Dear Editor,
This is a copy of an e-mail I sent to all St. Charles City Council members today. Could you please print in the Letters to the Editor section with the hopes that all readers who have made use of Leftover’s Etc. will contact all City officials and relate the importance of this facility and those unfamiliar with Leftovers, Etc. will now search out this WONDERFUL St. Charles resource center!!
Greetings! I am pleased and applaud the St. Charles City Council for approving budget allocation to Leftovers, Etc. for the 2005 year, but have learned several Council members are questioning the validity of the services provided by Leftovers, Etc. If you are not familiar with Leftovers, Etc. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GET TO KNOW THIS ST. CHARLES TREASURE!!! Go to their website, www.leftoversetc.com, or better yet, go to the St. Charles location – 1759 Scherer Parkway (off Friedens Rd.) (636) 946-9779; hours: 1-7PM Mon-Thurs., 9AM-3PM Sat. This is a community based art and science resource center that provides instruction, classes, shows, books, recycled materials, and more for individuals, schools, scouts, 4-H groups, artists, etc. It is open for everyone!! I am a full time artist (for over 23 years) and use the Leftovers center at least twice a month, donating items and getting supply materials. This keeps a lot of “junk” from going into our St. Charles trash trucks and therefore out of the landfills, while providing unique materials/supplies for various projects. I have personally bought materials for use at Kid’s Art Happening (sponsored by the St. Charles Arts Council), senior citizens craft programs at two area nursing homes, art programs at the St. Peters Community and Arts Centers, 4-H Club programs, and personally for my art in St. Louis and Midwest art shows/programs!! I have taken several out-of-state visitors there and they were so impressed they hope to have similar programs in their areas! So, PLEASE familiarize yourself with Leftovers, Etc. It is a definite PLUS for the St. Charles area!
Sincerely,
Serena Boschert
Editor First Capitol News
The only Newspaper worth reading! Keeps me informed.
Received by e-mail: degrasso.
To: the Editor
Re: Citizens with Disabilities and Handicapped Parking
The city of St. Charles established a disabilities board, in 1994, by the then seated mayor Grace Nickels. The board was set up to advise the Mayor, the City Administrator, and the City Council on matters pertaining to disability issues. The board also works with the citizens of St. Charles to try and fix problems confronting them, after they have tried other city departments for help. The board meets the fourth (4) Tuesday of the month, at 5 o’clock PM on the fourth floor of city hall. As is all of the city meetings, this meeting is open to everyone.
Since the board started we have been successful in placing: a TTD in City Hall, a ramp entering the front of City Hall, hearing devices in City Council room, *a driveway at McNair park, a patrol to check handicapped parking and now monitored by City Police, Handicapped parking at Festivals-for vans with lifts, *a crosswalk on W Clay at Sun Valley Apts., a hand held microphone (at the podium) during Council meetings, and working on a accessibility guide for St. Charles. The examples of achievements denoted by an*were brought by citizens.
I would like to point out parking in handicapped spaces. The stripped area adjacent to the handicapped spaces are there for vans or cars, with lifts. Allowing enough room for the wheel chaired person to enter or exit their vehicles. The stripped area is neither a parking place, nor a area to park over. Cars that park close to the line leaving no room to gain access to the vehicle, and I would require assistance from someone to move the van back enough to lower the lift. If you notice, people park close to the drivers side of their parking place leaving plenty of room on the right side. At least don’t park next to a van because that person may be the person needing the room.
David Huesing
The Citizens with Disabilities Advisory Board
Tony,
Once again, great paper, especially the letter from a former Councilman.
If the figures he quotes are true - $95 million budget, 85% salaries - things in this city are much worse than I thought. If 420 full time employees and 80 part timers share the pot, the average salary w/ benefits is $175,000. He then asks “what kind of service do you think the taxpayers can expect?” I expect each and every employee to go above and beyond the call of duty DAILY because they are being paid above and beyond reason.
The average household’s share of the city’s salaries is $3,900 annually. Does anyone, including the former Councilman, see that kind of benefit? He did a wonderful job of putting it all into perspective for us so we can fully understand just how out of control our city government’s spending is.
In his letter he also mentioned that less than 25 city employees attended the Council hosted Christmas party, then asks the question “What does that tell you?” What it tells me is that we have over 400 overcompensated, unappreciative employees. They should have taken the opportunity to express their gratitude to the Council for their more-than-generous compensation packages.
I do agree with him on one point—We’ve clearly had enough of Dan Gould! We’ve also had enough of whiny city employees.
AIM
Dear Editor and Citizens of St Charles County,
I have been a respiratory therapist for almost 25 yrs. Most of my experience is in critical care. I would like to weigh into the discussion about the clean air smoking ban. Let me make one thing very clear. This is not a “rights” issue. This is a HEALTH issue.
