 30 cents per $100 assessed valuation...

My life is cluttered with bloopers, blunders and a lot of stupid remarks. I wonder if Bill Daley plans to go back and re-write that old high school essay about his most embarrassing moment now. Daley is the Chicago lawyer who took a tumble at President Clinton's news conference last week, lunging forward off the stage minutes after he was picked to head the Commerce Department. Apparently he fainted...

CHAFFEE -- Graveside service for Ruth Inez Bryant of Chaffee will be held at 2 p.m. today at Union Park Cemetery. The Rev. William H. Marshall will officiate. There is no visitation. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel at Chaffee is in charge of arrangements...

Ruby Franks, 92, a resident of Cape Girardeau and former resident of East Prairie, died Monday, Dec. 16, 1996, at the Chateau Girardeau Health Care Center after an extended illness. Arrangements are incomplete at Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie.

CHAFFEE -- Billy Gene Goodman, 68, of Chaffee died Sunday, Dec. 15, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born March 7, 1928, at Arbor, son of Theodore Roosevelt "Ted" and Mattie Cook Goodman. He and Dorothy Louise Rhodes were married March 31, 1950. She died Aug. 23, 1987...

BLOOMFIELD -- Leonard Baker, 77, of Bloomfield died Sunday, Dec. 15, 1996, at Dexter Memorial Hospital in Dexter. He was born July 31, 1919, in Jasper, Ark., son of John Levi and Dora Bell Torex Baker. He and Delpha Juanita Holford were married Feb. 14, 1946, in Manila, Ark. She died Feb. 12, 1963...

MATTHEWS -- Funeral service for Robert Lee "R.L." Rodgers of Matthews will be held at 1 p.m. today at Watkins and Sons Funeral Home in Morehouse. The Rev. Don Heitman will officiate, with burial in Hobbs Chapel Cemetery near Puxico. Rodgers, 93, died Sunday, Dec. 15, 1996, near Morehouse...

BLODGETT -- Gale Riley, 60, of Blodgett died Sunday, Dec. 15, 1996, at his home. He was born Feb. 14, 1936, at Blodgett, son of R.R. and Annie Laura Oldham Riley. He and Patricia Holtermann were married Aug. 20, 1961. She died Jan. 7, 1994. Riley owned a Union 76 service station in Wasco, Calif., moving back to Blodgett in 1985...

CAIRO, Ill. -- James P. Sweet, 78, of Cairo died Sunday, Dec. 15, 1996, at Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services in Cape Girardeau, Mo. He was born Nov. 4, 1918, in New Madird, son of Virgil and Tressa Ellen Blake Sweet. Sweet retired as a machinist with Lockheed Aircraft Corp. He was a member of Cairo United Pentecostal Church. He served in the U.S. Army durng World War II...

Daughter to Jeffrey Alan and Tina Marie Scherer, Benton Route 1, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 2:33 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, 1996. Name, Kaylee Ann. Weight, 9 pounds 3 ounces. First child. Mrs. Scherer is the former Tina Asmus, daughter of Alfred and Sally Asmus of Oran. She is daycare director at Kid's World in Benton. Scherer is the son of Vernon and Judy Scherer of Benton. He is a parts man at Baker Implement in Cape Girardeau...

Nellie M. Schwepker, 90, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Dec. 16, 1996, at the Lutheran Home. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Hazel A. Piper, 91, of Cape Girardeau, died Monday, Dec. 16, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born March 19, 1905, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of William and Mattie F. Criddle Estes. She and Herbert Piper were married Oct. 25, 1935, at Crump. He died Feb. 16, 1981...

'Tis the season for giving, except when it comes to taxes. Most taxpayers aren't in any rush to pay their taxes. Most will wait until after Christmas. About 80 percent of the taxes in Cape Girardeau County are paid the last week of the year, said Harold Kuehle, county collector...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- John R. Reynolds, 79, of Jonesboro died Monday, Dec. 16, 1996. He was born July 19, 1917, in Reynoldsville, the son of John and Eleanore Elizabeth Reynolds. He married Carra L. Cooper on Jan. 24, 1954, in Ware, and she preceded him in death on July 31, 1974...