Out of the past: Jan. 2

2000

Perry and Cape Girardeau counties are among the top 25 counties in Missouri regarding the welfare of children, while the Bootheel countries of Pemiscot, Mississippi and Dunklin remain among the worst for children for another year; such are the findings of the annual Kids Count Missouri report recently released by Citizens for Missouri’s Children, a St. Louis-based advocacy group.

The 2000 budget includes millions of dollars for infrastructure improvements that will keep the City of Jackson busy in the coming year; plans and bids on the city’s wastewater and water system improvements are expected in the first quarter of the year; the record $18 million budget includes $3.6 million in money the project qualified for from the State Revolving Loan Program; the city is also upgrading its electrical system this year with new transformers and substation.

1975

Mrs. E. Lawrence Bahn Jr. of Cape Girardeau and a member of First Presbyterian Church has been elected chairman of the 12-member board of directors of the newly formed, independent and not-for-profit Cape Retirement Community, which has proven a retirement center is feasible for the Cape Girardeau area; she has been extremely active on the feasibility study for the retirement center, sponsored by First Presbyterian; other officers elected to the 1975 board of directors are vice president, Charles E. Knote; secretary, C.E. Bohnsack, and treasurer, Paul B. Louiseu.

Donald L. Sale, superintendent of the Cape Girardeau waste management program says the city sanitation department will pick up discarded Christmas trees during a one-day free pickup at the curb lines on Jan. 8; the trees will be hauled to the city landfill site, where they will be reduced to chips; eventually, the chips will be made available to residents for mulch.

1950

The fifth annual invitational basketball tournament, sponsored by College High School, closed Saturday night at the Arena Building with the crowning of a new champion; Sikeston High Bulldogs turned the trick in the final game by defeating the Oran Eagles, 42 to 37; College High won the honors last year, Deadwood was champion in 1947, and Flat River won in 1945 and 1946.

A two-story frame building at 416 Bellevue St., reportedly more than 80 years old, is been razed to make way for a three-story, brick apartment building; Mike Shaltupsky, owner, is having the building torn down and will construct the apartment; he says work on the six-family apartment house will get underway as soon as weather permits, possibly March 1.

1925

Cape Girardeau motorists are paying 17.6 cents per gallon for average test gasoline, as the state road tax of 2 cents per gallon went into effect with the new year; the tax, approved by voters in the last election, will help speed up highway construction work in Missouri; it’s expected to produce revenue for the state road system at the rate of about $4,000,000 annually.

CHARLESTON – Taking the part of an Eskimo in a rural school Christmas program, George Albert Goodin, 8, is dead from burns received when his costume caught fire from a lighted candle knocked from a Christmas tree; the accident, which occurred at the Goodin home on Christmas Eve, was witnessed by dozens of persons in the room, who were unable to reach the youngster before he was fatally burned.

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.