There are way too many medical journal articles denoting the dangers of smoking and of second-hand smoke to brush the issue aside by calling it a “personal decision”or by considering a ban an issue of government intrusion. True whether or not to smoke is a personal decision. But when someone else’s secondhand smoke in a public place causes illness, then it becomes a public health hazard. One that is not necessary.
I urge you to think not only of employees subjected to secondhand smoke, but to especially think of the children in our community. YOUR children. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, even at extremely low levels, is associated with decreases in certain cognitive skills, including reading, math, and logic and reasoning, in children and adolescents.
To measure exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, researchers measured levels of cotinine, a substance produced when nicotine is broken down by the body. Considered the best marker of environmental tobacco smoke exposure, cotinine can be measured in blood, urine, saliva and hair.
Reading, math and reasoning scores were highly related to environmental tobacco smoke exposure: The greater the levels of exposure as measured by cotinine levels, the greater the decline in reading and reasoning ability, even at extremely low levels of exposure, according researchers.
Three frightening sets of numbers for you to think about:
More than 33 million children in the United States are exposed to levels consistent with the adverse effects seen in this study.
Forty-three percent of American children are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in their own homes.
Eighty-five percent of children have detectable levels of cotinine in their blood.
Secondhand Smoke Lowers Kids’ Math, Reading Scores (01/05/2005, Reuters Health)
Are you aware.......... Whenever a pack of cigarettes is sold in the US, another $7.18 is added to the taxpayer’s bill in terms of medical costs and lost productivity according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cigarette smoking continues to be the principal cause of premature death in the United States and imposes substantial costs on society.
In 1995-1999, the years CDC researchers studied, more than 260,000 men and 178,000 women died every year due to smoking, either from lung cancer, heart disease or emphysema.
About 600 baby boys and 400 baby girls died each year during that time period because their mothers smoked during pregnancy, according to CDC estimates. And about $366 million — or $704 per pregnant smoker — was spent in 1996 caring for infants injured by cigarette smoke.
Overall, smoking killed nearly half a million people each year in the late 1990s, including about 35,000 people who died of heart disease due to secondhand smoke.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2002;51:300-302
Second Hand Smoke, Cervical Cancer Linked (01/05/2005, United Press International)
Cigarette Smoke Worsens RSV Infection in Infants (01/05/2005, Reuters Health)
Even the EPA has concluded that the widespread exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the U.S. presents a serious and substantial public health risk. http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/pubs/etsfs.html
I urge every voter in St Charles County to let your elected officials know your feelings on this subject. They have been elected to do the right thing for our community. The facts are in on smoking and secondhand smoke. Everyone must understand secondhand smoke in public places is a health hazard.
Sincerely,
Pam Murphy, B.S.,RRT
Lake St Louis, Mo
First Capitol News
I would venture to say a majority of the residents of the City of St. Charles could not care less whether the St. Charles 27 hole golf course is developed or not and contrary to what the people living there and enjoying the fine view feel, I doubt if the rest of us would want to be in the position of subsidizing a nine hole golf course for them either. Unless the residents accept the reality of an owner’s right to sell his property to a buyer ready, able and willing to develop as he feels fit and legal conforming to zoning laws, I would vote against the city annexing this property.
Carol Diller
Letter to the editor,
To the resident of St. Charles who is not honest enough to sign the letter I received from you. I will continue to read and obtain knowledge from any source I feel fit. I will also continue to advertise in any paper, radio, or TV I want to. This is still the land of the free I believe. I just wonder how many times you have been in my shop over the past twenty-one years!! I guess I shall just have to make do without your money, however much it was!
I have a following of decent loyal people who have helped me over the years and I hope will continue to do so. Many have become good friends.
I do not agree with everything that the FCN prints, but will defend their right to do so and also the right for anyone to retaliate if they do not agree. I just do not like your way of retaliation. I’m glad that our city government including the city council does not work anonymously in the shadows, as you seem to do.
Eileen Prichard, The English Shop
(Letter I received is below)
The English Shop
I am a resident of St. Charles along with my fame for many, many years. I often support the business’s here but I have seen your ads in the First Capitol News.
You might not know this but the First Capitol News is a political newspaper published by a convicted felon. While I understand that everyone deserves a second chance, I do not support his closeness to many St. Charles City Council members.
If you read this paper you will notice the attacks on police officers, local residents and anyone that disagrees with them.
I have decided that I will not be doing business with you and will spread the word to make sure all of my friends and family knows what is going on. Also, I notice that a lot of the papers remain laying in resident’s lawns and in the street. Many people do not read this and it would be great for you to advertise in a more objective newspaper.
Thank you for your time,
Resident of St. Charles.
