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Saturday, December 22, 2007
College Foundation Selects Grace Harmon For Achievement Award
Will Recognize Her Lifetime of Community Betterment
The St. Charles Community College Foundation has chosen local civic leader Grace Harmon of St. Charles as the 2008 recipient of the Professional Excellence Achievement Recognition (PEAR) award.
Harmon will be the guest of honor at the Foundation’s annual PEAR Award Gala Dinner on Feb. 23 at Whitmore Country Club in St. Peters.
Each year, PEAR award recipients are recognized by the community college Foundation Board for their personal and professional contributions to the quality of life for St. Charles County and its residents.
Harmon, who with her late husband, Ray, previously operated the world’s largest and most successful baby photo company, has spent a lifetime contributing back to society through her leadership, volunteerism, and philanthropy.
“It is easy to understand why our Foundation Board of Directors has selected Grace, whose love of community clearly demonstrates a true spirit of caring and giving,” said Julie Bartch, president of the Foundation. “Her causes have been many – supporting and encouraging economic development, education, health care, the arts, the disabled, and those who simply need a roof over their heads or a head start in seeking career and job opportunities.”
A savvy businesswoman in her own right, Harmon worked with husband Ray as he developed First Foto-HASCO International 50 years ago in Alexandria, Va., later establishing St. Charles as the headquarters in 1977. By 1999, HASCO was serving 2,750 hospitals in 50 states, photographing roughly 78 percent of all American babies. As the company grew, Grace would step in to start up new departments – “a jack of all trades,” she called herself. She found her real niche in the personnel department hiring and placing new employees.
For the Harmons, professional success was a blessing that reflected a joy for living, a respect for work, and a love of family, church, and education. Their business success afforded them a means to become active in their community with a goal of supporting change and innovation for the greater good.
Now retired, Grace Harmon is a past president of the area’s Business and Professional Women’s organization. Active in the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce since 1986, she served as its president in 1999 and was selected as the chamber’s Citizen of the Years award recipient in 2002. She is a graduate of Leadership St. Charles (1990) and Leadership St. Louis (1995), was a member of the Regional Business Council of the RCGA, and she received Rotarian of the Year accolades from the St. Charles Sunrise Rotary Club in the year 2000. She and Ray were honored by the St. Peters Chamber of Commerce and by Youth in Need (1996) for their involvement in activities supporting young people.
Harmon has also been honored with the Athena Leadership Award and the Dove Award for her community service, mentoring others, and supporting the development of women in leadership. A champion of education, she has served a number of years on Lindenwood University’s Board of Directors. She was a charter member of the St. Charles Public Schools Foundation, where she served for 10 years. She participated in career awareness fairs for eighth-graders and the annual Ethics Seminar for high school seniors.
“Young people are the future of St. Charles County,” Harmon said, “and it pleases me to see the busy leaders of institutions and corporations working together to help develop students’ skills and talents.” Harmon credits business organizations like Partners for Progress and people like Randy Shilling, president of Quiligy; James Evans, president of Lindenwood University; and John McGuire, president of St. Charles Community College for their collective contributions to educating the future workforce.
Harmon currently serves on the boards of Partners for Progress, Foundry Art Center, Mosaics Festival for the Arts, and ShowMe Aquatics. She chaired the St. Joseph Health Center Foundation in 1991, and the Harmons’ monetary gift in 1998 enabled the hospital to build a new rehabilitation center for patients suffering from heart and lung conditions. She is the 2007 chair of the St. Joseph Health Center Advisory Board.
Harmon served on the board of Connections for Success, where she supported the needs of women breaking the cycle of poverty to enter the job market. She also joined the Habitat for Humanity Board and is currently a church elder who is active with New Hope Presbyterian Church.
“As a workplace leader and as a community servant, Grace has always strived to lift up people who are less fortunate,” Bartch said. “A person of great compassion and optimism, her style is to contribute and to serve, and she encourages businesses and corporations to do the same.”
Foundation Executive Director Edie Kirk said the gala dinner in Harmon’s honor will be an opportunity to raise funds in support of SCC students while at the same time recognizing Harmon for “a lifetime of compassion, of leading the way, of revitalizing our community, and empowering others to success.” “We are pleased to honor someone who has contributed so much over so many years to the quality of life in this area,” Kirk said.
The theme for the Foundation gala is “Destination Education,” a lively roast and toast in keeping with a passion for travel that Grace and Ray Harmon shared over more than 50 years of marriage. The Harmons’ company captured the baby photo business at nearly all the hospitals in Canada and Australia, and they also set up operations in Paris, France. Their work and their vacations took them to more than 20 countries around the globe, including a balloon trip across the Serenghetti Desert.
Grace and Ray both graduated from St. Charles High School in 1943, and the couple married in 1947. They had two daughters, Jan and Lynn, six grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. The Harmons often took family vacations, which Grace continued to do after Ray’s death in 2005.
But Harmon’s heart remains in St. Charles County. She still sets a major priority on participation in her community. “It’s part of belonging,” she says.
Veit Attempts Parlimentary Ploy In Attempt To Fool Residents of Frenchtown
By Tony Brockmeyer
A ploy by Councilman Richard Veit, Ward 1, at the recent city council meeting may have backfired on him.
Veit has been attempting to rezone properties on North Fourth Street from residential to industrial in defiance of the requests of neighborhood residents. When the bill came to a vote. Councilmen Kneemiller, Stivison, Ermeling, Beckering voted for the rezoning. Feldman and Weller did not attend the meeting, Councilmen Muench, Reeese and Klinghammer voted against the rezoning. Veit was the last to cast his vote and when asked for his vote he hesitated and then to the surprise of those in the audience he voted no.
Veit voted no in an apparent attempt to keep the rezoning issue alive until the two missing council members could be present at a later meeting and vote in favor.
The city council meetings are run by Roberts’s rules of Order. Those rules allow someone who votes in the majority on an issue to be able to have the issue reconsidered at the next meeting. Thus once Veit voted no and was therefore in the majority he could have asked for reconsideration of the matter at the next council meeting. Perhaps one at which the opposition, not aware of his ploy, would not be in attendance.
However, apparently City attorney Mike Valenti rules against that procedure. According to city hall sources, Valenti has ruled that the city council rules say the matter must be called for reconsideration at the same meeting as the original vote. It is Valenti’s opinion that the city council rules overrule Roberts Rules of Order. Therefore, unless Valenti is over ruled or convinced to change his mind Veit’s ploy did not work.
Since being elected Veit has been pushing hard to rezone properties at 1427, 1501, 1503 and 1517 North Fourth Street from residential to industrial. The properties are currently being used for an out building manufacturing company and several automotive businesses such as a body shop, transmission repair and used car lot.
The zoning was changed several years ago by former City Council President Rory Riddler at the request of residents of the area. Riddler’s rezoning grandfathered all the businesses currently being operated there and would have allowed the property to be used for the same type of business if and when they were sold.
In an apparent attempt to help some of the people who helped during his election campaign Veit introduced a bill to eliminate the residential zoning and rezone the properties to industrial. The bill for industrial rezoning was changed to commercial rezoning at the urging of councilman Beckering.
The bill has been on the agenda for several weeks causing the residents in opposition to have to attend each meeting to make their feelings known At one meeting Veit told the residents in attendance that he was not interested in what they wanted, he was voting for the rezoning and they had nine other council members they could try to convince. The bill was to have been voted on at the November 20th meeting of the council but was postponed due to one of Veit’s frequent absences.
At the December 4th meeting Councilman Mike Weller and Councilwoman Laurie Feldman were both absent.
A ploy by Councilman Richard Veit, Ward 1, at the recent city council meeting may have backfired on him.
Veit has been attempting to rezone properties on North Fourth Street from residential to industrial in defiance of the requests of neighborhood residents. When the bill came to a vote. Councilmen Kneemiller, Stivison, Ermeling, Beckering voted for the rezoning. Feldman and Weller did not attend the meeting, Councilmen Muench, Reeese and Klinghammer voted against the rezoning. Veit was the last to cast his vote and when asked for his vote he hesitated and then to the surprise of those in the audience he voted no.
Veit voted no in an apparent attempt to keep the rezoning issue alive until the two missing council members could be present at a later meeting and vote in favor.
The city council meetings are run by Roberts’s rules of Order. Those rules allow someone who votes in the majority on an issue to be able to have the issue reconsidered at the next meeting. Thus once Veit voted no and was therefore in the majority he could have asked for reconsideration of the matter at the next council meeting. Perhaps one at which the opposition, not aware of his ploy, would not be in attendance.
However, apparently City attorney Mike Valenti rules against that procedure. According to city hall sources, Valenti has ruled that the city council rules say the matter must be called for reconsideration at the same meeting as the original vote. It is Valenti’s opinion that the city council rules overrule Roberts Rules of Order. Therefore, unless Valenti is over ruled or convinced to change his mind Veit’s ploy did not work.
Since being elected Veit has been pushing hard to rezone properties at 1427, 1501, 1503 and 1517 North Fourth Street from residential to industrial. The properties are currently being used for an out building manufacturing company and several automotive businesses such as a body shop, transmission repair and used car lot.
The zoning was changed several years ago by former City Council President Rory Riddler at the request of residents of the area. Riddler’s rezoning grandfathered all the businesses currently being operated there and would have allowed the property to be used for the same type of business if and when they were sold.
In an apparent attempt to help some of the people who helped during his election campaign Veit introduced a bill to eliminate the residential zoning and rezone the properties to industrial. The bill for industrial rezoning was changed to commercial rezoning at the urging of councilman Beckering.
The bill has been on the agenda for several weeks causing the residents in opposition to have to attend each meeting to make their feelings known At one meeting Veit told the residents in attendance that he was not interested in what they wanted, he was voting for the rezoning and they had nine other council members they could try to convince. The bill was to have been voted on at the November 20th meeting of the council but was postponed due to one of Veit’s frequent absences.
At the December 4th meeting Councilman Mike Weller and Councilwoman Laurie Feldman were both absent.
RAMBLING WITH The Editor Tony Brockmeyer
PEOPLE FROM OUT OF TOWN FAVORED TO SERVE ON ST. CHARLES BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS IF BILL PASSES
Several years ago it was apparent to the then members of the city council that the Mayor was filling a lot of the boards and commissions with her cronies. That is to be expected however the council discovered that many of her appointments did not live in St. Charles, did not own property in St. Charles, and were not registered voters. One of those was the Mayor’s aunt who lived in St. Louis. The council believed that to have proper representation on St. Charles Boards and Commission the members should be registered voters and residents of the city. They introduced a bill, which became an ordinance requiring it.
Now that the Mayor owns the current city council she can do whatever she wants. Councilmen Ron Stivison and Councilman Erv Ermeling have introduced a bill that if passed, would do away with that requirement. You would no longer have to neither be a resident of St. Charles nor be a registered voter to be appointed by the Mayor to a St. Charles Board or Commission. It is Bill 9523.
