Out of the past: Feb. 7

2000

Saturday was work day, one of several scheduled by House of Hope Church to prepare the old May Greene School building for a “Super Saturday” program Feb. 12 and the first House of Hope service there Feb. 13; the church is currently conducting services at 1148 S. Sprigg St., a few blocks southwest of the old school in a building that will go on the sales block as soon as May Greene is ready.

John Ferguson, who has served as Cape Girardeau County public administrator for the past 11 years, will seek a fourth four-year term in office; he is the third Republican candidate to announce his candidacy for the post, the others being Phyllis Schwab of Jackson and Ken Bryan of Cape Girardeau.

1975

Corrections officials have expressed interest in paying Cape Girardeau County to board short-term state and federal prisoners in the county’s proposed minimum security jail, if it is built near the Interstate 55-Highway 61 interchange between Cape Girardeau and Jackson; Sheriff Ivan E. McLain says federal jail inspectors have followed the county’s jail controversy closely in the hope the County Court would follow through with original plans to build near the interchange.

The need for acute care hospital beds in Cape Girardeau to serve both Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois over the next five years will be taken before representatives of the Missouri Division of Health at a meeting tentatively scheduled for Wednesday at Jefferson City; members of the Cape Girardeau Area Health Council will confer with state officials, taking them a study showing the area’s needs; the study, a year in the making, concludes Cape Girardeau hospitals will have a minimum need of 94 more acute care hospital beds in the next three to five years.

1950

A legal point stands in the way of final location of the Future Farmers of America building proposed as an addition to permanent SEMO District Fair facilities at Arena Park; the fair board has asked the city to lease it four acres of land on which that building and possible future structures could be located; however, city attorney Albert M. Spradling speared the proposal with a legal harpoon, asking, “Can you make a fairground out of a city park?”; voter-approved bonds purchased the original park acreage, where it has been suggested the FFA building would be constructed, rather than on additional property purchased nearby by the fair board.

A unanimous decision favoring holding the annual Homecomers on the streets of Jackson, as has been done in the many years of the past, was given the American Legion last night by the Jackson City Council; for two weeks the council had withheld the decision pending verbal questioning of business men and some other residents; all terms of last year’s agreement will be extended to the Legion again.

1925

B.A. Hunze, farmer in South Cape Girardeau, says that while going over his wheat field he discovered what appears to be a break in the sanitary sewer line from the West End Sewer District; he says there is a hole 12 feet in width, and the cave-in apparently happened some time ago; the break is a short distance south of the Houck hill, where a defect appeared last summer and was corrected after several weeks work.

Dennis Scivally, resident engineer for the State Highway Commission, reports the $150,000 bridge spanning the floodway on Kingshighway, south of Cape Girardeau, will be completed within less than six weeks; the three spans over the diversion channel proper have been swung into place, the piers completed and all that is needed to finish this section of the long bridge is the pouring of concrete on the roadway and painting of the beams.

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.