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Sunday, December 04, 2005
FRONT PAGE FIRST CAPITOL NEWS - December 3, 2005
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23 Mayors From China Visit New Town In St. Charles
St. Charles City Councilman John Gieseke is pictured answering questions for delegates from the China Mayors Group who were visiting New Town in St. Charles.First Capitol New Photo by Tony Brockmeyer
Whittaker New Town Architect Tim Busse (center) explaining the New Town concept to the group of 23 Mayors from China who visited New Town. First Capitol News Photo by Tony BrockmeyerTwenty-three Mayors from China’s Jiangsu Province visited The New Town at St. Charles, a traditional neighborhood development off Hwy. 370 and New Town Blvd., on Saturday, Nov. 18. The distinguished guests oversee urban development in middle and small-size cities in China. The Mayors visited select sites throughout the metro area to assist in their urban district planning.
Tim Busse, New Town’s Town Architect, led the presentation. Working with a translator, Busse discussed the history of New Town and described the town-planning process. He also discussed the key elements of new urbanism. The presentation ended with a narrated walking tour of New Town.
Ultimately, The New Town at St. Charles, a $1.5 billion project, will be a thriving town with approximately 5,700 residences in ten phases, with a carefully planned mix of homes in addition to a large town center and four neighborhood centers.
To reach The New Town at St. Charles, take Hwy. 370 to north on New Town Blvd., 1 ? miles to New Town on the right. For information on The New Town at St. Charles, call 636-949-2700 or visit www.newtownatstcharles.com.
Lindenwood University & Cisco Reach Agreement Without Using Eminent Domain
The Cisco Heating & Air Conditioning Building on West Clay which is being purchased by Lindenwood University. First Capitol News Photo by Tony BrockmeyerDennis Spellmann, President of Lindenwood University has announced that an agreement has been reached with Darin Cissell who owns Cisco Heating and Air Conditioning. Although the City had given the Lindenwood University Re-development project the right of eminent domain to use to acquire the approximately 1/3 acre of property, successful negotiations between the University and Cissell have made it unnecessary. The Cisco Company will be moving to a new location.
“Closing on the property is to be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2005,” President Spellmann told the First Capitol News. “The business plans to be completely moved out by Saturday, December 10, 2005. We have scheduled asbestos removal to begin by December 12th and demolition to begin by December 19th.”
According to President Spellmann, the last piece of property in the area the University needs to acquire is the old Master Mulch building that has sat vacant for over 10 years.
Thoele has already begun demolition of the building they owned on property the University acquired.
The property was acquired and the buildings are being demolished to make room for the new $30 million, 132,000 square foot Fine and Performing Arts Center.
MAYOR SIGNS ANOTHER CONTRACT WITHOUT APPROVAL
At the last Council meeting members exhibited surprise when a contract for $19,900 to conduct a special census survey was on the consent agenda. Under the City Charter the City Administrator can approve contracts under $20,000 without Council Approval. All contracts over $20,000 must be approved by the City Council. The Mayor has no authority to sign any contracts unless they have been approved by the City Administrator or the City Council.
The contract in questions is between the City and Community Program Development Corporation (CPDC) and was signed by Mayor York on November 2, 2005. The contract routing slip shows the contract was not authorized or signed for by the City Administrator and was not brought before the Council for approval.
Councilman Gieseke questioned the reason for the contract and was told it was for a special census survey to determine where growth in the City is occurring. When he asked if it was to be used for redistricting of City Council Wards the City Administrator said no.
The First Capitol News obtained a copy of the contract and supporting documents and it does call for a redistricting plan to be determined by CPDC and the City’s Community Development Department.
Council President Rory Riddler advised the administration that unless a census is done by the US government the results cannot be used for any federal programs or funding grants.
Although Williams told the Council during the meeting the contract was only for determining where growth is occurring he later said he did not authorize the contract.
Councilman Gieseke told the Council members if the Administration wants to determine growth areas they only have to look at their own records.
Redistricting of Council Wards can only be done by the City Council not by Community Development. Some Council members who did not wish to be quoted told the First Capitol News it was evident that secret plans were being made to perhaps redistrict some of the Council members out of their Wards.
Councilman Mark Brown said, “It appears the Mayor misappropriated $15,000 of city money towards my recall and now we have her signing another illegal contract for $19,900. I certainly hope she is not planning on using that money to finance other recall efforts.”
Brown was referring to the October 18, 2005 City Council meeting when the Mayor was challenged by Council Members regarding suspicious payments made to fictitious named companies owned by Glennon Jamboretz. (See First Capitol News October 8, 2005)
The Mayor also signed a contract with Express Scripts without Council approval and a claim has been made for $200,000 by Express Scripts from the City. (First Capitol News, March 19, 2005)
The contract in questions is between the City and Community Program Development Corporation (CPDC) and was signed by Mayor York on November 2, 2005. The contract routing slip shows the contract was not authorized or signed for by the City Administrator and was not brought before the Council for approval.
Councilman Gieseke questioned the reason for the contract and was told it was for a special census survey to determine where growth in the City is occurring. When he asked if it was to be used for redistricting of City Council Wards the City Administrator said no.
The First Capitol News obtained a copy of the contract and supporting documents and it does call for a redistricting plan to be determined by CPDC and the City’s Community Development Department.
Council President Rory Riddler advised the administration that unless a census is done by the US government the results cannot be used for any federal programs or funding grants.
Although Williams told the Council during the meeting the contract was only for determining where growth is occurring he later said he did not authorize the contract.
Councilman Gieseke told the Council members if the Administration wants to determine growth areas they only have to look at their own records.
Redistricting of Council Wards can only be done by the City Council not by Community Development. Some Council members who did not wish to be quoted told the First Capitol News it was evident that secret plans were being made to perhaps redistrict some of the Council members out of their Wards.
Councilman Mark Brown said, “It appears the Mayor misappropriated $15,000 of city money towards my recall and now we have her signing another illegal contract for $19,900. I certainly hope she is not planning on using that money to finance other recall efforts.”
Brown was referring to the October 18, 2005 City Council meeting when the Mayor was challenged by Council Members regarding suspicious payments made to fictitious named companies owned by Glennon Jamboretz. (See First Capitol News October 8, 2005)
The Mayor also signed a contract with Express Scripts without Council approval and a claim has been made for $200,000 by Express Scripts from the City. (First Capitol News, March 19, 2005)
CLARION BELL TOWER PLANNED AS LINDENWOOD, ST. CHARLES FOCAL POINT
An artist’s conception of what the Clarion Bell Tower being planned for Lindenwood University may look like.Clarion Bell Tower planned as Lindenwood, St. Charles focal point
President Dennis Spellmann of Lindenwood University has told the First Capitol News that Lindenwood University is moving forward with a plan to construct a 40 to 44 foot Clarion Bell Tower at the intersection of First Capitol Drive and West Clay after the intersection is straightened.
The Clarion Bell Tower will have 25 bells connected to a keyboard. “The bells can be played for special events, festivals, just about anything the City would want,” said President Spellmann. “This will be the first Clarion Bell Tower in Missouri and also the first west of the Mississippi.
The Lindenwood Board plans on naming the Bell Tower after board member Ben Blanton. Blanton is considered a leader in the construction industry and is along time Lindenwood board member. According to President Spellmann, board member Ron Ohmes, retired president of Kirchner Concrete products and his son, have agreed to donate all the masonry products to be used in the construction of the tower to the University. Dr. Michael Conoyer a Lindenwood University Board member will head the Clarion Bell Tower Committee.
The Clarion Bell Tower will sit in front of the new $30 million, 132,000 square foot Fine and Performing Arts Center that is under construction on the Lindenwood Campus.
“There will be a plaza built around the tower,” said President Spellmann. This will be constructed in the highest point in the area. St. Louis has the arch and now St. Charles will be proud to have the Lindenwood University Ben Blanton Clarion Bell Tower. It will be a place where visitors will stop and have their pictures taken. The tower will set the pace for the redevelopment of the formerly blighted area. West Clay is the old Highway 40 and was a cow trail before that.”
President Spellmann expects construction to start on the Bell Tower just as soon as the intersection is straightened.
Lindenwood President Dennis Spellmann Responds To Critics Regarding Available, Affordable Entry Level Housing
By Tony Brockmeyer
“For the past year we have averaged 14 vacancies and Sparta Investment, the majority property owner in the Powell Terrace neighborhood has averaged 35 to 40 vacancies,” said Dennis Spellmann, President of Lindenwood University. President Spellmann was responding to remarks made by critics that Lindenwood University was swallowing up affordable starter housing in the area. “We have cleaned up the properties we have purchased and have turned the management of them over to George at Sparta Investment who owns most of the property in the area.”
According to President Spellmann, rents for property owned by the University range from $300 to $500 a month for one to four bedroom apartments. “If the people are retired, disabled and unable to be employed we will work with them. If they are able to work but don’t have a job we will work with them to get a job. There are plenty of jobs available just look at the many for hire signs throughout the City.”
President Spellmann told the First Capitol News, “We don’t want somebody living in our property laying around doing drugs. We want to make it a safe neighborhood and we have done that. We could fill our properties tomorrow but it would be people from a different culture. We do not want to put the unemployed, homeless, drug users from downtown St. Louis into St. Charles or into the school system.”
President Spellmann pointed out, “Our critics keep saying that we are taking away entry level affordable housing. We started purchasing properties in the neighborhood of $45,000. Now similar properties are now on the market for three and four times that. Why have those property values gone up? Because Lindenwood University has purchased properties in the area, cleaned up the neighborhoods, made them safe.”
“If there are single parents who need help we will give them an education and find them employment”, said President Spellmann. If there is someone who needs work and cannot find themselves a job we will help them find a job. It may be washing dishes, cutting the grass at Lindenwood or helping us clean up Powell Terrace but it will be a decent paying job.”
To the critics who say the University is taking away entry level affordable housing President Spellmann responds, “That is not true. The people need to have the correct information. We have an excess of available housing and in the event there was a shortage, that river is not 42 miles wide. There is plenty of entry level affordable housing in North County.”
President Spellmann points out that the Powell Terrace neighborhoods were built during World War II to be used only as temporary housing. He also told the First Capitol News that after the first of the year Lindenwood University would be holding a number of meetings with area residents to discuss plans for the neighborhood.
“For the past year we have averaged 14 vacancies and Sparta Investment, the majority property owner in the Powell Terrace neighborhood has averaged 35 to 40 vacancies,” said Dennis Spellmann, President of Lindenwood University. President Spellmann was responding to remarks made by critics that Lindenwood University was swallowing up affordable starter housing in the area. “We have cleaned up the properties we have purchased and have turned the management of them over to George at Sparta Investment who owns most of the property in the area.”
According to President Spellmann, rents for property owned by the University range from $300 to $500 a month for one to four bedroom apartments. “If the people are retired, disabled and unable to be employed we will work with them. If they are able to work but don’t have a job we will work with them to get a job. There are plenty of jobs available just look at the many for hire signs throughout the City.”
President Spellmann told the First Capitol News, “We don’t want somebody living in our property laying around doing drugs. We want to make it a safe neighborhood and we have done that. We could fill our properties tomorrow but it would be people from a different culture. We do not want to put the unemployed, homeless, drug users from downtown St. Louis into St. Charles or into the school system.”
President Spellmann pointed out, “Our critics keep saying that we are taking away entry level affordable housing. We started purchasing properties in the neighborhood of $45,000. Now similar properties are now on the market for three and four times that. Why have those property values gone up? Because Lindenwood University has purchased properties in the area, cleaned up the neighborhoods, made them safe.”
“If there are single parents who need help we will give them an education and find them employment”, said President Spellmann. If there is someone who needs work and cannot find themselves a job we will help them find a job. It may be washing dishes, cutting the grass at Lindenwood or helping us clean up Powell Terrace but it will be a decent paying job.”
To the critics who say the University is taking away entry level affordable housing President Spellmann responds, “That is not true. The people need to have the correct information. We have an excess of available housing and in the event there was a shortage, that river is not 42 miles wide. There is plenty of entry level affordable housing in North County.”