The previous council also passed an ordinance that when the term a member of a board or commission expired they were no longer a member of the board. At the time several patronage friends of the Mayor were serving on the boards. Some of them did not even live in the city. When their terms expired the Mayor would just not appoint anyone else so her patronage friends would continue to serve even though their terms had expired. Stivison and Ermeling’s bill voids that and allows the board members to serve for at least six months after their term expires is no one has been appointed to the seat.
There was also a section that required any member of a board or commission to disclose any financial or other private interest in city legislation. They are taking this requirement out along with the provision prohibiting a board or commission member from having a financial interest, direct or indirect, in any contract with the city or are financially interested, directly or indirectly in the sale to the city of any land, materials, supplies, equipment or services.
On some of the boards, local organizations, such as the Historic Downtown District, Frenchtown Historical District, and South Main Street Historical District would make two nominations to the boards and one would be selected by the Mayor and city council to serve. This section has also been deleted form the bill. Councilman Veit remarked, “I don’t want to see any little fiefdoms built up.”
They have also deleted the Citizen’s Participation and Advisory Committee, Oktoberfest Committee, Lewis and Clark Rendezvous Days Committee, and Downtown Economic Stimulus Authority.
CHANGES TO LIQUOR LICENSE LAW
Another interesting bill is Bill #9527 which is being sponsored by Councilman Veit. This bill, if passed by the city council, would void the provision that currently prohibits possession of an open container in a motor vehicle.
It also will prohibit any dancing, sitting or standing upon a bar, tables or an other raised surface that is used for preparing or serving food or beverages. If would also be a violation if a liquor license holder or any employee failed to prevent or suppress any violent quarrel, disorder, brawl, fight, or other improper or unlawful conduct nor would profane or obscene language, song, entertainment, literature or advertising material be allowed upon the premises.
There is also a section in the bill that restricts to six, the number of liquor licenses that can be issued in the 100 block of South Main Street and the 100, 200 and 300 blocks of North Main Street.
Several years ago it was apparent to the then members of the city council that the Mayor was filling a lot of the boards and commissions with her cronies. That is to be expected however the council discovered that many of her appointments did not live in St. Charles, did not own property in St. Charles, and were not registered voters. One of those was the Mayor’s aunt who lived in St. Louis. The council believed that to have proper representation on St. Charles Boards and Commission the members should be registered voters and residents of the city. They introduced a bill, which became an ordinance requiring it.
Now that the Mayor owns the current city council she can do whatever she wants. Councilmen Ron Stivison and Councilman Erv Ermeling have introduced a bill that if passed, would do away with that requirement. You would no longer have to neither be a resident of St. Charles nor be a registered voter to be appointed by the Mayor to a St. Charles Board or Commission. It is Bill 9523.
The previous council also passed an ordinance that when the term a member of a board or commission expired they were no longer a member of the board. At the time several patronage friends of the Mayor were serving on the boards. Some of them did not even live in the city. When their terms expired the Mayor would just not appoint anyone else so her patronage friends would continue to serve even though their terms had expired. Stivison and Ermeling’s bill voids that and allows the board members to serve for at least six months after their term expires is no one has been appointed to the seat.
There was also a section that required any member of a board or commission to disclose any financial or other private interest in city legislation. They are taking this requirement out along with the provision prohibiting a board or commission member from having a financial interest, direct or indirect, in any contract with the city or are financially interested, directly or indirectly in the sale to the city of any land, materials, supplies, equipment or services.
On some of the boards, local organizations, such as the Historic Downtown District, Frenchtown Historical District, and South Main Street Historical District would make two nominations to the boards and one would be selected by the Mayor and city council to serve. This section has also been deleted form the bill. Councilman Veit remarked, “I don’t want to see any little fiefdoms built up.”
They have also deleted the Citizen’s Participation and Advisory Committee, Oktoberfest Committee, Lewis and Clark Rendezvous Days Committee, and Downtown Economic Stimulus Authority.
CHANGES TO LIQUOR LICENSE LAW
Another interesting bill is Bill #9527 which is being sponsored by Councilman Veit. This bill, if passed by the city council, would void the provision that currently prohibits possession of an open container in a motor vehicle.
It also will prohibit any dancing, sitting or standing upon a bar, tables or an other raised surface that is used for preparing or serving food or beverages. If would also be a violation if a liquor license holder or any employee failed to prevent or suppress any violent quarrel, disorder, brawl, fight, or other improper or unlawful conduct nor would profane or obscene language, song, entertainment, literature or advertising material be allowed upon the premises.
There is also a section in the bill that restricts to six, the number of liquor licenses that can be issued in the 100 block of South Main Street and the 100, 200 and 300 blocks of North Main Street.
THE CITY DESK - Rory Riddler
Strategic Plan Is Shiny Thing
To Distract You From The Truth
The latest newsletter from the City of St. Charles arrived this past week and gave me one of those “stop, rewind, what did that say” moments. The article from the City Council was about a retreat they had in August to discuss a Strategic Plan for the City of St. Charles.
The article described how they “dove” into the strategic planning process. They hope to be able to identify the issues facing the community and establish a vision for our community as a whole.
Now in my day (earlier this year) the Council was “elected” to establish policy for the City. The identification process for the needs of the people, were “identified” through the process of running on a platform, and going door-to-door in a campaign to listen to the people. Council members were elected to roll up their sleeves and begin the job the people elected them to do, not to begin a never ending process of self-evaluation with what amounts to an over-priced therapist asking our elected public officials to just lay back on the couch and tell us about their childhoods.
So four months after they began, nine months after the new council was elected, we are reading a December newsletter about what they talked about last August. They state in the article that the retreat was “…not a forum for the establishment of priorities for specific projects.” Why bother with the details like accomplishing anything.
No, the strategic planning process, or as our President likes to call it, “Strategy”, is like the Never Ending Story or worse, every parent’s nightmare trapped in a car with young children…The Song That Never Ends. You know, “This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends. Someone starting singing it, not knowing what it was. And now they go on singing it, forever just because…this is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends…” (Must will myself to stop now).
Ahhh, that’s better.
So how long can this process go on? Well, the Mayor’s column in the same newsletter gives us a hint. She writes, “This next year will see us planning for the future with a Strategic plan…we want participation from everyone…It is our gift to you.” Wow, a gift I get to put together myself.
This is how the council described the process, “Only after we have received input from the overall community, and secured the full commitment from stakeholders, business and residents will we begin to formulate our vision, mission statement and goals for the City.” Yawn, this could take longer than I thought. I wonder if they would know a stakeholder if they saw one? We used to call them taxpayers back in the day.
Of course, for the public to come together and plan where the community is going, everyone will have to have the same level of information and knowledge of where we’ve been, where we are, the available monetary resources, types of taxes, funds, previous commitments for those resources and basic finance principles, personnel resources (manpower, training and management capabilities), the limitations placed on change by State and Federal Law and the Courts, and perhaps some experience in urban planning.
That used to be the job of our elected public officials, to educate themselves and work in a political environment to serve the needs of the people. Now, like the advent of self-service gasoline pumps, we are being challenged to do it for them.
All of this is not to say I am against planning, but people with some experience, expertise and authority best do planning. It isn’t like the City doesn’t have a newly updated “Comprehensive Plan” already. The Planning & Zoning commission and the Community Development Department led that effort and it lays out exactly what the Council in their article said they were looking for in a Strategic Plan, “…a widely accepted guidebook to achieve a higher quality of life”.
There is an old joke that goes, how do you spell Government in action…with one word (inaction) or two (in action)? There is also what I like to call “dynamic inaction” which is when government, business or large utility companies (Ameran U.E. is a master at this), talk a lot about what all they are going to do, commission studies, hold hearings, focus groups, think tanks, do public engagements and run full-page ads telling you about how new and improved they are.
Nothing gets done, but they try to look busy doing it. It reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where he asks, “How did people look busy before computers?”
One of the sillier ways in which Washington bureaucrats have decided to waste our money is in requiring a “public engagement process” on larger Federal projects. The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) just signed a contract to spend over half-a-million dollars with a company to see how people feel about them dumping sewage in area streams and rivers because of an outdated collection system for sanitary waste.
My guess is the public feels that is “bad”, but may not want to spend the estimated billions it will take to fix it if it means raising sewer rates. A year from now, and after spending $500,000 to check it out, we will see if my prediction is true.
Of course if City officials truly wanted to know what is on our minds, all they have to do is conduct a scientifically valid public opinion poll. We can know with a range of plus or minus 4% what the majority of people think about any given subject. We have the technology.
But knowing the “real” truth versus shepherding along the development of a “perceived” truth, are two very different things. No one really wants your opinion in this kind of process. They want to have a select group of elites come together and validate their own beliefs. The process will test public opinion, but only the public opinion of those individuals engaged enough to come to meetings and sit through the process. The end results are therefore invalid for the universe of all City residents from the start.
In many ways, these are the same skills magicians employ to distract us from the truth. It is called misdirection. The Strategic Planning Process is a giant shiny thing being dangled in front of the public to explain away a lack of progress and vision for the community…a vision at one time provided by those we elect to public office.
Haggling over the nuance of every word in a one-size fits all mission statement, may be shiny enough to distract a cat, but will it work on real people? What we’re missing is the obvious. They don’t have a clue what to do.
Not everyone in local government can be painted with the same broad brush. Many, I am sure, came to office with ideas, goals, hopes and dreams. But they are being badly served in listening to those who now say the City’s future is better served if we get everyone together for a group hug. Nothing against group hugs…it’s just no way to run a City.
To Distract You From The Truth
The latest newsletter from the City of St. Charles arrived this past week and gave me one of those “stop, rewind, what did that say” moments. The article from the City Council was about a retreat they had in August to discuss a Strategic Plan for the City of St. Charles.
The article described how they “dove” into the strategic planning process. They hope to be able to identify the issues facing the community and establish a vision for our community as a whole.
Now in my day (earlier this year) the Council was “elected” to establish policy for the City. The identification process for the needs of the people, were “identified” through the process of running on a platform, and going door-to-door in a campaign to listen to the people. Council members were elected to roll up their sleeves and begin the job the people elected them to do, not to begin a never ending process of self-evaluation with what amounts to an over-priced therapist asking our elected public officials to just lay back on the couch and tell us about their childhoods.
So four months after they began, nine months after the new council was elected, we are reading a December newsletter about what they talked about last August. They state in the article that the retreat was “…not a forum for the establishment of priorities for specific projects.” Why bother with the details like accomplishing anything.
No, the strategic planning process, or as our President likes to call it, “Strategy”, is like the Never Ending Story or worse, every parent’s nightmare trapped in a car with young children…The Song That Never Ends. You know, “This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends. Someone starting singing it, not knowing what it was. And now they go on singing it, forever just because…this is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on my friends…” (Must will myself to stop now).
Ahhh, that’s better.
So how long can this process go on? Well, the Mayor’s column in the same newsletter gives us a hint. She writes, “This next year will see us planning for the future with a Strategic plan…we want participation from everyone…It is our gift to you.” Wow, a gift I get to put together myself.
