Out of the past 1/4/03

10 years ago: Jan. 4, 1993

Rare mayoral race between 11-term Mayor Carlton Meyer and Ward 1 Alderman Paul Sander will likely highlight this spring's Jackson municipal election; Sander, who is completing his third term as alderman, will announce Tuesday whether he will seek seat held by Meyer for 22 years.

Dinner theater company that planned to begin presenting musicals and plays in Cape Girardeau by spring probably won't open theater here at all in 1993; Dick McHargue, Hannibal dinner theater owner who last April announced plans to open Mark Twain Dinner Theater in Cape Girardeau, says project is on hold.

25 years ago: Jan. 4, 1978

Special session of city council to discuss proposed bus transit system is planned for next week, with recently prepared staff report creating concern among councilmen because it indicates subsidy costs will far exceed first estimates; initial estimate by Department of Transportation put annual cost of system at $37,000; however, department's revised figure is $79,900.

City Park Supt. Robert E. Gass, responding to unofficial reports of children playing on partial ice cover on Capaha Park lagoon, warns that ice isn't safe; in fact, ice hasn't yet formed thick enough cover to be measured for safety, Gass says; city's policy on lagoon requires 4 1/2-inch ice cover before pond is declared safe for skating.

50 years ago: Jan. 4, 1953

Dr. Asa Barnes, Louisville, Ky., physician, while visiting his mother, Mrs. Emma Latimer of Cape Girardeau, relates fate of former steamer Cape Girardeau; sternwheeler, lately called Gordon C. Greene, left Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 30 for Portsmouth, Ohio, where it will be tied up and used as hotel-boat by Pike County atomic-plant workers; boat was built at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1923.

Zalma - Voters of Reorganized School District R-5 will ballot Jan. 20 on proposed $60,000 bond issue to build new high school; if bond issue carries, district will receive about $50,000 in aid from state to help construct new building.

75 years ago: Jan. 4, 1928

Dedication ceremonies for new Southeast Missouri Hospital, marking opening of new building, are planned for Sunday; doors of building will be open to public at 1 p.m. and program will begin at 2 p.m.; Dr. B.A. Wilkes, president of Midwest Hospital Association and superintendent of Missouri Baptist Sanitarium of St. Louis, will deliver principal address.

Cape Girardeau and district feel slight relief from zero-degree weather of past four days, but temperature is still below normal; minimum temperature of 7 degrees above zero is registered early in morning, but this is seven degrees higher than lowest mark of yesterday, when mercury sank to zero.

-- Sharon K. Sanders