President Spellmann points out that the Powell Terrace neighborhoods were built during World War II to be used only as temporary housing. He also told the First Capitol News that after the first of the year Lindenwood University would be holding a number of meetings with area residents to discuss plans for the neighborhood.
RAMBLING WITH THE EDITOR - Tony Brockmeyer
Congratulations Councilman Larry Muench
After an executive session of the City Council Tuesday evening, Councilmen Bob Kneemiller, Mike Weller, Jerry Reese and Bob Hoepfner walked out, refusing to participate in a Council work session that had been scheduled to work on the annual budget. In spite of intense pressure from Weller and the other Councilmen, Larry Muench showed character and held fast and participated in the scheduled City Council Work Session.
SPEAKING OF WELLER, WHO TOOK OUR PAPERS? WAS IT HIS SON?
During the period we were printing the City Council agendas Councilman Weller complained that he did not receive the First Capitol News at his home. I knew he was lying because I personally placed the paper on his driveway each week. When our last edition was placed in our paper boxes a vehicle with two young men was observed taking all the papers (over 150) from our boxes.They were in a white SUV with EXPO Real Estate on the sides. EXPO Real Estate is on North Main and records with the Missouri Secretary of State indicate it is owned by Jay Dunlap and Michael Weller, Jr. I am curious if the young men were picking up the papers to make sure Councilman Weller received them or if they were taking them to destroy them and keep them from our readers? If they were arrested for stealing our papers and convicted then they would have a criminal record and would probably be ineligible to hold a real estate license.
HOME DELIVERY
A short time age ago we decided to deliver our paper through the mail because we thought it would be better for our readers even though it was much more expensive We ran into many problems. Some readers were not receiving the papers. Some received two or three different issues on the same day and others were receiving the papers very late. We realized we had more control using our carriers and we have returned to that method of delivery. You should be receiving the First Capitol News each Saturday in your yard wrapped in the familiar red wrapper. Please keep in mind that the First Capitol News is not printed in weeks that contain a holiday. If for some reason you are not receiving home delivery in the City of St. Charles and wish to receive the First Capitol News please call us at 636 724-1955 or e-mail us at firstcaptiolnews@aol.com. You can find the First Capitol News on the Web at
firstcapitolnews.blogspot.com
IS VALENTI LEAVING?
It appears that the Weller faction of the City Council wants to divest the City of the services of Mike Valenti the City Attorney. Weller and Company (Kneemiller, Reese, Hoepfner, and Muench,) recently made an offer to remove Valenti if the rest of the Council would go along with firing City Council Counsel Eric Tolen. They indicated they would hire Keith Hazelwood and suggest Chet Pleban be hired as the City Council Counsel.
NO, NO He Won’t Go!
Allan Williams negotiated and agreed to a contract he negotiated with the City Council which was then written by City Attorney Mike Valenti. The contract was renewable each year at the pleasure of the City Council. Williams has been defiant and belligerent towards Council members and appears to do everything the Mayor wants in deference to the Council. Complaints have also been heard about his use of a city credit card for personal expenses and his extended absences from the City. He has not moved his family here as promised. At a recent Council meeting a motion was made to extend his contract for another year. It failed on a 5 to 5 vote. He is now eligible to receive 8 months severance pay but he says he will not leave. He, along with the City Attorney who wrote the contract claim it is in violation of the City Charter. Why would the City Attorney write a contract he knew was in violation of the Charter and why would Williams sign it? Come on Allan, why not just take the money and run?
After an executive session of the City Council Tuesday evening, Councilmen Bob Kneemiller, Mike Weller, Jerry Reese and Bob Hoepfner walked out, refusing to participate in a Council work session that had been scheduled to work on the annual budget. In spite of intense pressure from Weller and the other Councilmen, Larry Muench showed character and held fast and participated in the scheduled City Council Work Session.
SPEAKING OF WELLER, WHO TOOK OUR PAPERS? WAS IT HIS SON?
During the period we were printing the City Council agendas Councilman Weller complained that he did not receive the First Capitol News at his home. I knew he was lying because I personally placed the paper on his driveway each week. When our last edition was placed in our paper boxes a vehicle with two young men was observed taking all the papers (over 150) from our boxes.They were in a white SUV with EXPO Real Estate on the sides. EXPO Real Estate is on North Main and records with the Missouri Secretary of State indicate it is owned by Jay Dunlap and Michael Weller, Jr. I am curious if the young men were picking up the papers to make sure Councilman Weller received them or if they were taking them to destroy them and keep them from our readers? If they were arrested for stealing our papers and convicted then they would have a criminal record and would probably be ineligible to hold a real estate license.
HOME DELIVERY
A short time age ago we decided to deliver our paper through the mail because we thought it would be better for our readers even though it was much more expensive We ran into many problems. Some readers were not receiving the papers. Some received two or three different issues on the same day and others were receiving the papers very late. We realized we had more control using our carriers and we have returned to that method of delivery. You should be receiving the First Capitol News each Saturday in your yard wrapped in the familiar red wrapper. Please keep in mind that the First Capitol News is not printed in weeks that contain a holiday. If for some reason you are not receiving home delivery in the City of St. Charles and wish to receive the First Capitol News please call us at 636 724-1955 or e-mail us at firstcaptiolnews@aol.com. You can find the First Capitol News on the Web at
firstcapitolnews.blogspot.com
IS VALENTI LEAVING?
It appears that the Weller faction of the City Council wants to divest the City of the services of Mike Valenti the City Attorney. Weller and Company (Kneemiller, Reese, Hoepfner, and Muench,) recently made an offer to remove Valenti if the rest of the Council would go along with firing City Council Counsel Eric Tolen. They indicated they would hire Keith Hazelwood and suggest Chet Pleban be hired as the City Council Counsel.
NO, NO He Won’t Go!
Allan Williams negotiated and agreed to a contract he negotiated with the City Council which was then written by City Attorney Mike Valenti. The contract was renewable each year at the pleasure of the City Council. Williams has been defiant and belligerent towards Council members and appears to do everything the Mayor wants in deference to the Council. Complaints have also been heard about his use of a city credit card for personal expenses and his extended absences from the City. He has not moved his family here as promised. At a recent Council meeting a motion was made to extend his contract for another year. It failed on a 5 to 5 vote. He is now eligible to receive 8 months severance pay but he says he will not leave. He, along with the City Attorney who wrote the contract claim it is in violation of the City Charter. Why would the City Attorney write a contract he knew was in violation of the Charter and why would Williams sign it? Come on Allan, why not just take the money and run?
THE PEOPLE SPEAK - Letters To The Editor
Letters to the Editor
First Capitol News
This letter is in response to Linda Covilli’s letter in the St. Charles Journal dated Wednesday, November 16, 2005.
Ms. Covilli needs to know that I Co-Sponsored the Resolution to keep our Grade Schools open. She also needs to know that I had personal reasons for leaving the meeting that night. Which will remain private and personal.
I fully support the schools in my Ward. I have obtained Double Fine Zone signs for the schools in my Ward and speed bumps on streets where the children’s safety was being compromised. There soon will be a flashing light installed at one of the Elementary Schools for the children’s safety.
In the future I would appreciate a phone call from Ms. Covilli before she decides to write a negative Letter To The Editor without all the facts.
Dottie Greer, Council Representative Ward 7
St Charles
Dear Editor:
For some years now St. Charles has been relentlessly waging war on its poor. We seem to be conducting a “war on poverty”, not by helping the poor, not by attempting to eradicate the root causes of being poor, but by driving the poor from our community. We are driving them beyond our boundaries, thus placing them out of sight, where we won’t be constantly reminded that the poor are always with us, where we won’t have to feel guilty about what we have and what they don’t, where we won’t have to worry about their impact on our sacred property values. There seems to be an insidious master plan which has at its heart the express purpose of eventually eradicating every vestige of low and modest income housing in our city. We have been continually destroying this housing but we are not replacing it. We are instead building very expensive homes and condominiums around the periphery of our City. The poor have nowhere to go. The latest example is Powell Terrace.
This project, part of Lindenwood’s expansion, will affect the most vulnerable in our community. This housing will not be replaced in kind and these people will have no place to go. Back in November of 2002 City officials held meetings to determine what could be done to help the people of Powell Terrace and their neighborhood. At that time mayoral candidate Dan Foust voiced his opinion. “We should go in and bulldoze it and start all over.” Helping these people to improve their neighborhood and their lives is one thing. Simply eliminating their neighborhood with nothing to replace it is something else. There have been many jokes regarding what to do with Powell Terrace. Poverty is no joke. It is a tragedy.
A year or two ago the First Capitol News described a new thoroughfare being proposed between First Capitol Drive and Boones Lick. Hearing nothing further, many of us thought it had died. Just recently it surfaced again. It looks like this road would wipe out much of Powell Terrace. There seems to be a desire to connect Lindenwood College with the Convention Center. I am puzzled. I haven’t figured out whether it is intended that Lindenwood students will attend conventions as part of their education or whether the conventioneers are expected to study at Lindenwood the short time they are here in town. We will just have to wait and see.
Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ said, “The poor you will always have with you.” He knew us pretty well, didn’t he? His favorite people were the poor. His favorite topic was the poor. We don’t seem to have made much progress with this problem down through the centuries. We also don’t seem to have been following his example or his teachings. We are too busy making money.
Perhaps there are no solutions for these problems. I cannot see any. I have brought this up, not because I have any solutions, but to make you more aware that sometimes our gain is someone else’s pain, and that these conveniences and this progress, if that it be, has been achieved at the expense of someone else’s involuntary sacrifice, a sacrifice made by people least equipped to handle it. I would hope that our city planners would make every effort to design these projects so as to impact the fewest numbers of people, especially those who are most vulnerable. I realize that we cannot impede the wheels of progress, but must these wheels always roll over the backs of our poor? St. Charles have a heart.
Glen Dashner
Dear Editor:
(11-22-05)
Last week First Capitol News featured a picture of what appeared to be a Missouri, bloated, thin-lipped toad glaring down his nose through a pair of sunglasses. I could not see the rest of his body, but I can only assume, caught with his pants down (cell phone in pocket).
This week features “Chip-off-the ole toad”; “eyes glaring, ranting and in an uncontrolled rage trying to scare or intimidate people into backing down.
Let’s talk about the real motives behind all this theatrical “bull”, and I do mean bull. Trying to take attention away from a certain phone call? Trying to take attention away for the real reasons for recalls and who is really behind the whole thing. No secret there. Some names keep popping up. Motives? I think it is called power, money and greed.
There has got to be a special place in hell for such people.
P.J.
Dear editor,
After reading the recent articles about the school district of St. Charles’ financial problems and the decline in attendance at some schools, numerous questions come to mind.
First. How many students would be attending these schools if the neighboring homes were occupied by a family with children instead of Lindenwood students?
Second. How many tax dollars would be paid into the school district by families living in these homes? Lindenwood does not pay taxes to the city.
Third. What is the amount of revenue that is no longer paid by Norm’s Wheel Horse Barn, Penny Window, St. Charles Plumbing Supply, Hackmann Lumber, Mope’s, First Capitol Four Wheel Drive, and all the other businesses and homes that have been pushed out by Lindenwood? I would bet that would go a long way to paying the money needed by the school district. Even if it is not all the needed funds, it is still more than being paid by the University.
Fourth. By closing Blackhurst and Lincoln, how large will the classes be at the schools to which these students are moved? Plus, if we close schools, then why is there a proposed tax increase? I can understand paying higher taxes to keep schools open, but if I’m paying higher taxes to close schools, then I question the decision making process here.
Fifth. Once these schools would be closed, who will buy the buildings? You can bet it will be Lindenwood , and they will start to swallow up the houses around them and destroy those neighborhoods. Even the larger homes will be bought up and turned into apartments or fraternities or something similar. Then we will have even fewer school children in the area and fewer tax-paying homeowners. Also, if the buildings are purchased, then where does that revenue go? It would make sense that it would offset the costs of the proposed tax increase, unless the city is planning on donating these buildings to another institution. More than likely, the buildings will be sold at a loss like the old police station.