This is how the council described the process, “Only after we have received input from the overall community, and secured the full commitment from stakeholders, business and residents will we begin to formulate our vision, mission statement and goals for the City.” Yawn, this could take longer than I thought. I wonder if they would know a stakeholder if they saw one? We used to call them taxpayers back in the day.
Of course, for the public to come together and plan where the community is going, everyone will have to have the same level of information and knowledge of where we’ve been, where we are, the available monetary resources, types of taxes, funds, previous commitments for those resources and basic finance principles, personnel resources (manpower, training and management capabilities), the limitations placed on change by State and Federal Law and the Courts, and perhaps some experience in urban planning.
That used to be the job of our elected public officials, to educate themselves and work in a political environment to serve the needs of the people. Now, like the advent of self-service gasoline pumps, we are being challenged to do it for them.
All of this is not to say I am against planning, but people with some experience, expertise and authority best do planning. It isn’t like the City doesn’t have a newly updated “Comprehensive Plan” already. The Planning & Zoning commission and the Community Development Department led that effort and it lays out exactly what the Council in their article said they were looking for in a Strategic Plan, “…a widely accepted guidebook to achieve a higher quality of life”.
There is an old joke that goes, how do you spell Government in action…with one word (inaction) or two (in action)? There is also what I like to call “dynamic inaction” which is when government, business or large utility companies (Ameran U.E. is a master at this), talk a lot about what all they are going to do, commission studies, hold hearings, focus groups, think tanks, do public engagements and run full-page ads telling you about how new and improved they are.
Nothing gets done, but they try to look busy doing it. It reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where he asks, “How did people look busy before computers?”
One of the sillier ways in which Washington bureaucrats have decided to waste our money is in requiring a “public engagement process” on larger Federal projects. The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) just signed a contract to spend over half-a-million dollars with a company to see how people feel about them dumping sewage in area streams and rivers because of an outdated collection system for sanitary waste.
My guess is the public feels that is “bad”, but may not want to spend the estimated billions it will take to fix it if it means raising sewer rates. A year from now, and after spending $500,000 to check it out, we will see if my prediction is true.
Of course if City officials truly wanted to know what is on our minds, all they have to do is conduct a scientifically valid public opinion poll. We can know with a range of plus or minus 4% what the majority of people think about any given subject. We have the technology.
But knowing the “real” truth versus shepherding along the development of a “perceived” truth, are two very different things. No one really wants your opinion in this kind of process. They want to have a select group of elites come together and validate their own beliefs. The process will test public opinion, but only the public opinion of those individuals engaged enough to come to meetings and sit through the process. The end results are therefore invalid for the universe of all City residents from the start.
In many ways, these are the same skills magicians employ to distract us from the truth. It is called misdirection. The Strategic Planning Process is a giant shiny thing being dangled in front of the public to explain away a lack of progress and vision for the community…a vision at one time provided by those we elect to public office.
Haggling over the nuance of every word in a one-size fits all mission statement, may be shiny enough to distract a cat, but will it work on real people? What we’re missing is the obvious. They don’t have a clue what to do.
Not everyone in local government can be painted with the same broad brush. Many, I am sure, came to office with ideas, goals, hopes and dreams. But they are being badly served in listening to those who now say the City’s future is better served if we get everyone together for a group hug. Nothing against group hugs…it’s just no way to run a City.
EDITORIAL _ County Executive Steve Ehlmann
AN EDITORIAL OPINION
Rumblings have come from some on the St. Charles City Council members that they are tired of hearing and reading they are the Mayor’s city council. Apparently, the councilmen are so afraid of friends of the mayor claiming they are “micro-managing” the city, they are allowing the administration do whatever, spend whatever, hire whomever the mayor wants.
The council needs to go back and read their civics books and find out their real role in city government. They would find out oversight is a requirement of the job. This oversight might make them think they are “micro managing” but they really are not. This council believes they are part of the administration, not legislative, and haven’t looked at anything with an eye to protect the taxpayers’ money. Now, I would like to say they aren’t with the Mayor on everything, yet, they have voted her way each and every time. So why wouldn’t the rest of us believe they are the mayor’s lap dogs? A free thinker in this group has yet to come forward. This council needs a Bill Conroy or Mark Brown type to ask the thought provoking questions.
This city council can’t continue sticking their heads in the sand leaving all the important decisions up to the mayor. They need to get involved, ask questions and dig into details. Something they are currently not doing. This is not a job they volunteered to do. They are getting a nice salary and yet some of them do not even show up for the meetings.
The previous city council created council committees such as public works, auditing, law enforcement, streets, traffic, etc. to hold hearings and make recommendations to the council as a whole. The current council and the mayor have now made a point to do away with the city council committees and start citizen committees. The city council and York both told us citizen input is what they want. They want to hear what the residents think.
But, evidently, that is not happening. Recently the city staff and the Landmarks committee voiced their opinion on an additional sign for Ameristar that would go on the west side of the building facing Interstate 70. The lighted sign would be 35 feet by 55 feet (1925 square feet) on which the message could be rotated. The mayor and the council went against the staff and citizen committees and approved the Ameristar sign.
The real reason they want the citizen committees goes back to the defeated former councilman and defeated candidate for other offices, Richard Baum. Baum especially liked the citizen committees so he could hide behind them when it suited his argument. Now this council and mayor are employing this tactic and every citizen on these committees should wake up and see that their opinions are not important unless they suit the wishes of the mayor and council.
If this city council would be doing the job of oversight and accountability they were elected to do the mayor would not have fired Brent Schultz, the former assistant city administrator (who worked for the city for over 30 years) and hired three new people to do what he was doing. You allowed the Mayor to balloon the administrative budget and that’s your legacy to date.
I think the fact that the council members are all scared to speak out demonstrates the level York plays politics. York is not a statesmen, she is a bully politician that hurts those who speak against her. The city needs to be investigated by the same group that caught former St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown.
York gets $60,000 in taxpayer money a year to run the city and now we have to pay newly hired city administrator Michael Spurgeon from Miami, Oklahoma $124,000 plus benefits, plus $1,000 a month for a furnished apartment, plus auto expenses to run the city. York hired Dave Gipson to work as a liaison between the Mayor, council and residents because she does not want to deal with them and is paying him over $50,000 and benefits.
A lot of people voted for York because they believed she was supposed to know what to do? She lied to everybody about being the CEO and having the smarts to run the city. Where are the fiscal conservatives?
The numbers above don’t include the fact that the City now has a City Attorney, Assistant Attorney and has hired a special counsel to handle all of the employee complaints filed since the Mayor has taken charge; and special counsel to handle the federal subpoena for city records and the Express Scripts and Sellenschuetter lawsuits.
Never have so many employees been overlooked for promotion, moved without cause or dismissed. Of course, you don’t hear much of this because it takes place in closed session. This is to hide the hundreds of thousands you will spend on York’s vindictive politics.
Rumblings have come from some on the St. Charles City Council members that they are tired of hearing and reading they are the Mayor’s city council. Apparently, the councilmen are so afraid of friends of the mayor claiming they are “micro-managing” the city, they are allowing the administration do whatever, spend whatever, hire whomever the mayor wants.
The council needs to go back and read their civics books and find out their real role in city government. They would find out oversight is a requirement of the job. This oversight might make them think they are “micro managing” but they really are not. This council believes they are part of the administration, not legislative, and haven’t looked at anything with an eye to protect the taxpayers’ money. Now, I would like to say they aren’t with the Mayor on everything, yet, they have voted her way each and every time. So why wouldn’t the rest of us believe they are the mayor’s lap dogs? A free thinker in this group has yet to come forward. This council needs a Bill Conroy or Mark Brown type to ask the thought provoking questions.
This city council can’t continue sticking their heads in the sand leaving all the important decisions up to the mayor. They need to get involved, ask questions and dig into details. Something they are currently not doing. This is not a job they volunteered to do. They are getting a nice salary and yet some of them do not even show up for the meetings.
The previous city council created council committees such as public works, auditing, law enforcement, streets, traffic, etc. to hold hearings and make recommendations to the council as a whole. The current council and the mayor have now made a point to do away with the city council committees and start citizen committees. The city council and York both told us citizen input is what they want. They want to hear what the residents think.
But, evidently, that is not happening. Recently the city staff and the Landmarks committee voiced their opinion on an additional sign for Ameristar that would go on the west side of the building facing Interstate 70. The lighted sign would be 35 feet by 55 feet (1925 square feet) on which the message could be rotated. The mayor and the council went against the staff and citizen committees and approved the Ameristar sign.
The real reason they want the citizen committees goes back to the defeated former councilman and defeated candidate for other offices, Richard Baum. Baum especially liked the citizen committees so he could hide behind them when it suited his argument. Now this council and mayor are employing this tactic and every citizen on these committees should wake up and see that their opinions are not important unless they suit the wishes of the mayor and council.
If this city council would be doing the job of oversight and accountability they were elected to do the mayor would not have fired Brent Schultz, the former assistant city administrator (who worked for the city for over 30 years) and hired three new people to do what he was doing. You allowed the Mayor to balloon the administrative budget and that’s your legacy to date.
I think the fact that the council members are all scared to speak out demonstrates the level York plays politics. York is not a statesmen, she is a bully politician that hurts those who speak against her. The city needs to be investigated by the same group that caught former St. Peters Mayor Shawn Brown.
York gets $60,000 in taxpayer money a year to run the city and now we have to pay newly hired city administrator Michael Spurgeon from Miami, Oklahoma $124,000 plus benefits, plus $1,000 a month for a furnished apartment, plus auto expenses to run the city. York hired Dave Gipson to work as a liaison between the Mayor, council and residents because she does not want to deal with them and is paying him over $50,000 and benefits.
A lot of people voted for York because they believed she was supposed to know what to do? She lied to everybody about being the CEO and having the smarts to run the city. Where are the fiscal conservatives?
The numbers above don’t include the fact that the City now has a City Attorney, Assistant Attorney and has hired a special counsel to handle all of the employee complaints filed since the Mayor has taken charge; and special counsel to handle the federal subpoena for city records and the Express Scripts and Sellenschuetter lawsuits.
Never have so many employees been overlooked for promotion, moved without cause or dismissed. Of course, you don’t hear much of this because it takes place in closed session. This is to hide the hundreds of thousands you will spend on York’s vindictive politics.
THE PEOPLE SPEAK - Letters To The Editor
Tony
We hope you will print this letter to the editor in your next addition of your paper, The First Capitol News, regarding comments by Charles Hill.
Bob and Clara Scott, WWII veterans and proud to have served our country when the need arose.
Subject: Disparaging Comments on St. Charles Veteran’s memorial
An opinion piece bearing the authorship of “Charles Hill” in a local publication not only disparages $300,000 spent on the St. Charles City Veteran’s Memorial, but also incorrectly states that the “monument was spearheaded by a group of self-serving veterans who felt they deserved a statue.”
