Stories from Monday, June 2, 1997

You won't find Gad's Hill in the Atlas. You won't even find it in the Blue Book of Missouri, which lists Missouri cities. It's not on the Missouri state map. But there is a Gad's Hill. Telephone operators know where it is, historians know of its where-abouts, and GS Roofing Products knows about it...

Michelle King spent one night at Trisha's Bed & Breakfast, and now she'd rather stay at a bed and breakfast than a motel anytime. The St. Louisan and her husband spent a night in April in the restored 1905 Victorian house in Jackson when her husband came to preach at a local church. "We were there for a new experience, because we heard they were better than motels," King said...

Peters Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. of Cape Girardeau has received the Eagle Pride Award for being a Top 10 Amana dealer for Peoria Distributors of Quality Inc. Herman Peters, John Peters and Gary Peters have attended the PDQ annual Amana dealer meeting at Peoria...

The T-Shirt Shop opened recently in Scott City at 581 Main St. The new business will sell and print designs on T-shirts. The business, owned by Amy Watkins, is open Monday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday noon to 4...

Spartech Corp. has announced a significant increase in its results for the second quarter, ending May 3. Net earnings for the second quarter were $6.7 million, or 24 cents per share, a 40 percent increase from the $4.8 million, or 19 cents per share, reported during the same period last year. Sales were up 32 percent, from $98.3 million during the 1996 second quarter, to $129.8 million...

"Understanding Wage Garnishments" and "The Fair Labors Standards Act" are topics of a workshop July 8 in Cape Girardeau. The daylong seminar, sponsored by Associated Industries of Missouri, will begin registration at 8:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn. David Porter, a Kansas City attorney and associate in the labor and employment law practice group of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosental, will conduct the workshop...

Elite Travel Inc., 354 S. Silver Springs Road, has added Rand McNally Tripmate software to its services. Tripmate offers information on local and national attractions, lodges, and detailed maps.

Lorimont Place Ltd. lists a number of commercial, industrial and development properties on its new on-line website. Featured on the website, said Tom Kelsey, broker for the real estate brokerage company, is information on Lorimont Place, Six-Thirty Industrial Park, Mount Auburn Corporate Park and Warren Place Subdivision at Jackson...

Dana Corp. will display parts and products made at the Cape Girardeau facility at a booth during the June 13 and 14 Riverfest. Also on display will be an overview and history of the company. Dana is one of the corporate sponsors of the two-day, downtown celebration. Giveaways will be presented to visitors who stop by the Dana booth...

Ken Oberlohr and Taylor Dial have joined American Family Insurance and will occupy offices at 2256 Kingsway. Oberlohr, a Doniphan native, attended Southeast Missouri State University. He has worked for American Family in the financial services department in St. Louis for eight years...

Union Planters Corp., a $15 billion Memphis-based bank holding company, has announced an agreement to buy Magna Bancorp Inc., a $1.3 billion asset parent company of Magnolia Federal Bank For Savings. The agreement calls for Union Planters to exchange .5165 shares of common stock for each common share of Magna. The transaction would be valued at about $323 million, or $23.50 per share based on Union Planters' closing stock price of $45.50 when the pact was announced...

A steady rain Sunday did little to help the area dry out after a massive storm Friday night dumped as much as 5 inches of rain on some parts of Bollinger County. Twelve Bollinger County houses had to be evacuated because of flooding Saturday morning. Marble Hill also reported the worst flooding in the area since 1982...

PIEDMONT -- Piedmont is open for business "The table is set and we're ready for the feast," says Piedmont Mayor Gaylon Watson, who worked the past three years to help this Ozark foothills community overcome an industrial disaster in April 1994. At that time, Brown Shoe Factory closed, eliminating more than 400 jobs...

In April 1994, the Brown Shoe Co. closed its Piedmont factory and 400 people lost their jobs. At one time in 1994, almost a fourth of the community's work force was without jobs. The economic outlook for Piedmont, population 2,400, is brighter these days. Some new industries have moved into the community, and the town has received four major grants for industry infrastructure, housing and other improvements...

Proposed pay raises for Cape Girardeau's firefighters and police officers are not what they seem, say officers of the local union that represents the city's firefighters. Although the city has guaranteed that every city employee will receive pay raises, the proposed 1997-98 salary schedule actually calls for pay decreases for some places on the salary schedule. In addition, a new way of figuring vacation pay could cost firefighters as much as $580 a year, union officials said...

I went to visit Linda the other day, which of course means visiting her garden. Linda is a practical gardener; everything she grows out in the neatly-tilled plot behind her house is put to use. A few clusters of sweet William and phlox scattered around the yard and a rosebush or two are there strictly "for pretty," as she says, but the rest winds up sold or canned or dried for use later...

CONGRATULATIONS to Sen. Kinder on a job well done. I WOULD just like to know: If it is wrong for Southeast Missouri State University to be the Indians or to use the name Otahkians, how can the city dare to name their community center the Osage Centre? That seems to be an affront to the British as well. We are just insulting people all over the place...