In general, it’s foolish to close schools. I would like to see published attendance figures. Are classrooms empty? Are class sizes shrinking? These are good reasons. We have a casino down the street and a huge billboard on I-70 that states how much gambling has donated to education.
Now, the city is going ahead with plans to put a thoroughfare through Powell Terrace. And who is this new street for? Lindenwood, of course. There was an easy way to get through the area at one time, but Boone Street was closed for the First Capitol re-alignment, which only added parking for Lindenwood.
Residents on the South side of 70 should be concerned with this as well, even though Lindenwood is not taking your neighborhoods yet, your taxes are still going to go up to make up for the lost revenue from the University owned properties. A 40 cent increase in taxes per $100 of assessed value equals an additional $600 on a $150,000 home. Are you willing to pay that each year to subsidize Mr Spellmann’s hunger for more land? Why do they need to keep getting so much larger? Growth is not always good.
The vote to proceed with the new project through Powell Terrace was passed by an 8-2 vote. Why do so many of our elected officials continue to allow Mr. Spellmann and Co. to gobble up our town? Why do they look out for Lindenwood interests and ignore the taxpaying residents? No matter who is on the council in the recent years, Lindenwood still gets the nod over tax-paying residents like you and me. Why do they allow these projects to go ahead when they benefit no one but Lindenwood? Why was the project to fix the flooding in Pearl Ridge voted down, and then $130,000+ approved to start the preliminary work to go through Powell Terrace? The council cannot agree to fix problems that are needed by residents, but agree to destroy the homes of Powell Terrace residents. Many who have lived in this area for decades. According to the papers, the city budget faces a one million dollar shortfall and the school budget is facing a shortage too. Now the city wants to spend $16.9 million to put a new road from Lindenwood to the convention center. Please explain that logic to me. Do the students really need a faster way to get to the conventions? I don’t believe they do. Many of the new council members vowed to stand up to the special interests in this city, but it appears only a few are trying. To the rest, I hope everyone remembers them at election time. But I suppose Lindenwood would get any new members to vote their way as well. Money talks.
Mike Femmer
Editor’s response:
Mike I can’t answer all your questions but I hope I can answer some of them. The ones I can’t answer I will try to get the answers for you. You make some very good points.
In regards to Lindenwood University, we interviewed President Spellmann and he has responded to some of your questions in an article that begins on page three. The rest of your questions regarding Lindenwood University will be addressed in our next issue. We did learn from residents around Lindenwood University that the value of their homes and the assessed valuations have risen dramatically since Lindenwood began acquiring properties. We have been unable to locate one individual who sold their home to the University who regrets the sale or who was forced to sell for less than market value. If you know of any we would like to interview them. We also learned that any property owned by the University that is not used for educational purposes is subject to taxes. We are also going to try to find answers to your other questions. Thank you for being a reader of the First Capitol News.
Dear Editor,
Mr. Paul Jokerst wrote a letter in another publication today. It started me to think about the situation in Ward 7 and what could be done. Mr. Jokerst said in his letter that he wanted a change in the politics of St. Charles and he wanted it done fast. Precisely! That is why ward 7 voted for Dottie Greer because we knew she would represent us well and do things for our ward. She also worked on the things we asked her to do-such as cutting down on the endless spending, get more tourists for South Main, the cost and the free spending on the Convention Center. I could go with more and you may hear it in another letter.
Let’s change the subject. The recall committee is part and parcel of Patti’s friends and moneyed people. She was upset at losing three votes for her wants and needs on the council. She wanted to eliminate two of the newly elected councilmen. They thought Mrs. Greer would be the best to eliminate. How they hooked up with Linda Meyer is a mystery. By the way Linda Meyer is the only circulator who lives in Ward 7. What does that tell you? They paid the circulators $5.00 a signature. Hence we have all these duplications of signatures. True you can only pick them up when the list is alphabetized. There are enough to raise serious questions about the validity of the petitions.
Now then let’s get to the bottom of “they denied the wishes of the Ward 7 voters.” Did you hear of the intimidation we had to endure from the circulators? Some of them were rude, trying to force people to sign when they said no, constantly coming around looking for more signatures.
The opposition of Mrs. Greer in the city election hired people or their supporters hired people to go around and steal Mrs. Greer’s Election signs in yards. They would also do damage to the front yards of the “traitors.” The Greer’s and the people around them have had to endure a lot from these hired thugs. On Fourth of July the house catty corner from the Greer’s shot off $700.00 worth of fireworks at the Greer house. It sounded like TNT. We as neighbors thought of calling the police but thought they wouldn’t be much help because of the recall committee. The big question is who bought the fireworks for these kids? We have our suspicions.
I do agree with you Mr. Jokerst. Councilmen should not be recalled. Our forefathers gave us the right to vote and that the votes should stand until the next election These recalls strike me as nothing but an anarchy rising.
Mr. Jokerst there are3,678 eligible voters in Ward 7. Only 742 names were accepted on the petition. Tell me who has the stronger position in the ward. Is it the voters who didn’t sign the petition or the ones who did sign the petition?
A message to anyone who is thinking about voting for the recall-THINK about our forefathers fighting for us to have the right to vote and be free of intimidation and anarchy.
Ward 7 voter
Dear Editor:
Judging from the display of the tyrannical outburst at the November 15th council meeting by Mike Kielty, I request my name be withheld from this letter. Thank you for doing so. I had no idea the group trying to gain total control of St. Charles, two council members at a time, were so dangerously desperate. Three trips by petition pushers, wanting to get rid of Mrs. Greer, were made to our home. Reason given for wanting her off the council was “because of the fireworks”, which to me was stupid beyond belief. The insane outburst by Kielty convinced me that the members mentioned in the screaming fit were the ones who work for the betterment of this town with the taxpaying citizens always in consideration. Now, that’s a whole new approach to governing St. Charles and must not be allowed to continue and which I now realize has to be the reason for this urgency to remove these “first” two council members by doing and saying whatever it takes. So be afraid St. Charles residents. Be VERY AFRAID and observant. You now know, thanks to the Tuesday’s Tantrum, which wards are on the “hit list”.
Respectfully, a citizen and taxpayer , I would like my name withheld. Thank you.
First Capitol News
This letter is in response to Linda Covilli’s letter in the St. Charles Journal dated Wednesday, November 16, 2005.
Ms. Covilli needs to know that I Co-Sponsored the Resolution to keep our Grade Schools open. She also needs to know that I had personal reasons for leaving the meeting that night. Which will remain private and personal.
I fully support the schools in my Ward. I have obtained Double Fine Zone signs for the schools in my Ward and speed bumps on streets where the children’s safety was being compromised. There soon will be a flashing light installed at one of the Elementary Schools for the children’s safety.
In the future I would appreciate a phone call from Ms. Covilli before she decides to write a negative Letter To The Editor without all the facts.
Dottie Greer, Council Representative Ward 7
St Charles
Dear Editor:
For some years now St. Charles has been relentlessly waging war on its poor. We seem to be conducting a “war on poverty”, not by helping the poor, not by attempting to eradicate the root causes of being poor, but by driving the poor from our community. We are driving them beyond our boundaries, thus placing them out of sight, where we won’t be constantly reminded that the poor are always with us, where we won’t have to feel guilty about what we have and what they don’t, where we won’t have to worry about their impact on our sacred property values. There seems to be an insidious master plan which has at its heart the express purpose of eventually eradicating every vestige of low and modest income housing in our city. We have been continually destroying this housing but we are not replacing it. We are instead building very expensive homes and condominiums around the periphery of our City. The poor have nowhere to go. The latest example is Powell Terrace.
This project, part of Lindenwood’s expansion, will affect the most vulnerable in our community. This housing will not be replaced in kind and these people will have no place to go. Back in November of 2002 City officials held meetings to determine what could be done to help the people of Powell Terrace and their neighborhood. At that time mayoral candidate Dan Foust voiced his opinion. “We should go in and bulldoze it and start all over.” Helping these people to improve their neighborhood and their lives is one thing. Simply eliminating their neighborhood with nothing to replace it is something else. There have been many jokes regarding what to do with Powell Terrace. Poverty is no joke. It is a tragedy.
A year or two ago the First Capitol News described a new thoroughfare being proposed between First Capitol Drive and Boones Lick. Hearing nothing further, many of us thought it had died. Just recently it surfaced again. It looks like this road would wipe out much of Powell Terrace. There seems to be a desire to connect Lindenwood College with the Convention Center. I am puzzled. I haven’t figured out whether it is intended that Lindenwood students will attend conventions as part of their education or whether the conventioneers are expected to study at Lindenwood the short time they are here in town. We will just have to wait and see.
Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ said, “The poor you will always have with you.” He knew us pretty well, didn’t he? His favorite people were the poor. His favorite topic was the poor. We don’t seem to have made much progress with this problem down through the centuries. We also don’t seem to have been following his example or his teachings. We are too busy making money.
Perhaps there are no solutions for these problems. I cannot see any. I have brought this up, not because I have any solutions, but to make you more aware that sometimes our gain is someone else’s pain, and that these conveniences and this progress, if that it be, has been achieved at the expense of someone else’s involuntary sacrifice, a sacrifice made by people least equipped to handle it. I would hope that our city planners would make every effort to design these projects so as to impact the fewest numbers of people, especially those who are most vulnerable. I realize that we cannot impede the wheels of progress, but must these wheels always roll over the backs of our poor? St. Charles have a heart.
Glen Dashner
Dear Editor:
(11-22-05)
Last week First Capitol News featured a picture of what appeared to be a Missouri, bloated, thin-lipped toad glaring down his nose through a pair of sunglasses. I could not see the rest of his body, but I can only assume, caught with his pants down (cell phone in pocket).
This week features “Chip-off-the ole toad”; “eyes glaring, ranting and in an uncontrolled rage trying to scare or intimidate people into backing down.
Let’s talk about the real motives behind all this theatrical “bull”, and I do mean bull. Trying to take attention away from a certain phone call? Trying to take attention away for the real reasons for recalls and who is really behind the whole thing. No secret there. Some names keep popping up. Motives? I think it is called power, money and greed.
There has got to be a special place in hell for such people.
P.J.
Dear editor,
After reading the recent articles about the school district of St. Charles’ financial problems and the decline in attendance at some schools, numerous questions come to mind.
First. How many students would be attending these schools if the neighboring homes were occupied by a family with children instead of Lindenwood students?
Second. How many tax dollars would be paid into the school district by families living in these homes? Lindenwood does not pay taxes to the city.
Third. What is the amount of revenue that is no longer paid by Norm’s Wheel Horse Barn, Penny Window, St. Charles Plumbing Supply, Hackmann Lumber, Mope’s, First Capitol Four Wheel Drive, and all the other businesses and homes that have been pushed out by Lindenwood? I would bet that would go a long way to paying the money needed by the school district. Even if it is not all the needed funds, it is still more than being paid by the University.
Fourth. By closing Blackhurst and Lincoln, how large will the classes be at the schools to which these students are moved? Plus, if we close schools, then why is there a proposed tax increase? I can understand paying higher taxes to keep schools open, but if I’m paying higher taxes to close schools, then I question the decision making process here.
Fifth. Once these schools would be closed, who will buy the buildings? You can bet it will be Lindenwood , and they will start to swallow up the houses around them and destroy those neighborhoods. Even the larger homes will be bought up and turned into apartments or fraternities or something similar. Then we will have even fewer school children in the area and fewer tax-paying homeowners. Also, if the buildings are purchased, then where does that revenue go? It would make sense that it would offset the costs of the proposed tax increase, unless the city is planning on donating these buildings to another institution. More than likely, the buildings will be sold at a loss like the old police station.
In general, it’s foolish to close schools. I would like to see published attendance figures. Are classrooms empty? Are class sizes shrinking? These are good reasons. We have a casino down the street and a huge billboard on I-70 that states how much gambling has donated to education.
Now, the city is going ahead with plans to put a thoroughfare through Powell Terrace. And who is this new street for? Lindenwood, of course. There was an easy way to get through the area at one time, but Boone Street was closed for the First Capitol re-alignment, which only added parking for Lindenwood.
