Transportation and lack thereof is the theme of this date’s headlines. A man was arrested after trying to run away with the circus in 1924, Missouri Pacific strike negotations stalled in 1949, and bad contract timing left a utility pole in an awkward spot in 1974.
__Sept. 26, 1924__
• A man unsuccessfully tried to run off with the circus today. A Missouri Pacific railroad agent arrested Clyde Willard for trespassing after he attempted to sneak aboard the Robinson Circus train. Willard was fined $100 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He received a stay of execution after promising to return home to Flat River and send in the payment.
__Sept. 26, 1949__
• The Missouri Pacific strike passed its 17th day as union brotherhoods and the railroad left the negotiation table in St. Louis.
The strike has disrupted freight, mail, business and travel across the Midwest, including in Poplar Bluff, and resulted in thousands of layoffs. It began over hundreds individual worker claims against MP.
__Sept. 26, 1974__
• A flaw in Poplar Bluff street work is standing out to drivers: a gap in contracts meant road crews paved an intersection expansion around a utility pole at Garfield and Main, leaving it sticking out of the asphalt.
City Manager David Pence said a request by the city council to widen the intersection arrived after new street word had been contracted out, which didn’t allow enough time for the four utility companies using the pole to relocate. The pole is owned by Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. and supports a Poplar Bluff streetlight, a Missouri Utility electric line and a Midwest Video cable.
“All the work by the four utilities to get the service off the pole will be time consuming” said SBTC office manager Earl Sawyer, estimating two months at minimum.
Since road work continues and the pole is well marked, Pence said the city “should not be responsible for any accidents caused by the pole.”