No veteran in St. Charles ever asked or lobbied for this monument. None of us feels that anyone owes us a statue. A unanimous resolution by the members of the City Council for erecting the monument led to the Mayor placing it in the City budget. An amount of $300,000 was unanimously approved by the Council. This was an action taken by the duly elected representatives of the people of St. Charles, not a special interest group of “self servers.”
Leo Zerjav, a local architect and not a veteran, designed the monument. He donated his services. It didn’t cost the City a dime.
The lowest bid for erecting the memorial came in at $330,000 or $30,000 over what the Mayor and Council had budgeted. A Veteran’s Memorial Committee, appointed to provide oversight for the project, did not go back to the Council to ask for additional funds. It was determined to cut costs and/or find alternative funding sources. The St. Charles Lions Club and Councilman Bob Hoepfner should receive great credit for providing the flags and flag poles. That was a donation of $15,000. The remaining $15,000 shortfall was made up through value engineering efforts by the prime contractor, Integra. The landscaping was accomplished as a Boy Scout Eagle project.
“Charles” also mentioned that the $300,000 would have been better spent for helping individual veterans. That’s a judgement call and a separate and mutually exclusive concern. The issue that was voted on and approved was constructing a Monument in remembrance of this City’s veterans, not establishing a local veteran’s relief organization.
Interestingly, the veteran’s of St. Charles and their organizations give back over time much more that the $300,000 appropriated for the monument. VFW Post 2866 alone gives back between $50,000 and $80,000 per year to various St. Charles community activities. Every penny, for example, that we raise at our annual Buddy Poppy sale goes to supporting our less fortunate Heroes in our Veterans’ Homes and Hospitals.
The memorial also draws tourists and conventioneers. From 14 - 16 December a conference of the national VFW Auxiliary will be held in St. Charles. The national Auxiliary President will lay a wreath at our monument. Next year a national reunion of the USS Corpus Christi Bay, a Vietnam veteran’s organization is scheduled. They selected our memorial over all others in the St. Louis area.
“Charles Hill,” continue to visit our beautiful Memorial. All of us Veterans are grateful and appreciative of our generous citizens for providing this quiet and reflective place of remembrance. We are well aware of the financial sacrifice of their tax dollars. Rest assured that we veterans have been will continue to be good stewards of the trust you have placed in us.
Tom Kuypers
Chairman, St. Charles Veteran’s Memorial Committee
Impressed with this community
Thank you. As the campaign chair for the Tri-County Division of United Way of Greater St. Louis for the past two years, I want to let the people in this community know how grateful I am to them.
Because of the record level of generosity in the St. Charles, Warren and Lincoln counties, our division of United Way was able to raise nearly $3.15 million toward the total $68.8 million raised across the region. This means that United Way will put more than one million dollars each week back into this region in 2008. Because of you, nearly 200 local United Way funded agencies will be able to continue to do what they do best – help people.
Out of those nearly 200 agencies, more than 100 of them serve people in our specific region including: Boys and Girls Clubs of St. Charles County; Bridgeway Behavioral Health; Community Council of St. Charles County; Crider Health Center; Emmaus Homes; Family Support Services; Lincoln County Council on Aging; Turning Point; United Services for the Handicapped in St. Charles County; and Youth in Need. In 2008, Almost Home and Life Skills will be added to that list.
As someone who once benefited from a United Way agency, I can tell you that United Way does make a positive difference in lives every day. That it does help build a healthy, strong community for us to live in; that it has a set of standards it expects its funded agencies to adhere to, ensuring quality; and that more than 90 cents of each dollar donated goes directly into programming and services.
You can rest assured that your contribution will be efficiently and effectively used to help build a strong, healthy region throughout the Lincoln, Warren, St. Charles counties and the other 13 counties in Missouri and Illinois.
Brian Bredensteiner
Chairman, 2007 United Way of Greater St. Louis Tri-County Campaign
Bredensteiner & Associates
We hope you will print this letter to the editor in your next addition of your paper, The First Capitol News, regarding comments by Charles Hill.
Bob and Clara Scott, WWII veterans and proud to have served our country when the need arose.
Subject: Disparaging Comments on St. Charles Veteran’s memorial
An opinion piece bearing the authorship of “Charles Hill” in a local publication not only disparages $300,000 spent on the St. Charles City Veteran’s Memorial, but also incorrectly states that the “monument was spearheaded by a group of self-serving veterans who felt they deserved a statue.”
No veteran in St. Charles ever asked or lobbied for this monument. None of us feels that anyone owes us a statue. A unanimous resolution by the members of the City Council for erecting the monument led to the Mayor placing it in the City budget. An amount of $300,000 was unanimously approved by the Council. This was an action taken by the duly elected representatives of the people of St. Charles, not a special interest group of “self servers.”
Leo Zerjav, a local architect and not a veteran, designed the monument. He donated his services. It didn’t cost the City a dime.
The lowest bid for erecting the memorial came in at $330,000 or $30,000 over what the Mayor and Council had budgeted. A Veteran’s Memorial Committee, appointed to provide oversight for the project, did not go back to the Council to ask for additional funds. It was determined to cut costs and/or find alternative funding sources. The St. Charles Lions Club and Councilman Bob Hoepfner should receive great credit for providing the flags and flag poles. That was a donation of $15,000. The remaining $15,000 shortfall was made up through value engineering efforts by the prime contractor, Integra. The landscaping was accomplished as a Boy Scout Eagle project.
“Charles” also mentioned that the $300,000 would have been better spent for helping individual veterans. That’s a judgement call and a separate and mutually exclusive concern. The issue that was voted on and approved was constructing a Monument in remembrance of this City’s veterans, not establishing a local veteran’s relief organization.
Interestingly, the veteran’s of St. Charles and their organizations give back over time much more that the $300,000 appropriated for the monument. VFW Post 2866 alone gives back between $50,000 and $80,000 per year to various St. Charles community activities. Every penny, for example, that we raise at our annual Buddy Poppy sale goes to supporting our less fortunate Heroes in our Veterans’ Homes and Hospitals.
The memorial also draws tourists and conventioneers. From 14 - 16 December a conference of the national VFW Auxiliary will be held in St. Charles. The national Auxiliary President will lay a wreath at our monument. Next year a national reunion of the USS Corpus Christi Bay, a Vietnam veteran’s organization is scheduled. They selected our memorial over all others in the St. Louis area.
“Charles Hill,” continue to visit our beautiful Memorial. All of us Veterans are grateful and appreciative of our generous citizens for providing this quiet and reflective place of remembrance. We are well aware of the financial sacrifice of their tax dollars. Rest assured that we veterans have been will continue to be good stewards of the trust you have placed in us.
Tom Kuypers
Chairman, St. Charles Veteran’s Memorial Committee
Impressed with this community
Thank you. As the campaign chair for the Tri-County Division of United Way of Greater St. Louis for the past two years, I want to let the people in this community know how grateful I am to them.
Because of the record level of generosity in the St. Charles, Warren and Lincoln counties, our division of United Way was able to raise nearly $3.15 million toward the total $68.8 million raised across the region. This means that United Way will put more than one million dollars each week back into this region in 2008. Because of you, nearly 200 local United Way funded agencies will be able to continue to do what they do best – help people.
Out of those nearly 200 agencies, more than 100 of them serve people in our specific region including: Boys and Girls Clubs of St. Charles County; Bridgeway Behavioral Health; Community Council of St. Charles County; Crider Health Center; Emmaus Homes; Family Support Services; Lincoln County Council on Aging; Turning Point; United Services for the Handicapped in St. Charles County; and Youth in Need. In 2008, Almost Home and Life Skills will be added to that list.
As someone who once benefited from a United Way agency, I can tell you that United Way does make a positive difference in lives every day. That it does help build a healthy, strong community for us to live in; that it has a set of standards it expects its funded agencies to adhere to, ensuring quality; and that more than 90 cents of each dollar donated goes directly into programming and services.
You can rest assured that your contribution will be efficiently and effectively used to help build a strong, healthy region throughout the Lincoln, Warren, St. Charles counties and the other 13 counties in Missouri and Illinois.
Brian Bredensteiner
Chairman, 2007 United Way of Greater St. Louis Tri-County Campaign
Bredensteiner & Associates
The View From The Cheap Seats by Jerry Hafferkamp
The View From The Cheap Seats
By Jerry Haferkamp
It is seldom that an opportunity arises that there is any reason to compliment the St. Peters Journal. They never, ever report on misdoings in the St. Charles city administration. I don’t recall any questioning about who is responsible for dumping thousands of dollars of taxpayer money (in the form of new trash containers) into the weeds. No mention at all of York hosting a dinner at taxpayer expense that assisted a pal in equipping her new restaurant. There is no mention at all of the millions that are spent to subsidize businesses in a twelve block area on South Main and virtually nothing in comparison spent on the rest of the business in our city. After all, the Journal probably considers that all that is O.K. since York got 55 percent of the vote. Isn’t that a “mandate” to abuse the taxpayers if she wishes?
Ahh, but I digress. There is reason to compliment Steve Pokin on his series on the subject of Internet harassment He should be at a paper where news is the issue, not ads. However, as a result of his columns several area cities are enacting ordinances against such activity. But there’s the rub.
I’m sure that the ACLU will be on that like stink on doggy doo. You know they will claim that under the free speech provision of our Constitution, morons are allowed to harass on the Internet, no matter who is harmed.
There is also the question of how many additional law enforcement personnel will be needed to investigate these acts. There would be at least five or six needed to investigate all the harassment on the infamous Stchuckwatch site alone. For the first time in about six months, I accessed the site the other day. I can only tolerate a small amount of stupidity per year, so I enter the site rarely. There they were, anonymous individuals still harassing anyone who fails to bow to their Queen. Harassment in the past was aimed at Mark Brown, John Gieseke, Dottie Greer, Tim Swope, Ron Lloyd and, of course, the First Capitol News and Tony Brockmeyer.
Yes, the factually challenged are still at it, even though the elections are over and the product they purchased was re-anointed. The harassment of the FCN continues in the form of promoting the harassment of business that advertise there. The harassment of Gieseke and Brown continues partly because the council hired an attorney who was later charged with sexually connected crimes. I’m pretty sure neither Brown nor Gieseke spent time peeking into this attorney’s bedroom window, and had no knowledge of his alleged crimes. Oh, and he was hired by the entire council, not just Brown and Gieseke.
If St. Charles passes such an ordinance, will there be an investigation of the continuing harassment on this site? I doubt it as long as Chief York continues to run the police department.
I owe an apology to Jack Banas. With all that is going on, he really doesn’t have time to prosecute the people that attempted to void your vote through fraud. Sorry folks, your Constitutional right to elect and retain your public officials is no longer guaranteed. Not in St. Charles County anyway.
Of course, that’s just the view from the cheap seats.
