Out of the past 1/7/10

25 years ago: Jan. 7, 1985

Prosecuting attorney Larry Ferrell is considering asking Presiding Circuit Judge A.J. Seier to establish a standing grand jury that would serve as an investigative tool and speed up the judicial process.

Elton Mirley of New Wells is appointed to the Cape Girardeau County Planning Commission by the County Commissioners; Mirley will assume the spot formerly held by Charles Englehardt.

50 years ago: Jan. 7, 1960

Completion of the floodwall to protect businesses in the Main Street Levee Improvement District is expected in six to eight weeks, only two remaining parts of the concrete wall remain to be poured.

Cape Girardeau lawyer Stephen N. Limbaugh has been elected by the board of directors to serve as president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce in 1960.

75 years ago: Jan. 7, 1935

Installation of an electric traffic signal light at the intersection of highways 61 and 74 is completed in the afternoon by the State Highway Department; the department decided to install the light, which operates day and night, because of recent motor car accidents there.

The Red Cross sewing room, which for several months operated in the McBride Building, has been moved back to the bank room of the H.-H. Building; Myrtle Knepper is in charge of the room, where 20 women work, 10 at a time, on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; they receive 30 cents per hour through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

100 years ago: Jan. 7, 1910

Officials with the Kettle Rivers Quarry Co., which is paving Cape Girardeau's main streets, warn the city's firefighters to sleep lightly and prophesy more fires in the town; they say people are carrying away creosoted wood blocks by the sackload at nights and are using them to fire their stoves; the blocks provide plenty of heat, but the creosote causes stove pipes and flues to choke with pitch-like tar soot, which catches fire easily.

Plans are made to secure the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for a concert in Cape Girardeau on Jan. 31; 70 people are asked to sell 10 tickets each to raise the required $700 for the concert.

-- Sharon K. Sanders