Residents on the South side of 70 should be concerned with this as well, even though Lindenwood is not taking your neighborhoods yet, your taxes are still going to go up to make up for the lost revenue from the University owned properties. A 40 cent increase in taxes per $100 of assessed value equals an additional $600 on a $150,000 home. Are you willing to pay that each year to subsidize Mr Spellmann’s hunger for more land? Why do they need to keep getting so much larger? Growth is not always good.
The vote to proceed with the new project through Powell Terrace was passed by an 8-2 vote. Why do so many of our elected officials continue to allow Mr. Spellmann and Co. to gobble up our town? Why do they look out for Lindenwood interests and ignore the taxpaying residents? No matter who is on the council in the recent years, Lindenwood still gets the nod over tax-paying residents like you and me. Why do they allow these projects to go ahead when they benefit no one but Lindenwood? Why was the project to fix the flooding in Pearl Ridge voted down, and then $130,000+ approved to start the preliminary work to go through Powell Terrace? The council cannot agree to fix problems that are needed by residents, but agree to destroy the homes of Powell Terrace residents. Many who have lived in this area for decades. According to the papers, the city budget faces a one million dollar shortfall and the school budget is facing a shortage too. Now the city wants to spend $16.9 million to put a new road from Lindenwood to the convention center. Please explain that logic to me. Do the students really need a faster way to get to the conventions? I don’t believe they do. Many of the new council members vowed to stand up to the special interests in this city, but it appears only a few are trying. To the rest, I hope everyone remembers them at election time. But I suppose Lindenwood would get any new members to vote their way as well. Money talks.
Mike Femmer
Editor’s response:
Mike I can’t answer all your questions but I hope I can answer some of them. The ones I can’t answer I will try to get the answers for you. You make some very good points.
In regards to Lindenwood University, we interviewed President Spellmann and he has responded to some of your questions in an article that begins on page three. The rest of your questions regarding Lindenwood University will be addressed in our next issue. We did learn from residents around Lindenwood University that the value of their homes and the assessed valuations have risen dramatically since Lindenwood began acquiring properties. We have been unable to locate one individual who sold their home to the University who regrets the sale or who was forced to sell for less than market value. If you know of any we would like to interview them. We also learned that any property owned by the University that is not used for educational purposes is subject to taxes. We are also going to try to find answers to your other questions. Thank you for being a reader of the First Capitol News.
Dear Editor,
Mr. Paul Jokerst wrote a letter in another publication today. It started me to think about the situation in Ward 7 and what could be done. Mr. Jokerst said in his letter that he wanted a change in the politics of St. Charles and he wanted it done fast. Precisely! That is why ward 7 voted for Dottie Greer because we knew she would represent us well and do things for our ward. She also worked on the things we asked her to do-such as cutting down on the endless spending, get more tourists for South Main, the cost and the free spending on the Convention Center. I could go with more and you may hear it in another letter.
Let’s change the subject. The recall committee is part and parcel of Patti’s friends and moneyed people. She was upset at losing three votes for her wants and needs on the council. She wanted to eliminate two of the newly elected councilmen. They thought Mrs. Greer would be the best to eliminate. How they hooked up with Linda Meyer is a mystery. By the way Linda Meyer is the only circulator who lives in Ward 7. What does that tell you? They paid the circulators $5.00 a signature. Hence we have all these duplications of signatures. True you can only pick them up when the list is alphabetized. There are enough to raise serious questions about the validity of the petitions.
Now then let’s get to the bottom of “they denied the wishes of the Ward 7 voters.” Did you hear of the intimidation we had to endure from the circulators? Some of them were rude, trying to force people to sign when they said no, constantly coming around looking for more signatures.
The opposition of Mrs. Greer in the city election hired people or their supporters hired people to go around and steal Mrs. Greer’s Election signs in yards. They would also do damage to the front yards of the “traitors.” The Greer’s and the people around them have had to endure a lot from these hired thugs. On Fourth of July the house catty corner from the Greer’s shot off $700.00 worth of fireworks at the Greer house. It sounded like TNT. We as neighbors thought of calling the police but thought they wouldn’t be much help because of the recall committee. The big question is who bought the fireworks for these kids? We have our suspicions.
I do agree with you Mr. Jokerst. Councilmen should not be recalled. Our forefathers gave us the right to vote and that the votes should stand until the next election These recalls strike me as nothing but an anarchy rising.
Mr. Jokerst there are3,678 eligible voters in Ward 7. Only 742 names were accepted on the petition. Tell me who has the stronger position in the ward. Is it the voters who didn’t sign the petition or the ones who did sign the petition?
A message to anyone who is thinking about voting for the recall-THINK about our forefathers fighting for us to have the right to vote and be free of intimidation and anarchy.
Ward 7 voter
Dear Editor:
Judging from the display of the tyrannical outburst at the November 15th council meeting by Mike Kielty, I request my name be withheld from this letter. Thank you for doing so. I had no idea the group trying to gain total control of St. Charles, two council members at a time, were so dangerously desperate. Three trips by petition pushers, wanting to get rid of Mrs. Greer, were made to our home. Reason given for wanting her off the council was “because of the fireworks”, which to me was stupid beyond belief. The insane outburst by Kielty convinced me that the members mentioned in the screaming fit were the ones who work for the betterment of this town with the taxpaying citizens always in consideration. Now, that’s a whole new approach to governing St. Charles and must not be allowed to continue and which I now realize has to be the reason for this urgency to remove these “first” two council members by doing and saying whatever it takes. So be afraid St. Charles residents. Be VERY AFRAID and observant. You now know, thanks to the Tuesday’s Tantrum, which wards are on the “hit list”.
Respectfully, a citizen and taxpayer , I would like my name withheld. Thank you.
Case In Point By Joe Koester, Councilman Ward 9
Case In Point
“The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil”
November 15th, 2005 was a night of hypocrisy at its finest. A group of well-financed citizens came to city hall and ranted about how the five of us (you know the names by now) have been intimidating and vengeful ever since election of April 2004. Never mind that two of the original “intimidators” now vote in lockstep with three other council members and have taken great measures to exact revenge on councilman Brown by stalling any solution to flooding in the Pearl Ridge Subdivision; forget that the recall is financed by an out-of-town P.R. firm and local developer that have spent more money than the ten council members spent combined in their original election. Forget too, that it is their man, Bob Hoepfner who pushed for the mayor’s removal from the dais after she personally campaigned against him! Forget that it was this same group who had an airplane fly over Mark Brown’s neighborhood party with recall banners in town and the same group that has started an advertisement sheet with the sole purpose of attacking any council who stands against their agenda. Forget that one of their own called a constituent of mine and threatened him with physical harm if he saw him alone on the street…
No, it is the five council members, they claim, who have been intimidating and vengeful!
Here are the events that make us so awful:
Denying a county development access to our sewage treatment without annexing into our City…
Moving the mayor to an administrative position per the request of one of their own, Mr. Hoepfner…
Inheriting a vacancy in the chief of police position and then fighting for the candidate that we all (each and every councilman agreed he was the best candidate along with a separate selection committee and the administrator) believed was the best choice.
How dare we! There were always struggles on council from the start, but nothing that wasn’t run of the mill – politics as usual.
The original seven members who were interested in doing right by our City prevailed on new health insurance and the result has been a savings of more than $700,000 in the first year! This alone in the face of rising health care costs is a positive move for Saint Charles – but not so in the eyes of those backed by big money who mostly come from outside of our city borders. Their spin is that we should not have rocked the boat and simply wasted $700,000 too much and just got along. Oh, and do business with their select friends.
Part of the bizarre conflict that I now find myself in the middle of goes back to a Byzantine feud between Ken Kielty and Rory Riddler and perhaps as few as two people understand this war.
About two or three years ago, I made an attempt to get to the bottom of this battle royal and got nowhere. Rory says that the hatred is one-sided and that he doesn’t hate Ken. Kielty agreed to go out for a beer sometime and elaborate his reasons for hating Rory so much. To date, I know as little about this conflict than I did back then.
But, back to the current council five-to-five split. Early on, movers and shakers pigeonholed council and since I knew Riddler, I was considered a plant. Arriving new to council I sided with those pledging to cut waste in our city budget. Rory had always been helpful and an advocate at city hall. Had my former councilman had been Bob Kneemiller, I probably would have had the same sentiment towards him. There is much that was done prior to my service on the council that I’m sure I would have disagreed with Mr. Riddler on. There is much I have agreed with Mr. Kneemiller on.
Having said all of this and digressing greatly, one thing has become obvious to me in my short time on council – money, not elections, determine who guides city government. I admit my naïveté in just how important money is at this level in every aspect of what happens at city hall.
Money buys public sentiment; news coverage and news slant this way or that way. Money can buy special state laws and new elections when the outcome isn’t what you like.
Certainly, it would be more honest to do away with wards and simply create sponsorship – the top ten highest bidders would install their own yes-men in city hall. The top dollar bidder would pick mayor.
So then, on November 15th, the usual voices claimed intimidation on the part of five council members. They misspoke. They meant to say, audacity – as in, “How dare you have the audacity to challenge our reign!” Many of these guys play the victim while rage and hate streams from their pens and mouths. The whole time this goes on, no one claiming to be Christian supports or attempts reconciliation, forgiveness, or charity. We have plenty of Crusaders around town, where are those in the role of Saint Francis?
So, for the record, I was told that in lieu of the Clerk swearing me in, Judge Lohmar was asked to swear in a couple of council members. The Judge was dad’s friend and I thought it an honor if he performed the duty. This, and not revenge, was why I asked Lohmar to swear me in (what would I have been seeking revenge for?).
It was Bob Hoepfner’s recommendation that the mayor should be seated with administration rather than with legislators and it was he who told us that he had spoken with the mayor and she agreed.
If St. Andrew’s were annexed I would have voted for this development hooking into our city sewers; my vote had nothing to do with Mr. Hughes’ support of my opponent. That is his right – I have no malice towards either him or my opponent!
It was because I felt Bob Lowery was the superior choice presented to us that I fought for his appointment, not for a petty fight with the mayor and certainly not to mindlessly oppose the police!
To this very day, I do not seek revenge on anyone; I do not have hatred towards anyone regardless of his or her politics. I am doing the best for my community, not my business or pocketbook. Can everyone involved in these things say the same before pointing fingers?
I do not measure my hometown in terms of personal profit potential, but rather, what is best for the long-term welfare of my community!
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Luke 6:41-43
THE CITY DESK - City Council President Rory Riddler
Rebel Ladies Employ Ingenuity
To Hide Their Nation’s Flag
The Tale Of Manchester’s Rebel Flag
Years ago I purchased an antique volume called The Pictorial Book Of Anecdotes And Incidents Of The Rebellion, published here in St. Louis by an F. H. Mason in 1889 and written by a Frazar Kirkland. It is a collection of short anecdotal stories during the Civil War taken from all parts of the country.
As Civil War enthusiasts and scholars will tell you, information from incidents West of the Mississippi (or Trans-Mississippi theater) are harder to come by. So finding a volume printed in St. Louis gave me hope of perhaps uncovering some small incident that would offer fresh perspective on that period of our regional history.
What I found was a short, but intriguing story of rebel women in St. Louis County and their efforts to secret a giant rebel flag from a search party of soldiers sent to capture this symbol of defiance.
Unfortunately none of the stories, including this one, attributed the source of the material. In a somewhat typical Victorian manner, the volume is a jumbled collection that darts back and forth in time, grouping stories around general topics. In the preface, the author says the stories came from official records, personal remembrances, letters and newspaper stories he collected over a five year period of time. Newspapers of the time were particularly notorious for inaccuracy and memories can grow faulty with time.
Could this 154 year old story stand up to modern scrutiny? I set out to put it to the test. But first, here is the story as it appears in the book:
Hiding The Flag - Female Artifice
The Federal commander at camp Herron, Missouri, having learned that a certain very fine secession flag that waved defiantly from a flagstaff in the village of Manchester, twenty miles distant from the camp, (until the success of the Union forces caused its supporters to conclude that, for the present, “discretion would be the better part of valor,”) was still very carefully preserved, its possessors boasting that they would soon be enabled to re-hoist it; determined upon its summary capture.
