April 29, 2012
REGION
Local winner
Page 9C
Page 5C
BABY STEPS
KRISTEN PIND
~ kpind@semissouria
n.com
as daddy down a slide Cooper slidingside watching. stands to the
Spring brings home a stinky little boy the appeared in originally This column a monthly digital magazine To sign up Flourish ezine, Missourian. in print Flourish from the Southeast or to receive times a year, go for the ezine four urian. to www.semisso /subcom/flourish cellisscribe or email .com. semissourian fever, I have spring it! no doubt about never With winter up really showing my fill me giving and kind of of snow, we RISTEN IND early hit springtime are of our windowsbeginhouse. All the since off in the Pind has been flowers open; the heat and the trees and ning of March, are in bloom. Cooper was just beginning rolling around Last spring person, and little seeing, feeling to be his own rollie pollie, first time. Now he like a little for the yard and across the tasting everything or sprinting It is only the first is running been everything. getting into and we have already we week of April many times to count, work, too to the park almost every night after with play outside almost all day outside and he spends that I Grandma. until this spring but a It really wasn’t is no longer a baby, baby ing anymore, realized my is a isn’t sweet-smell smiley. He toddler. He en todcuddly and and he isn’t us, attitude-riddalready twos have stinky, rambunctio the terrible dler! I think and sweaty begun! every night He is too He comes home his fingernails. anymore, with dirt under love on Mommy and Daddy busy to kiss wrestle with pose for d ld prefer to
K
All-Missourian
C
HOME SHOWCASE of 2012.
Page 4C
A $5 million winning Missouri Lottery ticket reportedly was purchased in Cape Girardeau. Page 5A
29, 2012 • SECTION
GOOD TIMES Russ Gospel singer a Taff will performin benefit concert 4. Jackson May
DR. GROW makes Paul Schnare ns some suggestio the to do during gardening season
MINISTRY FOCUS talks Deashia Swan about the lessons get from women can of the the women Bible.
SPORTS
Good Times SUNDAY, APRIL
P
FRED LYNCH
This house
at 125 S. Spanish
St. in Cape
Old Town Cape BY ASHLEY JONES ISSOURIAN
SOUTHEAST M
Girardeau will
be part of the
third Downtown
to host historic
Historic Home
~ flynch@semissouria
and Garden
n.com
Tour.
n tour home and garde
d the Downimplemente plan grew Girardeau Plan. This n town Strategic Revitalizatio Downtown for Missouri out of the Assistance
and Economic downInitiative. to increase (DREAM) will showcase it as a way Old Town Cape its third annual “We are using downtown,” said during Old living and Garden town living interest in executive director of Historic Home feature six Downtown Marla Mills, which will Saturday, plan Tour. The tour, Town Cape. further this to take place homes, is set 12 to 4 p.m. The tour helpsthe different types of to enjoy our May 12 from by showcasing downtown. According for people “It’s a service to promote downtown homes locatedhave featured everything and and Old Town downtown to Mills they to big homes. organizer living,” event Lisa Bertrand said. from apartments Cape volunteer Old Town Cape 2009, In July of
we show on all of cool homes that there is “The kind awareness the tour raise downtown,” Mills said. kind of livinghome, located on 306 Bertrand’s St., is one of the six e is a three-story Independenc featured. It said homes to be was built in 1906. She floors home which inlay woodenroom. it has wonderful room and dining from in the living salvaged material Bertrand usedantique shop to remodel her husbands room. the family Page 9C See HOME,
Old Town Cape is preparing for its third home and garden tour. Page 1C
Find out who made the All-Missourian girls basketball team. Page 1B
Cape council, staff mull city topics at retreat
The flash detonated a real-life nightmare.
Birds Point sowed economic insomnia.
When would they reap revenue again?
A SMOKING BAN, at least for restaurants in Cape Girardeau, could be back up for discussion
Sooner than they dreamed.
BY SCOTT MOYERS
SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN There were new ideas, such as more high-dollar water toys for Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center and finding what looks to be expensive land for a new industrial park. There were updates on old themes, including a forthcoming rental inspections program and how best to manage deer that roam inside the city limits. And there were even a few surprises, including a suggestion that the idea of a smoking ban be revisited and a delicate conversation about the city’s ability to condemn the Plaza Galleria, the former skating rink that has sat without a tenant for at least a decade. The Cape Girardeau City Council’s annual retreat Friday touched on almost every aspect of local government, from budgets and taxes to pleas from department heads to address what they see as vital needs. While no decisions were reached Friday, the daylong retreat at the Osage Centre offered some insight into what could become city priorities over the next five years. Considering that much of the retreat served simply as a brainstorming session, some of those suggestions may never come to pass. Councilwoman Loretta Schneider brought up one of the day’s biggest surprises, saying she would favor a citywide smoking ban at least for restaurants. Last year, Cape Girardeau voters rejected a proposed smoking ban in bars and restaurants by about 300 votes. Schneider said that voters said no, in her opin-
LAURA SIMON~lsimon@semissourian.com
John Moreton walks along the eroded farmland June 1 in the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway.