By Jerry Haferkamp
It is seldom that an opportunity arises that there is any reason to compliment the St. Peters Journal. They never, ever report on misdoings in the St. Charles city administration. I don’t recall any questioning about who is responsible for dumping thousands of dollars of taxpayer money (in the form of new trash containers) into the weeds. No mention at all of York hosting a dinner at taxpayer expense that assisted a pal in equipping her new restaurant. There is no mention at all of the millions that are spent to subsidize businesses in a twelve block area on South Main and virtually nothing in comparison spent on the rest of the business in our city. After all, the Journal probably considers that all that is O.K. since York got 55 percent of the vote. Isn’t that a “mandate” to abuse the taxpayers if she wishes?
Ahh, but I digress. There is reason to compliment Steve Pokin on his series on the subject of Internet harassment He should be at a paper where news is the issue, not ads. However, as a result of his columns several area cities are enacting ordinances against such activity. But there’s the rub.
I’m sure that the ACLU will be on that like stink on doggy doo. You know they will claim that under the free speech provision of our Constitution, morons are allowed to harass on the Internet, no matter who is harmed.
There is also the question of how many additional law enforcement personnel will be needed to investigate these acts. There would be at least five or six needed to investigate all the harassment on the infamous Stchuckwatch site alone. For the first time in about six months, I accessed the site the other day. I can only tolerate a small amount of stupidity per year, so I enter the site rarely. There they were, anonymous individuals still harassing anyone who fails to bow to their Queen. Harassment in the past was aimed at Mark Brown, John Gieseke, Dottie Greer, Tim Swope, Ron Lloyd and, of course, the First Capitol News and Tony Brockmeyer.
Yes, the factually challenged are still at it, even though the elections are over and the product they purchased was re-anointed. The harassment of the FCN continues in the form of promoting the harassment of business that advertise there. The harassment of Gieseke and Brown continues partly because the council hired an attorney who was later charged with sexually connected crimes. I’m pretty sure neither Brown nor Gieseke spent time peeking into this attorney’s bedroom window, and had no knowledge of his alleged crimes. Oh, and he was hired by the entire council, not just Brown and Gieseke.
If St. Charles passes such an ordinance, will there be an investigation of the continuing harassment on this site? I doubt it as long as Chief York continues to run the police department.
I owe an apology to Jack Banas. With all that is going on, he really doesn’t have time to prosecute the people that attempted to void your vote through fraud. Sorry folks, your Constitutional right to elect and retain your public officials is no longer guaranteed. Not in St. Charles County anyway.
Of course, that’s just the view from the cheap seats.
Kratzer's Corner by Mel Kratzer
Christmas Light Viewing 101
By Mel Kratzer
Has the Christmas shopping season depleted your funds from your entertainment column in the worst way? Its time to adapt and implement the cheap date out activity by going Christmas light viewing. A lot of us just get off the highway from work making a bee line straight to our home without checking out the neighborhood decorations. Pile the kids, wife, or significant other into the car and take everyone Christmas light looking. Tonight!
Now with the family in the car for an hour or two Christmas light watching, you may want to set the group’s mood with some merry ol Christmas carols on the radio. That’s not mandatory though as “Jingle Bells” tunes could get old real quick. Go ahead and rock out while Christmas light viewing to some AC/DC, Pearljam, or some Led Zeppelin. I’ve done and it put me in the high-energy festive spirit.
It’s a sure guarantee while you are driving around doing the Christmas light thing, they’ll be a battle over how warm or cold the cars inside temperature should be. Usually my wife likes it as she puts it “toasty” inside. To me it feels like I’m being barbequed in the driver’s seat rotisserie Instead, I like it kind of cool with the chilly air vent blasting air upside my face preventing me from nodding off and slamming into someone’s porch. Every thirty seconds some soul is adjusting the climate control so have a compromising attitude.
When it’s snowing or ice storming, your first reaction is to hunker down inside the nice heat-filled house with your feet warming by the fireplace. Though the roads may resemble an ice rink or ski slope, it still is worth chancing it looking at Christmas lights as they have a special sparkling glistening effect glowing under the frozen precipitation. You’re driving slow to begin with, so spinning out creaming a person’s lawn Santa is a low probability.
Expect when you are slow motioning along taking in the Christmas lights, to have minor disputes or debates about the arrangements. Spending five minutes observing a light set up you like may be like spending five minutes watching paint dry to the backseat passenger. Some give and take on this how long we spend on the lights display will keep a civil car atmosphere.
Quite amazing the length of trouble Christmas light decorators will go to make there illuminated strand stand out. You could have sworn these people hired monkeys to get their lights on treetops and roof gutters. Then again you can tell who put their lights up after chugging the spiked eggnog also.
From near colossal mishap experience, never go out driving to see Christmas lights after going on a soda or water-drinking binge. Never fails that you get lost in one of those rat maze subdivisions with seemingly no way out while you have a full “I gottta go bad” bladder. Crossing your legs while trying to navigate your auto doesn’t work. As you feel like your eyes are turning yellow, you begin to uneasily contemplate whether you might get noticed if you are able to sneak behind that large bush or tree.
Only safety tip I have concerning Christmas light viewing is to stop when taking a long peek. Last thing you want to do is plow into the back of a parked Rolls Royce and spend your Christmas fleeing across the Canadian border from the law. Oh, and stay off the cell phone. Christmas light drivers who talk on that contraption leave their brains in their glove compartment.
When I was a wee young lad, I’d help my pop with the annual light configuration. Untangling the nest like strand was the second hardest part next to locating the burnt out bulb that caused the whole strand to be out. Those lights we put up look primitive caveman- like compared to the modern lights and inflatables they have now covering one’s property.
Every St. Charles area whether it be Main Street, Frenchtown or wherever has its pockets of Christmas light explosions some more than others. Occasionally you will come across a street with “zilch” lights on them. Guess if they did have lights they’d all spell “Humbug”. The economic energy price bug has a bite on us all so you may not see as many light displays as you might have in years’ past. AmerenUE sponsors a Christmas light contest so now you know where your paying the electric bill goes.
When you are finally Christmas lightoutted, I suggest you stop off somewhere, grab a hot cocoa and head over to Jehlings Hardware store to see their massive Christmas light/train display inside. The set up took 9 weeks to complete and will take you around 20 minutes to take it all in. It’s the building on First Capitol with the train caboose in front of it.
Sometimes the simplest things you do in life can be the most fun. I’d say making the Christmas light seeing rounds would fall into that category. It makes my day when my 19-month-old little girl sees Christmas lights swarming a house from the back car seat and says”wow.” Never fails that the kid falls asleep while you are driving. And you keep on driving looking at more Christmas lights. Sort of like coloring the coloring book after your kid has left the room. Happy Holidays to you.
Mel Kratzer
By Mel Kratzer
Has the Christmas shopping season depleted your funds from your entertainment column in the worst way? Its time to adapt and implement the cheap date out activity by going Christmas light viewing. A lot of us just get off the highway from work making a bee line straight to our home without checking out the neighborhood decorations. Pile the kids, wife, or significant other into the car and take everyone Christmas light looking. Tonight!
Now with the family in the car for an hour or two Christmas light watching, you may want to set the group’s mood with some merry ol Christmas carols on the radio. That’s not mandatory though as “Jingle Bells” tunes could get old real quick. Go ahead and rock out while Christmas light viewing to some AC/DC, Pearljam, or some Led Zeppelin. I’ve done and it put me in the high-energy festive spirit.
It’s a sure guarantee while you are driving around doing the Christmas light thing, they’ll be a battle over how warm or cold the cars inside temperature should be. Usually my wife likes it as she puts it “toasty” inside. To me it feels like I’m being barbequed in the driver’s seat rotisserie Instead, I like it kind of cool with the chilly air vent blasting air upside my face preventing me from nodding off and slamming into someone’s porch. Every thirty seconds some soul is adjusting the climate control so have a compromising attitude.
When it’s snowing or ice storming, your first reaction is to hunker down inside the nice heat-filled house with your feet warming by the fireplace. Though the roads may resemble an ice rink or ski slope, it still is worth chancing it looking at Christmas lights as they have a special sparkling glistening effect glowing under the frozen precipitation. You’re driving slow to begin with, so spinning out creaming a person’s lawn Santa is a low probability.
Expect when you are slow motioning along taking in the Christmas lights, to have minor disputes or debates about the arrangements. Spending five minutes observing a light set up you like may be like spending five minutes watching paint dry to the backseat passenger. Some give and take on this how long we spend on the lights display will keep a civil car atmosphere.
Quite amazing the length of trouble Christmas light decorators will go to make there illuminated strand stand out. You could have sworn these people hired monkeys to get their lights on treetops and roof gutters. Then again you can tell who put their lights up after chugging the spiked eggnog also.
From near colossal mishap experience, never go out driving to see Christmas lights after going on a soda or water-drinking binge. Never fails that you get lost in one of those rat maze subdivisions with seemingly no way out while you have a full “I gottta go bad” bladder. Crossing your legs while trying to navigate your auto doesn’t work. As you feel like your eyes are turning yellow, you begin to uneasily contemplate whether you might get noticed if you are able to sneak behind that large bush or tree.
Only safety tip I have concerning Christmas light viewing is to stop when taking a long peek. Last thing you want to do is plow into the back of a parked Rolls Royce and spend your Christmas fleeing across the Canadian border from the law. Oh, and stay off the cell phone. Christmas light drivers who talk on that contraption leave their brains in their glove compartment.
When I was a wee young lad, I’d help my pop with the annual light configuration. Untangling the nest like strand was the second hardest part next to locating the burnt out bulb that caused the whole strand to be out. Those lights we put up look primitive caveman- like compared to the modern lights and inflatables they have now covering one’s property.
Every St. Charles area whether it be Main Street, Frenchtown or wherever has its pockets of Christmas light explosions some more than others. Occasionally you will come across a street with “zilch” lights on them. Guess if they did have lights they’d all spell “Humbug”. The economic energy price bug has a bite on us all so you may not see as many light displays as you might have in years’ past. AmerenUE sponsors a Christmas light contest so now you know where your paying the electric bill goes.
When you are finally Christmas lightoutted, I suggest you stop off somewhere, grab a hot cocoa and head over to Jehlings Hardware store to see their massive Christmas light/train display inside. The set up took 9 weeks to complete and will take you around 20 minutes to take it all in. It’s the building on First Capitol with the train caboose in front of it.
Sometimes the simplest things you do in life can be the most fun. I’d say making the Christmas light seeing rounds would fall into that category. It makes my day when my 19-month-old little girl sees Christmas lights swarming a house from the back car seat and says”wow.” Never fails that the kid falls asleep while you are driving. And you keep on driving looking at more Christmas lights. Sort of like coloring the coloring book after your kid has left the room. Happy Holidays to you.
Mel Kratzer
First Capitol News Sports - Mike McMurran Sports Editor
Christmas tradition, I think it is one of the most wonderful experiences in the McMurran household. Some of our Christmas traditions have been passed down from Lynn’s family, some are traditions we started on our own. Together they make for a very exciting time.
Without going into great detail, my family doesn’t gather at Christmas, but Lynn’s certainly does. Like everything else in life, things have a strange way of balancing. My family doesn’t get together, her family over does it. As is usually the case, my kids have the best of both worlds.