On the 15th of November, 1861, First Lieutenant Bull, of Company C, Ninth Iowa regiment was directed to take charge of this little expedition, and to detail fifteen good men for the purpose, which detail the Lieutenant made from Company C.
They left camp by cars at half-past five o-clock in the afternoon, landing at Merrimac, three miles from Manchester, proceeding from thence to Manchester on foot, and surrounded the house of Squire B., who had been foremost in the secession movement of that strong secession town, and was reported to be in possession of the flag in question.
But the ‘Squire protested against the imputation, declaring that the flag was not in his possession, and that he knew not of its whereabouts. His lady acknowledged that she had for a time kept it secreted in a box in the garden, but as it was likely to become injured, she took it out, dried it in the sun, when it was taken away by some ladies who lived a long distance in the country, whose names she refused to give. Finally, after a thorough but fruitless search of the house, after the Lieutenant had put her husband under arrest. And he was started off to head-quarters, the lady, probably hoping it would save her husband, acknowledged that it was taken by a Mrs. S., who resided a mile and a half in the country, - not such a terribly long distance, after all. Her husband was then sent to Merrimac, escorted by four soldiers, and the remainder, conducted by the gallant Lieutenant, started to visit the residence of Mrs. S., in search of the flag.
The distance to the lady’s residence was soon traveled, the house surrounded, and the flag demanded of Mrs. S., who proved to be a very intelligent lady, and had around her quite an interesting family. The lady replied to the demand, that she would like to see the person who stated that she took the flag from Esquire B –‘s; that as to its whereabouts she had nothing to say; that the Lieutenant could search her house, and if he could find any thing that looked like a flag, he was welcome to it. Accordingly, a thorough search was made, but no flag was to be found. The lady then thanked the officer for the gentlemanly manner in which the search had been conducted, and added that she trusted he was satisfied. He replied that he was quite satisfied that she had the flag, and that it would have been far better for her to have yielded it; but as she did not, as unpleasant as the task was, he would arrest her and take her to head-quarters at Pacific City.
Two men were then dispatched for a carriage with which to convey the lady to Merrimac, and from thence the lady was informed that she would be sent by railroad. She accordingly made preparation to go, but after an hour had elapsed in waiting for the carriage, the lady again demanded the name of the informants, and when told that it was Mrs. B., and that Esquire B. was already in custody, she then asked whether any indignity would have been offered to her had the flag been found in her possession. To this the courteous Lieutenant replied:
“Certainly not, Madam; our object with Esquire B. was his arrest and the capture of the flag; but with you, our object was the flag.”
“Will you pledge your honor,” said she,”that if I surrender the flag I shall not be arrested, nor my family disturbed.”
“You will not be arrested, nor your family disturbed.”
“I wish you to understand, Sir, that no fear of arrest or trouble would ever have made me surrender that flag; but Squire B.’s family induced me to take that flag to save them from trouble, saying that it should be a sacred trust, known only to ourselves, and I consequently surrender it.”
She then went to a bed that had been fruitlessly searched, took from it a quilt, and with the aid of her daughters, proceeded to open the edges of the quilt, and cut the stitches through the body of it, and pulled off the top, when, behold! There lay the mammoth flag next to the cotton, being carefully stitched twice and nearly a half across the quilt. When taken out and spread, it proved to be a magnificent flag, over twenty-one feet in length, and nearly nine feet in width, with fifteen stars to represent the prospective Southern Confederacy.
“Recollect,” said the lady to Lieutenant Bull,” that you did not find it yourself, and when you wish detectives you had better employ ladies.”
She also added that she gave up the flag unwillingly. The daughter remarked that she had slept under it, and that she loved it, and that fifteen stars were not so terribly disunion - in her estimation - after all.
Putting History To The Test
I decided to double check information contained in the story to look for any glaring inconsistencies with official records. There are numerous on-line resources these days to help amateur history sleuths like me. I started with checking the unit history of the 9th Iowa mentioned in the story. Unit histories are available on-line at the civilwararchive.com and are reprinted from A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion by Frederick H. Dyer. If the 9th Iowa wasn’t in the vicinity at the time specified, there would be reason to doubt the entire story.
As it turned out, the 9th Iowa Regiment of Infantry (organized in Dubuque) was exactly where it was suppose to be. They were moved to Franklin County on October 11, 1861to guard the railroad line until January 1862. The incident of our story is said to have taken place on November 15, 1861. Pacific is in Franklin County and local sources confirm there was a Civil War camp there. It was an important railroad facility that Federal forces would be anxious to protect. Camp Herron, would most likely have been named for then Lieutenant Colonel Francis. Jay Herron, commander of the 9th Iowa.
The National Parks Service website was the next one I visited. They maintain an on-line record of every veteran of the Civil War. While the records aren’t detailed on individuals, they are enough to confirm if a particular person did serve in the war. For more in-depth research, our own Kathryn Linnemann Library maintains compiled service records on microfilm.
In this case I wanted to check on the “gallant” Lieutenant Bull. Was he a real officer and member of this unit? As it happens there was a 1st Lieutenant Hiram C. Bull who served in the 9th Iowa and was later promoted to Captain.
That’s three for three...the unit history puts them in the right place at the right time, the name of camp matches the commander of the unit and we’ve identified the Union officer of the story. But what about the physical locations of the story?
We know Pacific was a rail center, so getting on the rail cars for transport was highly likely, especially for an infantry unit without horses. Manchester is approximately the right distance from Pacific, but the story says they left the train at a place called Merrimac (as spelled in the book) and then marched three miles to Manchester.
A map which appeared in Harper’s Weekly on October 19, 1861 (just a month before our story), shows the locations of important rail lines and stations in the region. Right where you would expect to find Pacific, it shows the town of Franklin. The name of the town was changed from Franklin to Pacific in 1859 in honor of the Pacific Railroad. At the time of the Civil War, this line ran from St. Louis to Tipton Missouri. Apparently Harper’s Weekly hadn’t updated their map.
This Civil War era map also shows a place called “Meramec” or perhaps more appropriately Meramec Station. It was the site of an early ferry crossing and later would be platted as the site of Valley Park. From here, Meramec Station Road ran roughly due north to intersect with Manchester Road. It is clearly the station from which one would disembark to reach Manchester. It also fits the distance the military detail is said to have marched from the station to Manchester, approximately three miles.
Everything was falling into place, but the flag itself. The description of the flag didn’t seem to fit the time-line. Did it have too many stars?
The First National Flag of the Confederacy was suppose to have one star for each member State. Missouri and Kentucky were the 12th and 13th States admitted to the Confederacy by an act of the Confederate Congress. But Missouri’s entry wasn’t approved till November 28th and Kentucky’s not till December 10th. A First National Flag existing prior to the date of the story would have had 11 stars. The flag in our story was described twice as bearing fifteen stars.
The answer, as is often the case, came with further research. Most of the surviving examples of First National Flags of the Confederacy are from East of the Mississippi. So general descriptions tended to favor the accepted one star for each State pattern. A survey of those in the Trans-Mississippi theater from this time, however, showed flags tended to have thirteen to fifteen stars. One star was often larger than the others and in the center of a circle of stars. The number of stars on our flag was consistent with surviving examples. It’s large size, 9’ x 21’, was “mammoth”, but not unheard of to demonstrate a communities partisan sympathies and inspire patriotic fervor on both sides.
The description of the Manchester Rebel Flag passed muster.
Every fact mentioned in the story checked out. But who were Esquire B. who was arrested, his wife Mrs. B or Mrs. S. and her daughters? There names had intentionally been left out of the story as a courtesy. Many local histories of this post-War period gloss over the activities of those siding with the secessionists, sometimes mentioning only the “recent unpleasantness”. Consider it part of the good manners of the Victorians, that can drive a historiographer to distraction.
With a little more “detective” work, I believe the location of the two homes can be pinpointed and the identities of these St. Louis County secessionists revealed. There is a recently rediscovered 1869 plat available for St. Louis County. Some good census and title research could help solve some of the remaining mystery of this story.
There is one intriguing Provost record on-line at the Secretary of State’s website. These are the surviving records of what served as the military police and domestic intelligence gathering apparatus of the Federal Government. The document is dated January 23, 1862 (a little over two months from the date of our incident) and states the reasons for the arrest of a William D. Bacon of Manchester for disloyalty.
William Bacon inherited his grandfather’s 700 acre farm in 1849. It was situated on both sides of Henry Avenue and Woodsmill south of Clayton Road and was worked by slaves. The Bacon Log Home (it’s a little too big to call a cabin) is still there at 687 Spring Avenue at Spring Meadows Drive in what is now Ballwin. It is maintained as a local historic site and museum.
Interestingly, “Old” Meramec Station Road is almost in line with the old Bacon farmstead, though the log home is another mile beyond Manchester Road. William was married like the character from our story. His wife’s name was Sarah. The family certainly had “motive” given their strong southern sympathies, but so did others. The strongest circumstantial evidence, however, is the use of the term Squire and Esquire by the writer to describe the gentleman. This could be a clue to denote a member of the “landed gentry” of the time - a sizeable landowner - as opposed to a small farmer, craftsman or merchant.
Perhaps William D. Bacon is Esquire B. or, perhaps he was just another rebel sympathizer in a community our story describes as “a strong secession town”.
Once the identities of these individuals are uncovered that will still leave one mystery unanswered. Who or what was the source of the information for the story? The article itself seems too accurate to have come from a newspaper report of the time. It also doesn’t seem to be from the perspective of just one of the participants.
If I had to venture a guess, I would say it was composed by a later writer with access to an official report of Lieutenant Bull or perhaps testimony collected in the form of letters for a trial. That would help to explain the exacting detail, almost like reading a police report. The balance in the story, not portraying one side or the other as right or wrong, would tend to indicate it was written after the end of hostilities when old animosities were fading.
I’m happy to have added a small footnote to this story by helping to confirm the role of these Missouri women in the Civil War and to perhaps add more local color to the histories of Manchester, Ballwin and Pacific.
That’s as far as I can take the story for now. Perhaps I will take the advice of the ingenious Mrs. S., however, and “employ ladies” when I need further detective work done.
Comments & COMMENTARY by CHARLES HILL
I think I might have figured out why Main Street seems destined to fail. The recent River Front Times issue that highlights the fact that there are changes in the Los Posadas celebration is just one of the symptoms. We are not going to have Paul Mydler and V’Anne playing the part of Joseph and the Inn Keeper. To top it off we aren’t going to have Venetia playing the part of Mary. The gal pal is upset Christmas traditions is hiring actors to play the parts. Well having her play the part of the blessed mother is truly acting. These individuals as well as Gene Wood and Archie Scott could have said no comment when the reporter called. After all there isn’t a law that says you have to talk to reporters. Instead, with all the Christmas spirit they could muster they talked and desecrated a sacred event because of their petty and immature belief that they are entitled to something.
You all remember the Mydler’s. They are the couple that lives on Boone’s Lick Road, which was recently reconstructed using tax dollars generated in the City, County and State. The cars they drive all have Illinois license plates. You see using our tax dollars are okay, but when it comes to paying our taxes it isn’t. Mydlers and Mayor York joined together to fight against the Convention Center tax as well that they were required to pay on their bed and breakfast businesses. I guess paying taxes is for the little people and that playing a part in the parade should be reserved for these pillars in the community.
Woods isn’t a resident, lives in West County, yet he understands Main Street. His comment the “Mall paradigm just doesn’t work here” is genius. How do we go from, who rides the donkey, down the street, to Mall paradigm? The ringleader of the preservation of everything, Archie Scott, has taken this street and strangled it. He wants preservation but doesn’t want any business that can truly turn a buck. Scott talks about the roots of Main Street, yet the roots of Main Street don’t have shops that sell crafts, quilts and nick-knacks. Main Street of yesteryear was vibrant and full of life. I work on Main Street, saw pictures of Main Street, read history of Main Street. Mr. Scott this is not Main Street. Main Street in the past had businesses that catered to the local needs because that is what Main Street was all about. What you have done is created a bastard child that nobody understands or wants. Please don’t get me wrong the buildings are beautifully reproduced or reconstructed but the ambiance is missing.
