1997

State transportation officials and highway planners hope to gather public input tomorrow on two major road projects affecting Cape Girardeau County; planners have narrowed possible corridors for expansion and improvements to Highways 34 and 72 to five choices; separate plans for a new route on Highways 25 and 74 southwest of Cape Girardeau also will be discussed; the informational meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau.

An explosion in the number of prisoners at Cape Girardeau County Jail and the need to house them elsewhere is causing budget problems for the jail; with approximately $80,000 budgeted for food and board for 1997, the jail spent more than $127,050 in that area through September -- about $50,000 over budget with three months left in the year; however, the jail is not experiencing a financial crisis; Sheriff John Jordan said savings have been found in other areas to offset the food and board costs.

1972

Braving the cold, crisp air that registered 38 degrees on the thermometer, an estimated 500 persons last night attended opening ceremonies on the First National Bank parking lot for the three-day celebration of Cape Girardeau's downtown white way lighting system; R.E.L. Lamkin of the Buckner-Ragsdale Co., who has spent 65 years in business, threw the switch to turn on the decorative and larger luminaries along Water, Main and Spanish streets, as well as cross streets of Broadway, Merriwether, Independence and Themis.

An incident two days ago in Common Pleas Courthouse Park that resulted in a charge of climbing on public property against a member of a Southeast Missouri State University fraternity has been ironed out through a little understanding; City Attorney A. Robert Pierce Jr. says he has dismissed the charge against the Pi Kappa Alpha member, who was accused of climbing on the Union soldier statue at the entrance to the park; the fraternity had assembled around the statue for a group picture when the arrest was made.

1947

Suggestions begin coming in in response to the City Plan Commission's request for suggested names for Fairground Park and the unnamed new city park on Highway 61; H.O. Grauel, a member of the English faculty at State College, suggests "Field Park" for the 10-year-old park in honor of Eugene Field, a Missouri poet, as well as Truman Park, Kings Highway Park, Mark Twain Park, Arena Park and Armory Park; for Fairground Park, Grauel suggests Civic Center, Broadway Park, Boulevard Park, People's Park.

Formal notices sent last week to the city and to defendants in the post office case by the federal government, notifying them of the formal Declaration of Taking of the Courthouse Park location for the new Federal Building, were in error in demanding immediate possession, says City Attorney R.P. Smith; he says when the formal declaration was filed in Federal Court last month, the paragraph calling for immediate possession was stricken out, because the government didn't need, or seek, immediate possession of the property; numerous legal angles need to be worked out before that phase of the case will be necessary, says Smith.

1922

It appears that 200 men of the Missouri National Guard from Southeast Missouri, stationed at Moberly and New Franklin, are in for "a winter's stay" at those locations; Col. Warren L. Mabrey, commander of the 140th Infantry, announces permanent barracks are being built at Moberly for the men; they are being constructed in the railroad yards, separating the yards from the remainder of the town; the men are on constant duty and sometimes are called into the city when strikers attack the homes of men employed by the railroad.

Nov. 29 has been selected by the Lions Club as the date when the cabin being erected by members of Troop 2 of the Boy Scouts will be completed; the build site is on Cape Rock; all Cape Girardeau Boy Scouts will be offered use of the new cabin, when it is finished.

-- Sharon K. Sanders