Out of the past: Feb. 4

2000

​It may soon be a crime for people to leave trash, used tires, scrap metal or other rubbish on their land; the Cape Girardeau County Commission is considering an ordinance that would police litter- and junk-filled land; violators would be fined or even jailed.

Motorcycle Demolition Derby, as crazy as it sounds, will be featured at the Monster Truck Challenge and Thrill Show this evening at the Show Me Center; monster truck and quad races are also on the bill, which will be repeated tomorrow night.

1975

​Cape Girardeau, already designated a U.S. bicentennial community, may have another one inside the city limits; Southeast Missouri State University wants to be designated an official bicentennial community, too, and a committee of students, faculty and administrators has been formed with that goal in mind; chairman of the committee is Dr. Charles Wiles, director of field services at the university.

A big stumbling block in Cape Girardeau’s attempt to gain a lower fire insurance rating is the deficiency in its water supply for firefighting purposes, city manager W.G. Lawley tells the City Council; Lawley adds he will report on bids for the proposed purchase of two new fire trucks at tomorrow’s council meeting.

1950

​Utility and telephone service isn’t yet up to normal, but both the Missouri Utilities Commission and Southeast Missouri Telephone Co. report that rapid strides are being made in recovery from the most damaging ice storm in Cape Girardeau’s history; and while power and telephone crews, given good weather yesterday, advanced in their struggle to restore power, city workers are making headway in clearing streets, sidewalks and parkways of broken trees and limbs.

Approximately 30 persons are in attendance in the morning at the baseball clinic being held at the Arena Building, and more are expected for the afternoon session; the meeting is sponsored by organized baseball leagues and amateur organizations; Dutch Zwilling of the New York Yankees and Walter Shannon of the St. Louis Cardinals are directing the clinic, which includes lectures, movies and demonstrations of the best baseball techniques.

1925

​Cape Girardeau voters yesterday expressed themselves in favor of greatly extending the limits of the city in three directions and adopted a new set of boundary lines proposed by the City Council; about one-third of the estimated voting population of the city cast ballots; the final tally was 920 for the extension and 414 against; the favorable vote means Cape Girardeau has 6 1/2 square miles of territory within its boundaries, compared to 3 square miles previously; the town’s population grew from 16,000 to 18,000.

The Cape Girardeau County Court, sitting at Jackson yesterday, refused to appropriate $1,000 to assist in carrying on the work of the Farm Bureau in this county for the coming year; action was similar to that taken two years ago, when the allowance was cut off, after assistance had been given the Farm Bureau a number of years.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.