As long as you have this type of people shooting at anything and everything, Main Street is destined to fail. To think that they would place themselves above the best interest of the City of St. Charles and let this story hit the streets. What do these people all have in common other than Main Street? They all support Mayor York. You see this is the type of negative press that the Mayor and her spin-doctors thrive on. They don’t care who gets hit in the cross fire as long as they can practice the politics of personal destruction. So why is Main Street destined to fail? It is really simple, you have people involved that don’t understand what it takes to be positive.
You all remember the Mydler’s. They are the couple that lives on Boone’s Lick Road, which was recently reconstructed using tax dollars generated in the City, County and State. The cars they drive all have Illinois license plates. You see using our tax dollars are okay, but when it comes to paying our taxes it isn’t. Mydlers and Mayor York joined together to fight against the Convention Center tax as well that they were required to pay on their bed and breakfast businesses. I guess paying taxes is for the little people and that playing a part in the parade should be reserved for these pillars in the community.
Woods isn’t a resident, lives in West County, yet he understands Main Street. His comment the “Mall paradigm just doesn’t work here” is genius. How do we go from, who rides the donkey, down the street, to Mall paradigm? The ringleader of the preservation of everything, Archie Scott, has taken this street and strangled it. He wants preservation but doesn’t want any business that can truly turn a buck. Scott talks about the roots of Main Street, yet the roots of Main Street don’t have shops that sell crafts, quilts and nick-knacks. Main Street of yesteryear was vibrant and full of life. I work on Main Street, saw pictures of Main Street, read history of Main Street. Mr. Scott this is not Main Street. Main Street in the past had businesses that catered to the local needs because that is what Main Street was all about. What you have done is created a bastard child that nobody understands or wants. Please don’t get me wrong the buildings are beautifully reproduced or reconstructed but the ambiance is missing.
As long as you have this type of people shooting at anything and everything, Main Street is destined to fail. To think that they would place themselves above the best interest of the City of St. Charles and let this story hit the streets. What do these people all have in common other than Main Street? They all support Mayor York. You see this is the type of negative press that the Mayor and her spin-doctors thrive on. They don’t care who gets hit in the cross fire as long as they can practice the politics of personal destruction. So why is Main Street destined to fail? It is really simple, you have people involved that don’t understand what it takes to be positive.
THE CONSERVATIVE FACTOR - Alex Spencer
I’d personally like to stop writing about St. Peters Mayor Shawn “Skippy” Brown. But, he has one of the worst cases of foot-in-mouth disease ever seen.
Last week, before Thanksgiving, Mayor Skippy chatted with another reporter about his latest scandal regarding the Missouri Ethics Commission turning him into Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon for prosecution. He and his wife, Rhonda “Mrs. Skippy” Brown, are under the equivalent of an indictment for setting up an illegal PAC to funnel large contributions from builders to themselves in violation of the campaign finance contribution limits. Shawn told the reporter that Jay Nixon’s office, when interrogating his wife, said that she didn’t need to worry about the charges, that “they were no big deal.” Shawn claims that he’ll clear this up: “We’ll pay the fine and move on.”
Remember, Shawn Brown has made a political career of skirting the law. First, he got kicked off the ballot for not paying his property taxes, but he got Adolphus Bush’s high price lawyers to resolve his little “tax evasion” problem.
Then, during the campaign, news broke that Shawn was wanted by the law for filing a false police report, but Adolphus’s lawyers got those records sealed.
Next, we discovered that he had stiffed his creditors, but apparently that was made legal with the help of a good bankruptcy lawyer.
More recently, Shawn and his partner with a questionable background, Chris Blevins, set up a haunted house to make a quick buck. But Shawn apparently lost money on his carefully orchestrated scheme. After going to a great deal of trouble to hide his involvement by giving misleading information under penalty of perjury to the Secretary of State, specifically giving a misleading reason for his abstention before the Planning and Zoning Commission, and stating quite clearly that he intentionally mislead the public and the Board of Aldermen because “no one needed to know it was the Mayor,” he made a number of bad business decisions in relation to his Haunted House of Fraud. He hired a convicted burglar, wanted by the State of Illinois, to work on the premises. This burglar stole several thousand dollars in equipment on Halloween. Luckily, the St. Peters police recovered the equipment but apparently it was not enough to put things in the black. Reportedly, the Haunted House of Fraud was a money losing proposition.
It seems that Shawn did not have much to be thankful for at Thanksgiving this year. Well, I suppose he is thankful for all those lawyers getting him out of trouble, or actually, I bet he is most thankful for the wink wink, nudge nudge legal system that seem to be willing to allow him to flagrantly violate the law without holding him accountable for his “criminal” conduct.
There is a fairly well-known legal principle that seems to fit Skippy’s pattern: Ignorantia juris non excusat. Translated from Latin, the phrase means “Ignorance of the Law is no Excuse.” This is a common response when you tell the nice police officer that you aren’t from around here and didn’t realize that the speed limit dropped so dramatically around that curve, so you didn’t know and didn’t really mean to speed – the nice police officer hands you a ticket and says that’s too bad but you’re still responsible to follow the law and the posted speed limit is the law.
Apparently Shawn has been playing the “aw shucks, I’m the new guy in town and I don’t know the rules card” with alarming frequency. That excuse might have worked during his first few months in office, but certainly not halfway through his second year. I guess Shawn is doing the best he can for the people of the City of St. Peters – wink wink, nudge nudge.
Recently, allegations surfaced that Shawn was accused of taking money from at least one builder in an effort to influence how their projects would be handled in St. Peters. An investigation was conducted by the Prosecutor’s office. Even though it was reported that the builder in question, Esteem Homes, made a rather generous contribution to Brown’s illegal PAC and co-sponsored a fundraiser to support his re-election, the Prosecutor indicated in a letter closing the matter that no campaign contributions were made to Shawn by Esteem Homes. Shawn reportedly told his supporters that it was no big deal and he worked it out. Apparently with a wink wink, nudge nudge.
Then, Skippy and the Misses found themselves in trouble with the Missouri Ethics Commission. What may appear on the surface to be a minor paperwork issue is actually a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to skirt campaign finance contribution limits. And, there is certainly no acceptable reason for using your City Hall fax machine to conduct campaign business. The Brown’s arrogant and brazen attitude toward breaking Missouri’s campaign finance laws in an effort to line their coffers with ill-gotten gold may finally land them in some hot water…although, according to Shawn himself, the Attorney General says its no big deal – wink wink, nudge nudge. It seems that Shawn has “worked it out” with a wink wink, nudge nudge.
The latest chapter in this sordid tale is the most disturbing. Even this staunch conservative has always thought well of Jay Nixon. If he would protect the sanctity of life with the same zeal that he protects the consumers of the State of Missouri, then the GOP would be in much bigger trouble next year. (My wife has always been a great fan of the No Call List.) The Attorney General’s legal career is quite impressive, yet he has had trouble moving up in the world of politics – it remains to be seen whether he will be a viable opponent for our own Governor Blunt. One might suggest to Jay Nixon that he avoid delving into the political muck of Shawn’s world, and I hope that he doesn’t let Skippy slide on this one! Politics is omnipresent in these situations, and the result is often a wink wink, nudge nudge investigation.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. But in fact, ignorance is the excuse Skippy has given every step of the way. At some point, you would think that Shawn would worry about the consequences of always claiming to be ignorant. However, ignorance is bliss after all, and a nod is as good as a wink to a blind man.
Last week, before Thanksgiving, Mayor Skippy chatted with another reporter about his latest scandal regarding the Missouri Ethics Commission turning him into Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon for prosecution. He and his wife, Rhonda “Mrs. Skippy” Brown, are under the equivalent of an indictment for setting up an illegal PAC to funnel large contributions from builders to themselves in violation of the campaign finance contribution limits. Shawn told the reporter that Jay Nixon’s office, when interrogating his wife, said that she didn’t need to worry about the charges, that “they were no big deal.” Shawn claims that he’ll clear this up: “We’ll pay the fine and move on.”
Remember, Shawn Brown has made a political career of skirting the law. First, he got kicked off the ballot for not paying his property taxes, but he got Adolphus Bush’s high price lawyers to resolve his little “tax evasion” problem.
Then, during the campaign, news broke that Shawn was wanted by the law for filing a false police report, but Adolphus’s lawyers got those records sealed.
Next, we discovered that he had stiffed his creditors, but apparently that was made legal with the help of a good bankruptcy lawyer.
More recently, Shawn and his partner with a questionable background, Chris Blevins, set up a haunted house to make a quick buck. But Shawn apparently lost money on his carefully orchestrated scheme. After going to a great deal of trouble to hide his involvement by giving misleading information under penalty of perjury to the Secretary of State, specifically giving a misleading reason for his abstention before the Planning and Zoning Commission, and stating quite clearly that he intentionally mislead the public and the Board of Aldermen because “no one needed to know it was the Mayor,” he made a number of bad business decisions in relation to his Haunted House of Fraud. He hired a convicted burglar, wanted by the State of Illinois, to work on the premises. This burglar stole several thousand dollars in equipment on Halloween. Luckily, the St. Peters police recovered the equipment but apparently it was not enough to put things in the black. Reportedly, the Haunted House of Fraud was a money losing proposition.
It seems that Shawn did not have much to be thankful for at Thanksgiving this year. Well, I suppose he is thankful for all those lawyers getting him out of trouble, or actually, I bet he is most thankful for the wink wink, nudge nudge legal system that seem to be willing to allow him to flagrantly violate the law without holding him accountable for his “criminal” conduct.
There is a fairly well-known legal principle that seems to fit Skippy’s pattern: Ignorantia juris non excusat. Translated from Latin, the phrase means “Ignorance of the Law is no Excuse.” This is a common response when you tell the nice police officer that you aren’t from around here and didn’t realize that the speed limit dropped so dramatically around that curve, so you didn’t know and didn’t really mean to speed – the nice police officer hands you a ticket and says that’s too bad but you’re still responsible to follow the law and the posted speed limit is the law.
Apparently Shawn has been playing the “aw shucks, I’m the new guy in town and I don’t know the rules card” with alarming frequency. That excuse might have worked during his first few months in office, but certainly not halfway through his second year. I guess Shawn is doing the best he can for the people of the City of St. Peters – wink wink, nudge nudge.
Recently, allegations surfaced that Shawn was accused of taking money from at least one builder in an effort to influence how their projects would be handled in St. Peters. An investigation was conducted by the Prosecutor’s office. Even though it was reported that the builder in question, Esteem Homes, made a rather generous contribution to Brown’s illegal PAC and co-sponsored a fundraiser to support his re-election, the Prosecutor indicated in a letter closing the matter that no campaign contributions were made to Shawn by Esteem Homes. Shawn reportedly told his supporters that it was no big deal and he worked it out. Apparently with a wink wink, nudge nudge.
Then, Skippy and the Misses found themselves in trouble with the Missouri Ethics Commission. What may appear on the surface to be a minor paperwork issue is actually a carefully orchestrated conspiracy to skirt campaign finance contribution limits. And, there is certainly no acceptable reason for using your City Hall fax machine to conduct campaign business. The Brown’s arrogant and brazen attitude toward breaking Missouri’s campaign finance laws in an effort to line their coffers with ill-gotten gold may finally land them in some hot water…although, according to Shawn himself, the Attorney General says its no big deal – wink wink, nudge nudge. It seems that Shawn has “worked it out” with a wink wink, nudge nudge.
The latest chapter in this sordid tale is the most disturbing. Even this staunch conservative has always thought well of Jay Nixon. If he would protect the sanctity of life with the same zeal that he protects the consumers of the State of Missouri, then the GOP would be in much bigger trouble next year. (My wife has always been a great fan of the No Call List.) The Attorney General’s legal career is quite impressive, yet he has had trouble moving up in the world of politics – it remains to be seen whether he will be a viable opponent for our own Governor Blunt. One might suggest to Jay Nixon that he avoid delving into the political muck of Shawn’s world, and I hope that he doesn’t let Skippy slide on this one! Politics is omnipresent in these situations, and the result is often a wink wink, nudge nudge investigation.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. But in fact, ignorance is the excuse Skippy has given every step of the way. At some point, you would think that Shawn would worry about the consequences of always claiming to be ignorant. However, ignorance is bliss after all, and a nod is as good as a wink to a blind man.
