Out of the past 1/3/03

10 years ago: Jan. 3, 1993

Cape Girardeau City Council is expected to decide Monday whether to hold special election on issue of riverboat gambling in Cape Girardeau; although Missouri voters in November approved riverboat gambling in state, municipalities and counties must approve measure locally if they intend to have a "floating casino."

Mid-America Teen Challenge hopes to raise $250,000 to build chapel and multiuse facility; organization will kick off its first-ever capital campaign Tuesday, according to Jack Smart, executive director of Teen Challenge; Teen Challenge is non-profit religious program designed to help people with drug and alcohol problems.

25 years ago: Jan. 3, 1978

Cairo, Ill. -- James Williams' ambulance service gets new lease on life with transfusion of $45,000 from state Department of Transportation; Williams had threatened to close his Multi-County Ambulance Service if state or federal government didn't come to his aid; he said company, which serves 37,000 people in Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties, was faced with $40,000 in bills and $51,000 in customers' unpaid bills.

Investigators from Cape Girardeau Police Department, Illinois Division of Investigation and FBI meet in all-day session to review course of investigation into August killings of Mrs. Floyd E. Parsh and her daughter, Brenda Kay Parsh, and November killing of Sheila Ellen Cole.

50 years ago: Jan. 3, 1953

Deputy city assessors, working under direction of City Assessor W.C. Blair, Monday will begin their annual house-to-house canvass of city to determine 1953 personal property values from which taxes will be determined for collection next fall.

Cape Girardeau has record of 450 consecutive days without automobile fatality; city passed through 1952 without single traffic death, although there were 435 street accidents investigated by police; last traffic death occurred here on Oct. 11, 1951; prior to that, there had been no fatality for 1,175 days -- since July 24, 1948.

75 years ago: Jan. 3, 1928

Cape Girardeau is in grip of coldest weather in two years, as blizzard that brought suffering to wide area rides out fourth day of its terrific onslaught; only slight moderation is evident today, with temperature early in day failing to reach minimum of 5 degrees below zero recorded Sunday morning; mercury at its lowest point is zero.

Sub-zero weather of past three days has cost Cape Girardeau automobile owners thousands of dollars in frozen radiators, clogged oiling systems and burst motor blocks in their cars; more than 1,200 autos were pulled in by wreckers from garages, while countless numbers of others developed minor troubles which were either adjusted by their owners, or left in safety of private garages.

-- Sharon K. Sanders