Being in education allows me to have two weeks off with Maggie, Joe and Dee – two wonderful weeks. Lynn almost always manages at least one week off, so as a family we have quite the time.
Years before Lynn and I were married, I used to buy her parents season tickets to the Muny as a Christmas gift. Don’t ask me why, but every Christmas Eve I would drive down to the Muny and pay for the tickets. The older I get, the more convinced I am that I am touched with a degree of obsessive compulsive behavior. I think the year was 1990 and I had just finished teaching a unit on drama. One of the plays we studied was Tennessee Williams’ Glass Menagerie. The play focuses around a dysfunctional family (see earlier family comments) from St. Louis. At one point in the play he makes reference to the Jewell Box in Forest Park; talks about the beauty both inside and out. So in 1990, after purchasing the season tickets to the Muny, I decided to visit the Jewell Box. As I walked down the sidewalk I couldn’t help but look at the mature trees and wonder what size they were when Williams viewed them – I sometimes think the strangest things. One year after Maggie was born, Lynn and Maggie took the trip with me, and we’ve been doing it as a family ever since. Easily the most exciting year was about four years ago, when it began snowing as we entered the Jewell Box. By the time we exited there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground; by the time we returned home it was more like 4 or 5 inches. Lynn’s niece was in from Texas that year and her daughter experienced snow for the first time in her life.
After the Jewell Box we trek over to the zoo and visit the animals. Maggie says we do it because, “The animals don’t smell nearly as bad as they do in the summer heat.” Every Christmas Eve, be it 60 degrees or 10 degrees, and we’ve experienced both, Family McMurran spends an hour or so at the Zoo. My personal favorite animal is the bears – they are far more active when it’s cold.
After that it’s on to Lynn’s mom’s house, for Christmas Eve dinner and distribution of presents – it’s an event worth the admission. Any where from 30 – 50 people, depending upon who is in town, in a 900 square foot condo – per bedlam. I would never let Lynn know this, but personally it’s the highlight of the Christmas season. My children share the time with their aunts, uncles and cousins. It’s a tradition that started long before my wife was born and will continue for generations to come. It really is special.
On a related note, the same group of people gather the very next evening, Christmas evening, at Lynn’ sisters’ house, that I never did understand. “You just saw everyone the night before,” is usually how the conversation goes, “What could you possibly have to say?” Like most all of Lynn’s family gatherings, we take two cars. Lynn, God bless her, likes to be the first to arrive and the last to leave. Not me. My kids can never get enough of their cousins, so they, like their mom, stay until the very end.
I may have shared some of this with you on previous Christmases. But stay tuned, because I guarantee, what I’m about to share, I’ve never shared with anyone.
I would like to wish a very special Christmas greeting to Lynn’s entire collective family – all however many of them there are. Lynn has 4 sisters and 1 living brother – all of whom have children. That means there are brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law, cousins, aunts, and uncles – and probably most importantly, grandmothers – which to me would be mother-in-law.
I guess what I’m saying is, “thank you” to Lynn’s family – to each and every member of Lynn’s family. As much as most of you find me abrasive, and I know I can be, I have an unconditional love for each and every one of you. It may not always be obvious, but you have to remember I was raised far, far differently than y’all were. I guess the biggest compliment I can give them is this: I am doing my best to raise my children in the same loving environment that each of you were raised. Bud, Lynn’s dad, who died 5 months before Maggie was born, is my role model as a father. I guess what I’m saying is, I want my children to grow up and be like Lynn’s family. Don’t think I don’t know if it were not for Lynn’s family, I wouldn’t have a family at all.
Merry Christmas, may all your dreams for 2008 be realized.
Without going into great detail, my family doesn’t gather at Christmas, but Lynn’s certainly does. Like everything else in life, things have a strange way of balancing. My family doesn’t get together, her family over does it. As is usually the case, my kids have the best of both worlds.
Being in education allows me to have two weeks off with Maggie, Joe and Dee – two wonderful weeks. Lynn almost always manages at least one week off, so as a family we have quite the time.
Years before Lynn and I were married, I used to buy her parents season tickets to the Muny as a Christmas gift. Don’t ask me why, but every Christmas Eve I would drive down to the Muny and pay for the tickets. The older I get, the more convinced I am that I am touched with a degree of obsessive compulsive behavior. I think the year was 1990 and I had just finished teaching a unit on drama. One of the plays we studied was Tennessee Williams’ Glass Menagerie. The play focuses around a dysfunctional family (see earlier family comments) from St. Louis. At one point in the play he makes reference to the Jewell Box in Forest Park; talks about the beauty both inside and out. So in 1990, after purchasing the season tickets to the Muny, I decided to visit the Jewell Box. As I walked down the sidewalk I couldn’t help but look at the mature trees and wonder what size they were when Williams viewed them – I sometimes think the strangest things. One year after Maggie was born, Lynn and Maggie took the trip with me, and we’ve been doing it as a family ever since. Easily the most exciting year was about four years ago, when it began snowing as we entered the Jewell Box. By the time we exited there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground; by the time we returned home it was more like 4 or 5 inches. Lynn’s niece was in from Texas that year and her daughter experienced snow for the first time in her life.
After the Jewell Box we trek over to the zoo and visit the animals. Maggie says we do it because, “The animals don’t smell nearly as bad as they do in the summer heat.” Every Christmas Eve, be it 60 degrees or 10 degrees, and we’ve experienced both, Family McMurran spends an hour or so at the Zoo. My personal favorite animal is the bears – they are far more active when it’s cold.
After that it’s on to Lynn’s mom’s house, for Christmas Eve dinner and distribution of presents – it’s an event worth the admission. Any where from 30 – 50 people, depending upon who is in town, in a 900 square foot condo – per bedlam. I would never let Lynn know this, but personally it’s the highlight of the Christmas season. My children share the time with their aunts, uncles and cousins. It’s a tradition that started long before my wife was born and will continue for generations to come. It really is special.
On a related note, the same group of people gather the very next evening, Christmas evening, at Lynn’ sisters’ house, that I never did understand. “You just saw everyone the night before,” is usually how the conversation goes, “What could you possibly have to say?” Like most all of Lynn’s family gatherings, we take two cars. Lynn, God bless her, likes to be the first to arrive and the last to leave. Not me. My kids can never get enough of their cousins, so they, like their mom, stay until the very end.
I may have shared some of this with you on previous Christmases. But stay tuned, because I guarantee, what I’m about to share, I’ve never shared with anyone.
I would like to wish a very special Christmas greeting to Lynn’s entire collective family – all however many of them there are. Lynn has 4 sisters and 1 living brother – all of whom have children. That means there are brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law, cousins, aunts, and uncles – and probably most importantly, grandmothers – which to me would be mother-in-law.
I guess what I’m saying is, “thank you” to Lynn’s family – to each and every member of Lynn’s family. As much as most of you find me abrasive, and I know I can be, I have an unconditional love for each and every one of you. It may not always be obvious, but you have to remember I was raised far, far differently than y’all were. I guess the biggest compliment I can give them is this: I am doing my best to raise my children in the same loving environment that each of you were raised. Bud, Lynn’s dad, who died 5 months before Maggie was born, is my role model as a father. I guess what I’m saying is, I want my children to grow up and be like Lynn’s family. Don’t think I don’t know if it were not for Lynn’s family, I wouldn’t have a family at all.
Merry Christmas, may all your dreams for 2008 be realized.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Las Posadas to be performed December 1st on Historic Main St
(Click on image to enlarge)Las Posadas to be performed December 1st on Historic Main St
Las Posadas, the traditional Spanish reenactment of the difficulties Joseph and Mary faced on the night that would become the first Christmas Eve, will take place on Saturday, December 1 in historic downtown St. Charles, Missouri.
The gathering will begin at 6 p.m. at the corner of Boones Lick Road and South Main Street. Visitors are encouraged to bring candles or flashlights. Candles will also be available for purchase with proceeds benefiting the South Main Preservation Society.
The event will end at Jaycee Stage in Frontier Park with the reading of The Christmas Story and caroling around a Yule log bonfire. There will also be a living nativity scene and the lighting of the city’s Christmas tree.
The Las Posadas reenactment is part of the Christmas Traditions festival, which runs Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through December 23.
Real Estate Market Remains Steady In Area
Real Estate Market Remains Steady In Area According To Association of
REALTORS
Despite recent news reports to the contrary, homeowners in the St. Louis market continue to see growth in their investment in their home, according to sales figures for the third quarter of this year obtained from the Mid-America Regional Information System (MARIS), the multiple listing service which covers the Missouri side of the St. Louis region. According to MARIS, the median price of a home sold between July and September of this year was $158,000, which is an increase of 1.6 percent over the same period one year ago. This represents the combined median home price for St. Louis City, and St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, Lincoln and Jefferson Counties.
“The figures show that despite what you see in the national media, the market in the St. Louis area remains steady. Remember, all real estate is local and the St. Louis metropolitan area is its own unique market,” said John Williams, President of the St. Louis Association of REALTORS®. “Despite what you may have heard, a homeowner in our area can generally sell his or her home for more than he or she paid for it. Our region is a great place to own a home,” commented Don Rogers, President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS®.
Both Williams and Rogers pointed out that today’s market in our area is running very close to the pre-boom markets of 2002 and 2003. “Yes, we have returned to a normal market,” commented Williams. “A normal market is a good thing for our local economy; it means we have returned to a period of steady and sustainable growth that all signs indicate can continue into the future,” Williams continued.
“Potential homebuyers who wait are missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that today’s market gives them,” commented Rogers. “We have steady prices, a large selection of homes to choose from, and mortgage interest rates near historically low levels. All these factors, combined with a strong local economy, make this a great time to buy a home,” added Rogers.
“Unfortunately, there may be local individuals and families who will listen to the national media and miss this great opportunity to own the home of their dreams,” concluded Williams.
REALTORS
Despite recent news reports to the contrary, homeowners in the St. Louis market continue to see growth in their investment in their home, according to sales figures for the third quarter of this year obtained from the Mid-America Regional Information System (MARIS), the multiple listing service which covers the Missouri side of the St. Louis region. According to MARIS, the median price of a home sold between July and September of this year was $158,000, which is an increase of 1.6 percent over the same period one year ago. This represents the combined median home price for St. Louis City, and St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, Lincoln and Jefferson Counties.
“The figures show that despite what you see in the national media, the market in the St. Louis area remains steady. Remember, all real estate is local and the St. Louis metropolitan area is its own unique market,” said John Williams, President of the St. Louis Association of REALTORS®. “Despite what you may have heard, a homeowner in our area can generally sell his or her home for more than he or she paid for it. Our region is a great place to own a home,” commented Don Rogers, President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS®.
Both Williams and Rogers pointed out that today’s market in our area is running very close to the pre-boom markets of 2002 and 2003. “Yes, we have returned to a normal market,” commented Williams. “A normal market is a good thing for our local economy; it means we have returned to a period of steady and sustainable growth that all signs indicate can continue into the future,” Williams continued.