The sentencing last week of a Buffalo, N.Y., man in connection with a telemarketing scheme through which an elderly Cape Girardeau woman was swindled of between $8,000 and $9,000 should warn the unsuspecting to be beware of unsolicited telephone offers...

The Cape Girardeau County Commission recently found itself in disagreement when it sought an engineer to design a new bridge on County Road 351 southwest of Millersville. The commission hired Smith and Co. of Poplar Bluff to do the engineering work, and that prompted the presiding county commissioner, Gerald Jones, to raise questions about giving the job to an out-of-county contractor...

To the editor: The article entitles "Sisters" in the May 27 Missourian caught my eye immediately, stirring my emotions and my sentiments and arousing much inner thought. I am a twin, an identical twin, not necessarily or altogether in looks but in genes. ...

CHARLESTON -- Build the thing already. That's how some Mississippi County residents feel about the recent controversy surrounding the county courthouse, which burned on Feb. 10. Mississippi County Commissioners recently decided to raze the remains of the original courthouse in preparation for a new structure, despite pressure to preserve the old building from a group of residents led by former state Rep. Betty Hearnes...

The possible return of American black bears is among the changes visitors to Missouri state parks can look forward to. Tiffani Addington, a park seasonal naturalist, gave a presentation about the bears Saturday at Trail of Tears State Park. She said a reintroduction of the bears into Arkansas has been spilling over to Missouri recently...

Twelve awards in year No. 12. That is what the Schultz Paw staff found when they opened their packet from the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association's Awards Day at the University of Missouri-Columbia in April. Overall, the Schultz paper received the MIPA's highest honor, All-Missouri...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "How do you feel about roadside memorials?" Eugene Holloway, Cape Girardeau "My thought is when I see them ... I think golly, somebody got killed there. It really doesn't bother me at all. I don't see anything wrong with it necessarily."...

Laura Lukens had high hopes entering the Missouri Class 4A State Track and Field Championships over the weekend. But the Cape Girardeau Central High School standout might have surprised even herself with the eye-popping performances she turned in at Dwight T. Reed Stadium in Jefferson City...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The Cape Girardeau Kohlfeld Capahas finally played again Sunday as they beat the host Memphis Sox 8-4. A second scheduled game, against the Memphis Royals, was rained out in the fifth inning with the teams tied 2-2. The Capahas (2-0) had not played since opening the season May 23. They had nine scheduled games rained out since then...

Juanita Medcalf Sommer, 85, of Lutz, Fla., formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday, May 31, 1997, in St. Petersburg, Fla. She was born Jan. 23, 1912, in Bell City, daughter of Clarence and Nellie May Sitz Medcalf. She married Dr. Conrad Sommer. She was a 1933 graduate of State Teachers College in Cape Girardeau...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Hattie Chapman, 93, of East Prairie died Saturday, May 31, 1997, at the East Prairie Nursing Center. She was born Feb. 15, 1904, in Mississippi County, daughter of John and Georgia Ann Willis Anderson. She was a member of the First Church of God and was retired from the Prairie Manufacturing Co. in East Prairie...

ANNA, Ill. -- Lela Jerolds Christmas, 91, of Anna, Ill., died Saturday May 31, 1997, at City Care Center in Cobden. She was born Aug. 3, 1905, in Union County, Ill., daughter of Roy and Julia Mann Bloodworth. She married Benard Jerolds on Aug. 6, 1922, and he preceded her in death on Dec. 31, 1939. She married Simon Christmas on Sept. 27, 1941, and he preceded her in death on Jan. 18, 1964...

Cape Girardeau City Council Monday June 2, 1997 Public Hearings: -- The request of William O.L. and Patricia A. Seabaugh Trust and LaCroix Meadows Business Park, L.L.C. to rezone a tract of land in the 2500 block of Boutin Drive from R-1 single family residential to C-3, central business district...

Scott County Glennon Dirnberger and James and Linda Taylor to Eric and Sherry Urhahn, et al.; Lucille Schmitt to James and Irmgard Chronister; Carolyn Hunsaker to James Myers; Margaret and Jack Hawkins to Sheila Evans; William and Janie Kaiser to Robert Urban; Patricia Robison to Laura Little; William and Barbara Sikes to William and Barbara Sikes; Barbara Calhoun to Donald and Brenda Calhoun Jr.; Scott Smith to Leetta Thompson; Glenda Robison to Thomas Smith; Dale and Helen Strickland to Robert and Ann Roy; Dortha White to Cindy Wilson; Wilford and Helen Urhahn to Daniel and Brenda Dumey.. ...

Twenty-one people graduated Sunday night from the Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing. They were awarded their Associate of Applied Science in Nursing degrees at the Holiday Inn's Convention Center. A few were singled out for individual awards as well...

JACKSON -- Troy E. Hartle, 84, of Jackson died Saturday, May 31, 1997, at the Missouri Veterans Home. Arrangements are incomplete at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home in Jackson.