Art In Public Spaces Program Launched By Foundry & City
Artist Harry Weber and City Council President Rory Riddler pictured with the clay model of the winning rendition of Daniel Boone. The artist will now produce a life size model to be cast in bronze.Six hundred and fifty art patrons packed the Foundry Arts Center on Friday evening (November 11th) for the unveiling of two major public art initiatives. Last year, at the suggestion of City Council President Rory Riddler, the City provided funding for two programs, one to begin a series of sculptures of famous historic personages of our city and the other to put works of art on display throughout the community. Both programs are being administered by the Foundry under contract with the City of St. Charles.
Ten winning sculptures, selected from dozens of entries, were on display outside of the Foundry. From there, the works will be put on display for one year at various locations. These locations include the Justice Center, the Elm Street Fire Hall, the corner of West Clay and Droste, Tecumseh and north Fourth, Fire Station Number One on Kingshighway, First Capitol near Kingshighway, Fox Hill Park near Cottonwood Drive and the Foundry itself.
The sculptures will remain at these locations for one year. It is anticipated the contest would be an annual one and that new sculptures would then replace these at the end of next year. During the time of public display, the sculptures are for sale, but even if they are purchased, they must remain in place for the contract period.
Each winning sculptor is awarded a small cash prize. There will also be a competition where citizens can vote for their favorite sculpture on-line at the Foundry web site or at the Foundry. At the end of the year the votes will be tallied and a “Peoples Choice Award” will be given in the amount of $5,000.
The Foundry also unveiled the winning entry to produce a statue of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone. Forty-three entries from all over the United States were received. Each artist submitted a small model in clay, called a maquette, of what the finished statue would look like. The winning artist will then be paid to produce a life-size clay model that will then be cast in bronze. At the Friday night event, Foundry Executive Director Joyce Rosen and Board President Grace Nichols, were joined by City Council President Rory Riddler to announce that artist Harry Weber was the winner of the competition and to unveil the clay model of the statue he will produce of Boone.
“We selected Daniel Boone as the first in a series of life-size statues to honor some of the historic people from St. Charles history. The plan is to produce one each year. Future personages so honored could include Saint Philippine Duchesne, Mary Sibley, Jean Baptiste DuSable, Alexander McNair, Arnold Krekel and perhaps more,” explained the originator of the program, Councilman Riddler.
“Daniel Boone was a good place to start. He was a frequent visitor to St. Charles, attended the wedding of his son here and even stayed here for a while with his wife when a grandson was here to attend school. The winning sculpture portrays the frontiersman as he would have looked in his later years, still alert and beckoning visitors to join him on a tree stump to share stories of his adventures.”
ttt
FRENCH CONNECTION Adds restored Vintage & Antique Lighting
The French Connection Announces The Addition of Restored Vintage and Antique Lighting.
The French Connection Antiques at 826 North second St. proudly announces the addition of restored Vintage and Antique lighting. French Connection has been family owned and operated since 1982. “We feel this will be a great compliment to our antique furniture”, says Deloris Barton who with her husband Doug, owns two antique shops on N. Second St.
According to Deloris, “Among the styles we currently have to offer are Victorian, Arts & Crafts, Early Electric & Gas Fixtures, Art Deco, as well as Crystal Chandeliers. Some of our finishes include highly polished, brushed and antique brass, polychrome, faux marble, tole painted, painted wrought iron fixtures and more. We are currently working on some awesome bronze and silver fixtures. We have just acquired a collection of chandeliers by a well-known St. Louis designer. He had a flair for the unusual and was known for quality work. They are one of a kind, you will not find any like them anywhere. Although most of what we have at the present time are ceiling fixtures and chandeliers we also will be adding to our (currently small) stock of lamps and wall sconces. In short, we expect to have a light for everyone’s taste and budget. Our prices currently range from $125, for a modest single light fixture, to $1250 for a five light Cobalt Blue & Brass Chandelier. Although our offerings now are modest, we hope to have 150 to 200 lights by spring of next year, (excluding our newer designer lights)...and we do anticipate steady growth.”
Deloris went on to remark, “This is truly a family business, with everyone having their part to play, and it definitely would not work without our sons, Scott and Brian They do all of the furniture refinishing and restoration for the business. They have their own separate business, (Barton’s Refinishing) for customer work.....they are true professionals.
Deloris told the First Capitol News, “When I first started collecting lights in the spring I could tell our sons were a little skeptical, but my enthusiasm was contagious and I was soon able to enlist their help in the process of cleaning polishing and wiring, etc.”
In addition to customer furniture refinishing and repair Barton’s also offer polishing and/or wiring of customer lights, and sell hard to find replacement parts, including shades, for lighting of all kinds. They stock several kinds of light bulbs including the old painted styles from the 20’s and 30’s, and an awesome long life bulb which truly is long life, and the best part is that it has a softer glow than ordinary frosted bulbs which is great for the old lighting. Other services include furniture re-upholstery (with the emphasis on antiques). They also carry a great line of fabrics perfectly suited to antique furniture.
“We hope that our clients enjoy our lights as much as we enjoy presenting them for their consideration. If you can’t find what you are looking for, don’t hesitate to call on us, chances are we can help, via the many contacts we have in the business. Designers, builders, etc., are welcome,” she said.
The French Connection is located in Frenchtown at 826 N. Second St. Hours are Tues. thru Sat. 10 a.m to 4:30 p.m. Sunday noon to 4:30. Phone number is 636-947-7044
You may shop their online catalog at: www.bartonlighting.com...or....
rubylane.com/shops/frenchconnectionantiques.
FIRST CAPITOL NEWS SPORTS - Mike McMurran Editor
First Capitol News Editor Mike McMurran demonstrating for the Budweiser girls he proper way to hold the ring cards. First Capitol News Photo by Bob BartonMY COLUMN - Mike Mcmurran
Thanksgiving is over – and once again the readers of The First Capitol News have raised their heads in the strangest of places. As I mentioned in my last column, I celebrate Thanksgiving at my brother-in-law’s house. As always, everyone gathered around the spread of food and said Grace. As always I thought the prayer was inappropriate, as there were no less than three present who worship Judaism – but such is the philosophy of my lovely wife’s family. Upon completion of the prayer my wife’s sister, Jeannie, pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and said she had something to read. I must admit I was in the majority as I groaned “its time to eat.” No one in the room was more surprised than I when Jeannie began reading my last column. For one thing, Jeannie lives in Florissant; secondly, no one in my wife’s family reads the newspaper – except for grocery ads. Well, it seems Blake Foster, a resident of St. Charles, and a neighbor of Bob Barton, is (a) a regular reader of this column, and (b) life long friends with my sister-in-law. Regular readers of this column know how much my children mean to me, so they will understand how proud I felt as my son Joe worked his way around the room to stand next to me and tell me “Dad, you’re a star. Aunt Jeannie even reads your paper.”
Now on to sports – that is if you consider deer hunting a sport. My dear (no pun intended) friend Don Oelklaus has been hunting deer, quite successfully I might add, for some years now. Check the records, he has bagged at least one every year he goes out. Each and every year Don returns from his manly hunt with a pictorial documentation of his achievements. I’ve yet to see this year’s collection, but if they are anything last the past few years’ photos, they are worth the wait.
Thanksgiving eve, Bob and I attended the Guns ‘N Hoses event held at the Savvis Center. We were there primarily to cover Chris Kegley of the St. Charles Sheriff’s Department. As a matter of fact I had every intention of departing after Kegley’s bout – it didn’t work out that way. I stuck around to the second to last fight featuring Fred Hohenshell of the Wentzville Fire Protection District. There were no losers Wednesday evening. Oh sure, the officials raised one of the contestants hands at the end of each match, but on this evening everyone was a winner.
Speaking of winners, DeSmet managed to bring home the Class 6 football State Championship. Good thing too, or St. Louis would have been shut out. Finishing 2nd from the St. Louis area was McCluer North in Class 5, Affton in Class 4 and Mary Institute Country Day School in Class 3.
With the fall high school season wrapping up and the winter season just beginning, there is no high school athlete of the week this week. The basketball and wrestling seasons have begun, and St. Charles and St. Charles West held their traditional Thanksgiving eve basketball marathons. This year High managed to pull off varsity wins in both the boys and girls games.
Beginning soon, very soon, Bob Barton has persuaded me to expand our coverage to “Sports and Entertainment.” Now I will be the first to admit I know nothing about entertainment – as a matter of fact, entertainment to me is attending a sporting event. Fear not loyal readers. Bob Barton is far more cultured than I, and is going to expose me to some avenues other than entertainment. For now, enjoy Bob’s pictures, but very soon I will be adding some narratives to Bob’s pictures.
Returning next week will be the Prep Sports Calendar along with the High School Athlete of the week. And of course any entertainment Bob can drag me along to attend. See ya then.
Lindenwood Men’s Hockey
Lindenwood Sweeps Through Michigan – Dearborn Thanksgiving Classic
By: First Capitol News Staff
St. Charles, Mo. – November 28, 2005 – Lindenwood found their winning recipe: timely goal scoring, strong defense, and even stronger goaltending. All three came together over the weekend as the Lions won all three games at the UMD Thanksgiving Classic.
The Lions faced off against Western Michigan on Friday night. Lindenwood took control of play early and never let up in the 4-0 shutout win.
Junior Dan McNabb and sophomore Larry Kopecky scored late in the first period to give the Lions a 2-0 lead going into the second.
Sophomore Joel Herr scored a power-play goal in the second from junior Dave Easterbrook and junior Nathan Hucker. Junior Gary Gardner rounded out the scoring with a goal midway through the third period.
Sophomore goaltender Grahame Lippert was again impressive between the pipes. The 4-0 win for Lippert was his second straight shutout.
On Saturday, Lindenwood continued their winning ways with an 8-5 win, but it did not come easily against Eastern Michigan.
The Lions came out flying with three goals in the first four minutes of the game. Junior Dave Easterbrook scored in the first shift of the game from linemates Bobby Prest and Larry Kopecky.
Junior Steve Schue scored the hat trick for the Lions including an even strength, power-play, and empty net goal. Along with his three goals, Schue also had two assists. Junior Dan McNabb also paced the Lions offense with two goals and two assists.
After the quick start the Lions self-destructed as the Eagles scored three unanswered goals to finish the first period and go into the intermission tied up at four apiece.
Lindenwood regained their composure and their handle on the game in the second and third period. Junior Gary Gardner scored the game winner early in the third period.
Grahame Lippert had his 136 minute shutout streak snapped, but played well enough to get his 10th win of the season. Junior goaltender Ryan Martin was called into duty late in the first period as Lippert was accessed a 10 minute misconduct penalty. During that time Martin stopped all 12 shots he faced and that sparked the Lions.
The Lions finished off the tournament playing the host team Michigan-Dearborn. Lindenwood earlier in the year lost two home games to the Wolves, and wanted to return the favor on Sunday. On the strength of sophomore Larry Kopecky’s hat trick the Lions prevailed 6-3.
Senior Jimmy Merkel’s blast seven minutes into the game knotted the game at 1-1. An even strength goal from freshman Justin McLaughlin gave the Lions a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.
Kopecky scored the first of his three to give the Lions a 3-2 lead going into the third period. His second goal proved to be the game winner as his centering pass deflected off of a Wolves defenseman to slide past goaltender Stephen Yu. Kopecky’s final goal came with the Michigan-Dearborn net empty.
Freshman Travis Bokina also scored at the five minute mark of the third period to give the Lions some much needed breathing room.
Grahame Lippert was unbelievable and at times left UMD players shaking their heads as they left their offensive zone. Lippert stopped 61 of 64 shots he faced and ran his overall record to 11-7-0.
