1999

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education yesterday unanimously agreed to ask voters in 2000 to approve an $18 million bond issue without a tax increase and a separate tax-levy hike to make staff salaries competitive; the board will decide before the end of January when and in what order to present the issues to voters in two separate elections.

Columbia Sportswear Co. plans to close its Chaffee plant next spring; employees were told of the closure yesterday; representatives from the company’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon, say the closure is a move to reduce costs and enhance operating efficiency; the Chaffee facility employs about 185 persons.

1974

Lt. William W. Stover has definite ideas on how the Cape Girardeau Police Department should be run, and today, as interim chief, he begins to implement some of those ideas; during his six-week term as chief, Stover says he will establish a chain of command, begin a Saturday training program for the entire force and standardize equipment and uniforms used by the men; although the training sessions and chain of command aren’t new ideas, he says they need to be written down and enforced.

A grant of $1,256,589 has been made to the Charleston Housing Authority through the Department of Housing and Urban Development for construction of 50 additional units of public housing under the turnkey program; the units will be built on six different sites in a seven-acre area in the western part of the city north of Marshall Street.

1949

Cape Girardeau has 24 blocks of newly surfaced streets, the result of the first mass effort by city officials to bring back into condition time-worn thoroughfares or others that were at the verge of deterioration; the city plans to continue the work next summer, until all streets have been reconditioned.

With construction work on the $75,000 annex to the Baptist Foundation Building at 465 N. Pacific St. past the half-way mark, officials of the institution announce next week will be “Foundation Week”, and people of the community will be asked to help fund the building’s completion; when construction began in April, the Foundation had $28,000 in the building fund, and since then four houses gifted the institution by Lulu M. Fluhrer have been sold; it is estimated the Foundation had about $45,000 to apply to the build, but still needs $25,000 to complete it.

1924

In light of the $60,000 mail robbery at Crystal City on Monday and the recent large number of bank hold-ups in Southern Illinois, Cape Girardeau authorities have been spurred to greater vigilance and steps are being taken to protect this city from such lawlessness; local banks are working with police and county officials to devise plans to protect funds, especially in transit from the banks to the post office or railroad station; additional officers may be added as guards, while bank clerks may be armed and police guards maintained where unusually large amounts of money are being moved.

The Missouri Public Service Commission orders the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad to immediately resume switching service at its terminal here, or it “will be the duty of the commission to begin proceedings against you” at once; Clarence L. Grant, receiver for the line, says he will resume switching here as soon as the only locomotive, taken from service by a U.S. inspector last week, is repaired.

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.