“Potential homebuyers who wait are missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that today’s market gives them,” commented Rogers. “We have steady prices, a large selection of homes to choose from, and mortgage interest rates near historically low levels. All these factors, combined with a strong local economy, make this a great time to buy a home,” added Rogers.
“Unfortunately, there may be local individuals and families who will listen to the national media and miss this great opportunity to own the home of their dreams,” concluded Williams.
Real Estate Market Remains Steady In Area
Real Estate Market Remains Steady In Area According To Association of
REALTORS
Despite recent news reports to the contrary, homeowners in the St. Louis market continue to see growth in their investment in their home, according to sales figures for the third quarter of this year obtained from the Mid-America Regional Information System (MARIS), the multiple listing service which covers the Missouri side of the St. Louis region. According to MARIS, the median price of a home sold between July and September of this year was $158,000, which is an increase of 1.6 percent over the same period one year ago. This represents the combined median home price for St. Louis City, and St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, Lincoln and Jefferson Counties.
“The figures show that despite what you see in the national media, the market in the St. Louis area remains steady. Remember, all real estate is local and the St. Louis metropolitan area is its own unique market,” said John Williams, President of the St. Louis Association of REALTORS®. “Despite what you may have heard, a homeowner in our area can generally sell his or her home for more than he or she paid for it. Our region is a great place to own a home,” commented Don Rogers, President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS®.
Both Williams and Rogers pointed out that today’s market in our area is running very close to the pre-boom markets of 2002 and 2003. “Yes, we have returned to a normal market,” commented Williams. “A normal market is a good thing for our local economy; it means we have returned to a period of steady and sustainable growth that all signs indicate can continue into the future,” Williams continued.
“Potential homebuyers who wait are missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that today’s market gives them,” commented Rogers. “We have steady prices, a large selection of homes to choose from, and mortgage interest rates near historically low levels. All these factors, combined with a strong local economy, make this a great time to buy a home,” added Rogers.
“Unfortunately, there may be local individuals and families who will listen to the national media and miss this great opportunity to own the home of their dreams,” concluded Williams.
REALTORS
Despite recent news reports to the contrary, homeowners in the St. Louis market continue to see growth in their investment in their home, according to sales figures for the third quarter of this year obtained from the Mid-America Regional Information System (MARIS), the multiple listing service which covers the Missouri side of the St. Louis region. According to MARIS, the median price of a home sold between July and September of this year was $158,000, which is an increase of 1.6 percent over the same period one year ago. This represents the combined median home price for St. Louis City, and St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin, Lincoln and Jefferson Counties.
“The figures show that despite what you see in the national media, the market in the St. Louis area remains steady. Remember, all real estate is local and the St. Louis metropolitan area is its own unique market,” said John Williams, President of the St. Louis Association of REALTORS®. “Despite what you may have heard, a homeowner in our area can generally sell his or her home for more than he or she paid for it. Our region is a great place to own a home,” commented Don Rogers, President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS®.
Both Williams and Rogers pointed out that today’s market in our area is running very close to the pre-boom markets of 2002 and 2003. “Yes, we have returned to a normal market,” commented Williams. “A normal market is a good thing for our local economy; it means we have returned to a period of steady and sustainable growth that all signs indicate can continue into the future,” Williams continued.
“Potential homebuyers who wait are missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that today’s market gives them,” commented Rogers. “We have steady prices, a large selection of homes to choose from, and mortgage interest rates near historically low levels. All these factors, combined with a strong local economy, make this a great time to buy a home,” added Rogers.
“Unfortunately, there may be local individuals and families who will listen to the national media and miss this great opportunity to own the home of their dreams,” concluded Williams.
RAMBLING WITH The Editor Tony Brockmeyer
Council & Mayor Given A Happy New Year By Ameristar Casino
The First Capitol News would like to wish all our readers and advertisers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We know the members of the City Council are going to enjoy a Happy New Year. The Mayor and HER Council have been invited to be the guests of Ameristar Casino over the New Years Holiday. That includes a night of fun for them and a guest as well as accommodations in the new hotel.
City Council Members Participate In Illegal Gambling
We have learned that several members of the city council participated in the illegal poker game that was held recently at Bogey Hills Country Club to reduce the campaign debt for councilman and former judge candidate Richard Veit. Their names were not on the finance campaign disclosure forms filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission because their $300 entry fees were paid for and listed under the names of other individuals.Where is a prosecutor when you need one? Those participating in this illegal gambling should resign their council seats.
Council Holds Closed Meeting Over Law Suits
The city council held a closed door meeting last Monday afternoon at city hall to discuss settling the Sellenschuetter law suit and a new law suit that has been brought against the city by police sergeant Ronald Lloyd. Lloyd filed suit claiming that he was being punished by the Mayor for helping former councilman John Gieseke in his run for Mayor in April. Lloyd and Gieseke have been close friends since childhood. Lloyd was transferred to a shift that does not allow him to continue as a part-time high school football coach. His take home police vehicle was also taken from him. Lloyd says he was told by Police Chief Dennis Corley that he (Corley) was ordered by the Mayor to take the action against Lloyd. The council is discussing a $1 million offer to Sellenschuetter, even though their attorney has advised against the settlement. During the discussion, Council President kneemiller would not recognize councilwoman Laurie Feldman and allow her to speak. Feldman broke down in tears. Six votes could not be found to settle with Sellenschuetter. The Council members who received campaign contributions and other offers from Sellenschuetter still have not excused themselves from voting on the lawsuit; A clear conflict of interest. No offers were made to settle Lloyd’s law suit.
New Police Chief and City Administrator
Acting Police Chief Dennis Corley was sworn in as the Police Chief. Michael Spurgeon, the City Manager of Miami Oklahoma, was hired as the new City Administrator. He will start on January 1, 2008 with a salary of $124,000, full benefits, car allowance and six months furnished apartment rent at $1,000 a month. York wanted to hire Spurgeon several years ago but could not get the votes. He claimed he was withdrawing his name because the council had contracted with the First Capitol News to investigate his background. He really withdrew because he could not get the votes. More on Spurgeon to follow.
firstcapitolnews.com
The First Capitol News would like to wish all our readers and advertisers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We know the members of the City Council are going to enjoy a Happy New Year. The Mayor and HER Council have been invited to be the guests of Ameristar Casino over the New Years Holiday. That includes a night of fun for them and a guest as well as accommodations in the new hotel.
City Council Members Participate In Illegal Gambling
We have learned that several members of the city council participated in the illegal poker game that was held recently at Bogey Hills Country Club to reduce the campaign debt for councilman and former judge candidate Richard Veit. Their names were not on the finance campaign disclosure forms filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission because their $300 entry fees were paid for and listed under the names of other individuals.Where is a prosecutor when you need one? Those participating in this illegal gambling should resign their council seats.
Council Holds Closed Meeting Over Law Suits
The city council held a closed door meeting last Monday afternoon at city hall to discuss settling the Sellenschuetter law suit and a new law suit that has been brought against the city by police sergeant Ronald Lloyd. Lloyd filed suit claiming that he was being punished by the Mayor for helping former councilman John Gieseke in his run for Mayor in April. Lloyd and Gieseke have been close friends since childhood. Lloyd was transferred to a shift that does not allow him to continue as a part-time high school football coach. His take home police vehicle was also taken from him. Lloyd says he was told by Police Chief Dennis Corley that he (Corley) was ordered by the Mayor to take the action against Lloyd. The council is discussing a $1 million offer to Sellenschuetter, even though their attorney has advised against the settlement. During the discussion, Council President kneemiller would not recognize councilwoman Laurie Feldman and allow her to speak. Feldman broke down in tears. Six votes could not be found to settle with Sellenschuetter. The Council members who received campaign contributions and other offers from Sellenschuetter still have not excused themselves from voting on the lawsuit; A clear conflict of interest. No offers were made to settle Lloyd’s law suit.
New Police Chief and City Administrator
Acting Police Chief Dennis Corley was sworn in as the Police Chief. Michael Spurgeon, the City Manager of Miami Oklahoma, was hired as the new City Administrator. He will start on January 1, 2008 with a salary of $124,000, full benefits, car allowance and six months furnished apartment rent at $1,000 a month. York wanted to hire Spurgeon several years ago but could not get the votes. He claimed he was withdrawing his name because the council had contracted with the First Capitol News to investigate his background. He really withdrew because he could not get the votes. More on Spurgeon to follow.
firstcapitolnews.com
Wii Three Kings Of Orient Are..... Standing In Lines For Gifts Near & Far
As the effects of stuffing ourselves for Thanksgiving begins to fade, the primordial instinct to hunt and gather presents for Christmas takes over. If it were easy, there would be no sport in Christmas shopping. No sense of accomplishment at stalking your prey. No sense of danger navigating the crowded parking lots or shouldering your way through the crowds.
Men should be good at this right?
Truth be told, it scares us to death. We want to buy the perfect gifts, especially for our wives. We want them to know how much we appreciate all they do. To acknowledge how much they sacrificed all year for the family and that seemingly uncaring man-bear we sometimes see staring back at us when we look in the mirror too closely.
If men could say all that we feel in gifts at Christmas, I believe there would be Peace on Earth. But the problem for any man is that shopping for women, especially your wife, requires advanced degrees in feminine psychology and anatomy.
We’ve split the atom, mapped the human genome, and peered back through time to the beginnings of the Universe…but no one, repeat, no one, has yet to unravel how to size women’s clothing. So we stand awkwardly in the no-man’s land of the women’s department, straining our puny man-sized brains as we try to envision wives, mothers or girlfriends in this frock or that.
What leads men to believe the women in their lives will be happy with their keen fashion sense is a mystery. Most of us never perused the pages of Cosmopolitan outside of a doctor’s waiting room and then only after exhausting a year old Popular Mechanics, including all the ads for building your own helicopter at home.
We are just as hapless at accessories. Did a man ever buy a hat a woman could wear or a purse she used? Jewelry is somewhat safer ground for those men a little more well-off financially. After all, precious metals can always be melted down and the stones reset.
Fortunately for our male egos, females have learned to be gracious in the acceptance of awkward gifts. Much like when the cat brings home a bird.
But as hapless as men are at Christmas shopping, women are much more organized. For one thing, they hunt in packs.
It wasn’t strictly a Christmas present for this year, but more of a left-over promise from last, that led to my initiation into the world of the female Christmas shopper. My daughter wanted a Wii gaming system. Two weeks before Thanksgiving our family, like so many others, discovered the Wii was once again sold out.
Seven stores later I began to believe what the sales people at the first store had told us. The Japanese manufacturers of the Wii, still obviously upset at the outcome of WWII or is that WWii, were once again out to destroy Christmas. They were driving up demand with ads on television, while strictly controlling the supply to keep prices artificially high.
Just when I thought all was lost and I had failed miserably as a Christmas Elf, my daughter came up with a plan of attack. First she ferreted out information about the next shipment of the Wii from a friendly salesperson. They would arrive at two different stores in the same mall on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but the stores were not authorized to sell them till Friday morning. It is amazing what kind of information you can get out of the less seasoned temporary Christmas help.