The Lions next home date will be December 2nd and 3rd at 7:00 p.m. against 2nd ranked Ohio University. Those games are played at CenturyTel Ice Arena.
Rage hit the streets and open doors in November
By Mike Thompson
So, how was your holiday? Pretty busy around here at Rage Headquarters…. We were thankful that some windows of opportunity opened wide for us to again offer a helping hand to those in need, get involved with the St. Louis area in a really fun project, and give a look-see to some pretty impressive looking candidates for Rage roster 2006.
The RiverCity Rage of the National Indoor Football League found ways to help the St. Louis community and help themselves during Thanksgiving week 2005. Rage Majority Owner Tye Elliott teamed up with Aflac insurance reps to man a corner for Old Newsboys Day on Thursday November 17th, and together they were able to raise over $1,000. That contribution added to the area total of over one million dollars, raised this year in the annual project that benefits 250 local children’s charities in the Metro St. Louis area. For Elliot, a State Sales Coordinator for Aflac Insurance as well as a Rage owner, it was the best of both worlds in helping a worthy cause in the community. “It was great to see the number of people who stopped to make a contribution,” he said, “and the two most important entities in my world combined to help along a genuine St. Louis event that helps brighten the outlook for youngsters who need help. I was proud to be part of it, and hats off to the Suburban Journals for it’s big part in what is always a fun and profitable morning every November.”
The Rage also braved the high winds and cold temperatures on Thanksgiving morning to participate in the 21st Annual Ameren St. Louis Thanksgiving Day Parade. Rage owners, coaches, players, cheerleaders and other personnel arrived early to decorate the float with vinyl banners, and form the black and red balloons in Arch like décor for the ride down Market Street in front of thousands of spectators, a fact not lost on Rage Majority Owner Scott Wilson. “It was impressive to see the number of people who braved the cold to come out and enjoy what is now one of the few parades nationwide on Thanksgiving Day. It was our first effort in a major parade, and it was tasking to put together a professional presentation, but with a lot of hard work, we pulled it together and it was fun. Cold, but fun.” The annual event was again broadcast live on KSDK-TV Channel 5 in St. Louis. Olympic skating star Nancy Kerrigan was the Honorable Grand Marshal for the fun-filled holiday event.
Which brings me to offer this up for our fans, the focus and certainly the cornerstone of our entire organization. I can only hope the you feel as good as I do about the fact that our owners have really stepped up and become a part of the St. Louis area in terms of charitable work, community involvement and fan support. While we as a team rely on our fans to support the Rage, follow the team, attend the games and bleed black or red, it’s equally important that our organization show support for the community and find ways to become involved and use our position to elevate and support causes that have a positive impact on individuals in need and the community as a whole. And, in truth, it should be expected of a pro sports team. The Rams do it, the Cardinals do it, the Blues do it. I’m just thankful that we discovered from the get-go that we should be doing it, and I’m glad we do. Fans and the public expect it, and they have a right to do so! In a previous article, I wrote about the thin line separation of sport and business when teams come into play, but I left out a very important aspect. The funneling of support back to the fans and the community with pure and simple involvement. Simply stated, I’m proud to be part of a team and an organization that recognizes and embraces that responsibility. Plus, it’s a lot of fun!!
Finally, prior to all the Thanksgiving festivities, the RiverCity Rage looked for ways to improve it’s roster by offering an open tryout to quality football players nationwide. The first opportunity for both rookies and veterans was given on Saturday, November 19th, with tryouts held at Velocity Sports in Chesterfield. Rage Head Football Coach Mike Wyatt and his assistants looked over 44 players, some of whom had come from as far away as Arizona in hopes of making the roster of one of the premier teams in the National Indoor Football League. Rookies were classified as those who had college or semi-professional football experience on their resume, veterans were those players who had previously played for another team in the NIFL. Two players, a wide receiver and a quarterback, were on the roster of the NIFL’s Lincoln Capitols. When asked why players who were already in the NIFL would be at a Rage tryout, Coach Wyatt had a ready answer. “Mainly because Lincoln has won only a few games in the last two years. We’ve won 19 and made the playoffs last year and the year prior. It’s better exposure for a player to be on a winning team, and it’s no secret when two of our players sign with the AFL, (Hurtis Chinn with Utah, Bruce Blue with New York), it gets other player’s attention real fast. They want to hook up with a successful program and also see it as a chance to further their individual careers.”
Players were put through a series of skill tests, including the 20 and 40-yard dash, the 20-yard pro-shuttle, the vertical jump, the standing broad jump and a 225 bench press. Tests, that Wyatt says, “don’t tell me who can play football, but the tests and the results probably give me a good indication of who can’t. Those who grade out well are usually the players coaches will focus on when the individual football drills get under way.”
Wyatt and his staff are currently evaluating local players and those from 5 states. There is another open tryout slated for January 29th, 2006, and players who warrant further attention will be invited to a callback tryout on February 26th.
Wyatt is hopeful the hard work pays dividends in finding the one or two quality players that seem to make every team’s roster from the open tryouts in the NIFL. ‘It’s a long shot at best for many of these guys, but I always hope we zero in on the ‘sleepers’ we may have missed who end up making a contribution to this football team.”
One side-note to the tryout was the return of our coach J.T. Thompson, who made his first appearance with the team since suffering a bi-lateral stroke back in September. It was great to see J.T. again, see him inter-acting with players and lending a hand with the timings and offering encouragement to prospective players. Sure, he took it slow, the recovery is step-by-step and day-to-day, but for a guy who was knocked down hard just months ago,
He’s well on the road to recovery, and having him with us that day was healthy for both him and our team. We’re all encouraged by his progress and it was one more reason to give thanks!
The RiverCity Rage season opens the weekend of March 17th, 2006. The team’s first home game at the Savvis Center is Sunday, March 26th. All other home games at Savvis will be on Friday night. For more information on the RiverCity Rage of the NIFL, check the team website at www.ragefootball.com or call 636-916-0132.
River Otters Hockey
Brendan ‘Stick’ Cuthbert
The River Otters’ Goaltender for the Future
By Louis J. Launer
Backup goaltender Brendan Cuthbert became ranked at number 7 among all UHL goaltenders as of the end of October. Starting goaltender Kevin Reiter ranked at number 20. Both are rookies, although Reiter appeared in a few games last season for the River Otters, especially during the playoffs. Out of seven games, Cuthbert started and finished three games. Reiter started four, but finished two. The River Otters didn’t win a game in October. There were plenty of places where one could find the River Otters’ flaws. Cuthbert is not one of those to be blamed for the team’s problems.
Cuthbert came to the team in the September training camp. Out of the three goaltenders who was to go for the job of backing up starter Kevin Reiter, Cuthbert showed the most promise. While Reiter was in Chicago, Cuthbert started an exhibition game against Quad City. This game was an audition for Cuthbert that gave him the #2 job. Despite the fact that the game became a 5-4 exhibition loss, “Stick” showed his ability to stop the puck and keep the defensemen motivated to play their positions. He’s a rookie. He is expected to make mistakes. But Cuthbert is getting ice time, something urgently needed for any goaltender who needs experience in a tough and physical United Hockey League.
“It really is tough out there,” Cuthbert said. “But we’re playing good even though we’re playing the same teams night after night.”
Cuthbert’s starts haven’t been bad, considering that he started in tough games against Motor City, resulting in a 1-0 shootout loss, Muskegon, resulting in a 9-3 score and one of the many games against Rockford, where Rockford dominated all of the time.
Cuthbert played his Junior “B” and Junior “A” hockey in his native Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. With his first U.S. team, the hockey on the minor league professional level is just as physical as some of the better Junior teams across Canada and the U.S.
“It wasn’t as big of a step up as I thought it would be,” he said. “There are some great players on this team. Everyone needs to be on the same level to play. The penalties are pretty bad. But the team needs to stay focused.”
The nickname of “Stick” came about because one fan originally called Cuthbert “skinny.” Although he is young, but tall, he is as thin as a stick, but not a skinny kid, especially when he is taking the pressure of AA minor league hockey quite well.
“Once you’re out on the ice, you don’t worry about it being a professional game or a game in the juniors,” he said. “You go out and you play your best hockey. That’s what all of the guys try to do.”
“Stick” likes the hospitality that River Otter fans have given him in his first two months of being in Missouri. He is also surprised for a state as populous as Missouri, that fans will come from 100 miles away to see the River Otters play hockey. Saskatchewan has a number of hockey teams ranging from little league, to school teams to the Junior ranks. There is no minor league team in Saskatchewan and the province almost received the St. Louis Blues in 1983 until the deal fell through. Hockey in the prairie province during the winter is just as important as what baseball is in Oklahoma during the summer.
“Stick” plans to stay in Missouri and will be doing his best behind the net and as a backup to Kevin Reiter. There is a possibility that he could get more starts over Reiter as the season progresses. Reiter’s poor performance in the first two months has led to possible considerations that Cuthbert might wind up as the #1 goaltender at the halfway mark of the season.
“I don’t know if that is going to happen,” Cuthbert said. “Kevin has had some problems and even he doesn’t know why we’re going through the trouble. We’re still starting to get to know each other and figure out how we play. We’ve become a little more together. But the penalties do hurt us.”
Most fans realize that they aren’t going to be able to influence Head Coach Kevin Kaminski to change the position of the goaltenders any time soon. But if Reiter continues his decline and problems with the team, “Stick” Cuthbert will be ready to fill in. By the time that happens, the new rules concerning goaltender equipment (specifications adopted by all leagues, minor as well as NHL) could be in place. But that doesn’t bother “Stick” much.
“Goaltenders are more concerned with the gloves and hand protection,” he said. “The pads aren’t really the problem. The new gloves have no palms or pockets to protect a caught flying puck. The new gloves can be vulnerable for more broken fingers. Goaltenders still have to be careful no matter what protection is going to be used and allowed.”
Cuthbert’s most recent performance was a 2-0 loss to the Quad City Mallards in Moline, Illinois this past Saturday. With this year’s River Otter team not finding their direction in the first half of the season, there is still hope that both Reiter and Cuthbert could become a tough goaltending duo. Whoever the likely mid-season or late-season starter is going to be is still a mystery. But “Stick’s” performance in the first six weeks of the regular season have made some fans notice that all is not lost yet with this year’s River Otter team.
Starting Goaltender Gets UHL Goaltender of the Week Honors
Thanks to two big wins by the River Otters and a strong showing by starting goaltender Kevin Reiter, he was named the Southern Sports Supply UHL Goaltender-of-the-Week for the week ending November 13.
“It’s a great honor to win the award with all of the terrific goaltenders in the UHL,” Reiter said. “My teammates played very well last week and a lot of the credit for this award has to go to them.”
Reiter went 2-1-0 that weekend with a 2.02 goals-against-average and a .948 save percentage. On November 11, Reiter made 33 saves helping the River Otters to a 4-1 victory over the Fort Wayne Komets. Reiter made 47 saves the next day as the River Otters defeated the Motor City Mechanics, 5-2. Both games were played out of town. Reiter also shined on Sunday in Rockford against the IceHogs. Rockford won that close game, 3-2. River Otters Head Coach Kevin Kaminski praised Reiter on a successful weekend.
“We needed him to come through for us at a crucial time, and he did,” Kaminski said. “Kevin instills confidence in our team and we look forward to further success from him this season.”
OTHER NOTED PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS: After a soft start this season, River Otters winger Frank Littlejohn scored two goals and two assists in the team’s 5-2 victory against Motor City in mid-November. In five previous seasons, Littlejohn has scored at least 29 goals in each one. Newly joined Otters winger Scott Horvath played a key role in getting the River Otters first win. Horvath scored a goal and added two assists in his first game as an Otter, the team’s 4-1 win against Fort Wayne. He is playing his third professional season, his first in the United Hockey League.
LOYAL FAN GONE: Troy Moore, who faithfully rang a cowbell for four seasons signaling the arrival of the River Otter players at their bench, passed away suddenly on Sunday, November 13. Moore, 39, a former Marine and is survived by his wife Christina and two sons, Matthew and Michael. Moore attended many River Otter practices and was a season ticket holder. He and his family have been very active with the River Otters Booster Club.
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