“The guy upstairs took care of us.”
On this day, April 29
SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN
F
armers feared the worst as water rushed over fields of winter wheat, filled silos storing their profits and engulfed the houses they called home. A year after the intentional breach of the Birds Point levee by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, fourth generation floodway farmer Eddie Marshall is still repairing the damage and counting what the breach cost him. But he’s also counting his blessings. “At the end of the year, we ended up with decent crops. The guy upstairs
U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to breach the Birds Point levee was appropriate. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster appealed the decision. The sheriff of Mississippi County asked the National Guard to activate a mandatory evacuation for residents of the floodway. For a complete timeline of the Flood of 2011 or to see the photos from last year, go to semissourian.com/flood2011.
1 dead after storm blows down St. Louis beer tent BY JIM SALTER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ST. LOUIS — High winds swept through a beer tent where 200 people gathered after a Cardinals game Saturday, killing one and critically injuring at least five others, authorities said. But the owner of the
Photo gallery
BY MELISSA MILLER
Cape river level: 45.3 feet Cape flood stage: 32 feet Cairo river level: 59.00 feet Cairo flood stage: 40 feet Rainfall: 0
bar said it was lightning — not wind — that killed the patron. At least 17 were hospitalized and up to 100 people were treated at the scene after officials said straightline winds whipped through a large tent outside Kilroy’s See TENT, Page 10A
See photo galleries, view an interactive timeline and read coverage of the flood at semissourian. com/flood2011. took care of us. Surprisingly enough, it turned out quite well,” Marshall said. The year turned out a whole lot better than anybody ever envisioned it could, said Kevin Mainord, sales and marketing director for MRM Ag Services near East Prairie. “We were blessed in that our year was down as far as gross dollars, but we still had a pretty profitable year,” said
Mainord, who also farms in the floodway. “I think most farmers would make the same statement.” Neither Marshall nor Mainord said they had to cut any of their staff as a result of the breach. “We thought at the time, it might come to that, but we felt like the right thing to do was to keep people employed,” Mainord said. Many anxious farmers stood on the setback levee, watching what they’d prayed wouldn’t happen as the Birds Point levee exploded just after 10 p.m. May 2. The Ohio River at Cairo, Ill., set
Blog
See FLOOD, Page 10A
Get text messages with National Weather Service storm warnings for free by going to semissourian. com/textalerts.
Rule restricting farm chores withdrawn THE PROPOSED rule aimed to increase protections for children working in agriculture and referenced statistics from farm accident studies BY MELISSA MILLER
SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN A proposed rule restricting children who work on family farms has been withdrawn by the U.S. De-
partment of Labor after thousands of comments were received opposing it. The department withdrew the rule, put forth last year, Thursday saying that it would not be pursued for
the duration of the Obama administration. The rule aimed to increase protections for children working in agriculture and referenced several statistics from farm accident studies. The justification included information that agriculture has the second-highest fatality rate among young workers, age 15 to 24, at
Scan to go to our website
See LABOR, Page 10A
Social media ■ Facebook: facebook.com/semissourian
This weekend we visited the Cape Girardeau Central, Meadow Heights and Leopold proms. Look for photo galleries later today at semissourian.com/promphotos. Daily Record, 8A Dear Abby, 10B Entertainment, 10B
21.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, compared to 3.6 across all industries, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. The proposed rule also cited concerns with the exposure of young workers to pesticides. The measure would have
WEATHER:
Prom photos
Business, 14A Classified, 1D Crossword, 6B
See RETREAT, Page 10A
Read more city government news on Scott Moyers’ City Beat blog at semissourian.com.
WEB: semissourian.com Severe weather alerts
ion, only because the proposal was too restrictive. “I believe allowing smoking really hurts their business,” Schneider said. “And obviously it’s a health issue.” Councilman John Voss said he was conflicted and reluctant to dictate policy to a private business. But he said he would “enjoy a smoke-free Cape more” than one that allows smoking in public places. While some council members talked like they didn’t want to touch the issue, Voss said he would be willing to continue talking about it, noting the council could be proactive and pass a less restrictive ordinance. Voss did acknowledge such an attempt would likely come with public backlash. “It will be controversial,” Voss said. “I don’t know if we have the fortitude to handle it, quite honestly. ... We will take some arrows in the back, I guarantee you.” In other discussions, Mayor Harry Rediger noted during a briefing on development services that city and economic development officials have been looking for land to convert into a new economic development park. Such land costs anywhere from $17,000 to $40,000 an acre, Rediger said, calling the need a “huge issue that’s looming out there.” Parks and Recreation Department director Julia Thompson told the council that a final recommendation for upgrades to Capaha Park and the city’s trail system should be brought to them by September. A master plan for how to move forward with the city’s parks system should also be in place to serve as a “developed strategy” before a possible vote to extend the city’s parks sales tax in 2018.
■ Twitter: @semissourian
Movie times, 10B Obituaries, 8A Opinion, 6A
Speak Out, 6A Sports, 1B TV listings, 10B
Volume 108 • Issue 177
H:82 L: 61 Showers