Out of the past 5/4/06

25 years ago: May 4, 1981

A committee that analyzed the bids for a bus system in Cape Girardeau will recommend this week that the city council reject bids and that alternate transit system plans be developed; two bids for one-year contracts for a fixed-route bus system were submitted, one by Rustman Bus Co. of St. Louis for $457,123, and the other from R.W. Harmon and Sons Inc., of Belton, Mo., for about $270,000.

Construction is expected to begin soon on a new Cape Girardeau County Park building to be located behind the maintenance shed at the County Farm Park; the two-story, metal building will include an office upstairs and storage space downstairs.

50 years ago: May 4, 1956

Brothers of the Brush, an organization devoted to growing facial whiskers, was formally constituted last night, and with the greatest ceremony tomorrow, members will lay to rest Rusty D. Razor for the duration of the Cape Girardeau's sesquicentennial celebration.

Shooting matches, which earlier had been listed with bingo, automobile raffles and similar contests as lotteries, are removed from the list of prohibited activities by Prosecuting Attorney Stephen N. Limbaugh following a ruling by the state attorney general's office.

75 years ago: May 4, 1931

A proposal to build a gasoline filling station on a lot just east of the Broadway School has been abandoned as far as the Continental Oil Co. is concerned; J.B. Dickey, local agent, says the company withdrew its interest in the location as soon as it was found the firm was unable to secure a permit for building on the lot.

The working force on the site of the new Missouri Utilities Co. plant at Cape Rock increases to 50 men and 20 teams; this force will be augmented later in the week when construction on other phases of the project get underway.

100 years ago: May 4, 1906

George Thomas, a lineman for the telephone company, falls 20 feet from a telephone pole near the corner of Broadway and Ellis and is rendered unconscious; he is hurried to the hospital; no bones are broken, and he soon recovers.

Special action by the Cape Girardeau Real Estate Co. guarantees the Liberty Buggy Co. will be relocating to Cape Girardeau; the real estate company, learning that Liberty representatives couldn't find a suitable site for the factory, decides to increase its capital and build a new building to accommodate the new plant on South Spanish Street, just south of the Klostermann building.

-- Sharon K. Sanders