Out of the past 7/14/11

25 years ago: July 14, 1986

Cape Girardeau is hiring two new dispatchers as a prelude to the merging of the communications departments of the police and fire departments.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Environmental tests conducted at the site of the former Illada Energy oil reclamation plant near Gale, Ill., indicates there may be some contamination of the groundwater and soil by a toxic metal.

50 years ago: July 14, 1961

LUTESVILLE, Mo. -- A recently organized firm, Woodland Products Corp., outlines plans to utilize the forest resources of this heavily wooded area in the region's newest industrial enterprise; the 49-acre site three miles west of Glenallen, Mo., on Highway 34 is being prepared for the operation, which will cut posts of various dimensions and impregnate them with weatherproof solutions for construction and farm use.

On the basis of news service reports of the distribution of federal funds under an anti-pollution bill passed today by the Senate, Cape Girardeau would receive $554,400 to apply against the cost of the disposal plant and system voted Tuesday by residents.

75 years ago: July 14, 1936

In a long session at the Chamber of Commerce building last night, made uncomfortable by the heat, members of a special committee seeking a substitute for a proposed city occupational tax ordinance discussed the institution of a $1 auto and truck driver's license.

The H.-H. Building, erected in 1906 and 1907, is being modernized; the huge, overhanging coping is being torn from all around the top of the five-story office building; it will be replaced by a brick wall with a stone coping; Gerhardt Construction Co. is doing the work.

100 years ago: July 14, 1911

Otto Vogt, barber at the Commercial Shop on Main Street, is off on a two-week vacation and C.E. Bridges of St. Louis is here to take his place; later, as other Cape Girardeau barbers take vacations, Bridges will substitute for them as well.

J. DeKofsky, general manager of the National Woolen Mills, takes a lease on the room recently occupied by the Singer sewing machine company on Main Street; he expects to open a tailoring establishment there early in August.

-- Sharon K. Sanders