The doors of the mall would open at precisely 6:00 AM and the stores at 7:00. We needed to leave our base camp by 5:00 AM to be in position. Two of the family would assault the first store, while the second team moved into position at the second. Whoever got one in hand first would call the other team.
It was a plan worthy of the Allied Command before D-Day. But like D-Day, or should I say Wii-Day, there was a lot more confusion after the operation began. Fortunately, I was on the winning side.
With just 21 Wii(s) to be had, we were nineteenth in line if you didn’t count pre-teens. At one to a customer, and there would have been a riot had it not been just one to a customer, we made it under the wire.
When I told my wife we had secured the Wii, the first thing she said was. “Great, I’ll call my Mom and tell her to tell her friends they can stop looking.”
“What friends I asked?”
“ Oh, all her female friends.”
Like I said, women hunt in packs. Merry Christmas!
Men should be good at this right?
Truth be told, it scares us to death. We want to buy the perfect gifts, especially for our wives. We want them to know how much we appreciate all they do. To acknowledge how much they sacrificed all year for the family and that seemingly uncaring man-bear we sometimes see staring back at us when we look in the mirror too closely.
If men could say all that we feel in gifts at Christmas, I believe there would be Peace on Earth. But the problem for any man is that shopping for women, especially your wife, requires advanced degrees in feminine psychology and anatomy.
We’ve split the atom, mapped the human genome, and peered back through time to the beginnings of the Universe…but no one, repeat, no one, has yet to unravel how to size women’s clothing. So we stand awkwardly in the no-man’s land of the women’s department, straining our puny man-sized brains as we try to envision wives, mothers or girlfriends in this frock or that.
What leads men to believe the women in their lives will be happy with their keen fashion sense is a mystery. Most of us never perused the pages of Cosmopolitan outside of a doctor’s waiting room and then only after exhausting a year old Popular Mechanics, including all the ads for building your own helicopter at home.
We are just as hapless at accessories. Did a man ever buy a hat a woman could wear or a purse she used? Jewelry is somewhat safer ground for those men a little more well-off financially. After all, precious metals can always be melted down and the stones reset.
Fortunately for our male egos, females have learned to be gracious in the acceptance of awkward gifts. Much like when the cat brings home a bird.
But as hapless as men are at Christmas shopping, women are much more organized. For one thing, they hunt in packs.
It wasn’t strictly a Christmas present for this year, but more of a left-over promise from last, that led to my initiation into the world of the female Christmas shopper. My daughter wanted a Wii gaming system. Two weeks before Thanksgiving our family, like so many others, discovered the Wii was once again sold out.
Seven stores later I began to believe what the sales people at the first store had told us. The Japanese manufacturers of the Wii, still obviously upset at the outcome of WWII or is that WWii, were once again out to destroy Christmas. They were driving up demand with ads on television, while strictly controlling the supply to keep prices artificially high.
Just when I thought all was lost and I had failed miserably as a Christmas Elf, my daughter came up with a plan of attack. First she ferreted out information about the next shipment of the Wii from a friendly salesperson. They would arrive at two different stores in the same mall on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but the stores were not authorized to sell them till Friday morning. It is amazing what kind of information you can get out of the less seasoned temporary Christmas help.
The doors of the mall would open at precisely 6:00 AM and the stores at 7:00. We needed to leave our base camp by 5:00 AM to be in position. Two of the family would assault the first store, while the second team moved into position at the second. Whoever got one in hand first would call the other team.
It was a plan worthy of the Allied Command before D-Day. But like D-Day, or should I say Wii-Day, there was a lot more confusion after the operation began. Fortunately, I was on the winning side.
With just 21 Wii(s) to be had, we were nineteenth in line if you didn’t count pre-teens. At one to a customer, and there would have been a riot had it not been just one to a customer, we made it under the wire.
When I told my wife we had secured the Wii, the first thing she said was. “Great, I’ll call my Mom and tell her to tell her friends they can stop looking.”
“What friends I asked?”
“ Oh, all her female friends.”
Like I said, women hunt in packs. Merry Christmas!
THE PEOPLE SPEAK - Letters To The Editor
Dear Editor,
For several years, we have enjoyed walking the asphalt trails around the lakes at Fountain Lakes Nature Park in St. Charles. These trails go around several lakes which host abundant birdlife and other wildlife and are a source of good exercise and pleasure to many St. Charles City residents.
The asphalt surface has developed cracks and needs maintenance; however, we were astonished when the city replaced the hard surface paths around the north lake with packed gravel. This gravel surface makes it difficult for those who have to navigate wheelchairs to the handicapped-accessible fishing docks as well as for those who enjoy in-line skating and biking. What was once a nice all-weather surface for walking, similar to Creve Coeur Park paths, has now become a dusty, sometimes muddy, and uneven walking surface. We cannot imagine why the Parks Department thought it needed to grind up a mile and a half of existing asphalt surface rather than repair 10-20% of the surface.
We understand the Parks Department also has plans to grind up the paths around the south lakes and replace them with gravel as well. We would hope they would reconsider the purpose of the paths and type of usage they get and just repair the asphalt rather than chopping up the whole thing and replacing it with dusty, dirty gravel. Perhaps our Parks Department could check with the St. Louis County Parks Department to see how they are able to maintain user-friendly paths without destroying the hard surface when the paths need repair.
When we called the Parks Department, their representative told us they do not have the funds to maintain the asphalt paths that the city received as part of a TIF at Fountain Lakes. What has happened to all the money we receive from that Golden Goose down on our riverfront? Has it come to the point where we now do not have funds for basic maintenance of our green space? On the other hand, could this be a matter of poor management on the part of our Parks Department and our City leaders? We certainly hope they will reconsider and retain/repair the existing hard surface around the south lakes.
Larry & Eleanor McCune, St. Charles
Dear Tony,
I’m thinking about Veterans’ Day.
I got a phone call from Baghdad a week or so ago. A young man recruited into the Army fresh out of high school was trying to connect with my daughter. Joining was his choice, but he was just a kid when he made it. He still is. The Army promised him he’d not be sent to Iraq.
I realized I haven’t done a damned thing about the war except surrender my tax money. So yesterday, I went to meet with a representative from US Senator Claire McCaskill’s office. She was a kind-looking woman who sat at a table taking notes and listening to people who wanted the senator to intervene on their behalf. I asked the staffer to tell the senator that we need to support our troops by bringing them home, and that I was speaking for many people in saying so. Which is true. The man next to me blurted out something like, “Yeah? What about rising gas prices?” I said, “That’s actually a blessing, because we need to curtail our CO2 emissions, and high gas prices help us do that.” I added, “I’d like to talk to you about all that, but we don’t have time right now.” The staffer was due to leave in five minutes.
Then I asked the staffer to tell the senator that we need national health care, too. I asked her to encourage the senator to get discussions going alerting the public to the electronic voting machines which are sucking off the vote and killing democracy, and told her I believed it had happened locally. “And we need more veterans’ benefits.” “Are you a veteran?” she asked. “No,” I said. “But veterans need them.” And future veterans. Bush keeps cutting benefits. And there’s not enough medical staff overseas. Later, I told my husband, Jim, about the “rising gas prices” remark.
I understood then, that despite all our education, children — ours and those in countries at war— are still being thrown into the volcano to pacify the gods. And we’re letting it happen. We allow recruiters in our high schools! If we can’t do better than that, what are we doing? We’re hunkering down in fear, that’s what. We’re afraid to talk to people about what most needs talked about, to speak up. Whatever “side” you’re drawn to, however you feel, exchanging thoughts is what needs to happen.
Calmly. Respectfully. Talk. Listen. Write. Think. Please put hands to the wheel of democracy. And ask for a receipt when you vote.
Peggy Whetzel
Dear First Capitol News,
The ugliest block of North Second Street has one of the most insulting sights in town – an American flag is used as a curtain in a warehouse owned by Kelly’s Heating and Cooling.
Since every window in the cement-block building is curtained off, it looks as if the owners, Jerry Kelly and Steve Miles, are hiding behind the flag.
Guys take the flag out of the window and fly it properly, please.
More appropriate, how about putting a pirate flag in its place? It’s the perfect statement, considering the thousands of dollars you poured into getting Richard Veit on the City Council, and now it’s payback time – he’s working for you to industrialize Frenchtown.
As for Frenchtown, maybe it should succeed from St. Charles, because Councilman Veit has stripped every single Frenchtown-dedicated dollar from the city budget for years to come, even money for park benches. They probably don’t want any tourists or shoppers lured to Frenchtown’s upcoming industrial zone.
Call 636-946-4313 and tell Jerry and Steve how you feel.
Media Jane
For several years, we have enjoyed walking the asphalt trails around the lakes at Fountain Lakes Nature Park in St. Charles. These trails go around several lakes which host abundant birdlife and other wildlife and are a source of good exercise and pleasure to many St. Charles City residents.
The asphalt surface has developed cracks and needs maintenance; however, we were astonished when the city replaced the hard surface paths around the north lake with packed gravel. This gravel surface makes it difficult for those who have to navigate wheelchairs to the handicapped-accessible fishing docks as well as for those who enjoy in-line skating and biking. What was once a nice all-weather surface for walking, similar to Creve Coeur Park paths, has now become a dusty, sometimes muddy, and uneven walking surface. We cannot imagine why the Parks Department thought it needed to grind up a mile and a half of existing asphalt surface rather than repair 10-20% of the surface.
We understand the Parks Department also has plans to grind up the paths around the south lakes and replace them with gravel as well. We would hope they would reconsider the purpose of the paths and type of usage they get and just repair the asphalt rather than chopping up the whole thing and replacing it with dusty, dirty gravel. Perhaps our Parks Department could check with the St. Louis County Parks Department to see how they are able to maintain user-friendly paths without destroying the hard surface when the paths need repair.
When we called the Parks Department, their representative told us they do not have the funds to maintain the asphalt paths that the city received as part of a TIF at Fountain Lakes. What has happened to all the money we receive from that Golden Goose down on our riverfront? Has it come to the point where we now do not have funds for basic maintenance of our green space? On the other hand, could this be a matter of poor management on the part of our Parks Department and our City leaders? We certainly hope they will reconsider and retain/repair the existing hard surface around the south lakes.
Larry & Eleanor McCune, St. Charles
Dear Tony,
I’m thinking about Veterans’ Day.
I got a phone call from Baghdad a week or so ago. A young man recruited into the Army fresh out of high school was trying to connect with my daughter. Joining was his choice, but he was just a kid when he made it. He still is. The Army promised him he’d not be sent to Iraq.
I realized I haven’t done a damned thing about the war except surrender my tax money. So yesterday, I went to meet with a representative from US Senator Claire McCaskill’s office. She was a kind-looking woman who sat at a table taking notes and listening to people who wanted the senator to intervene on their behalf. I asked the staffer to tell the senator that we need to support our troops by bringing them home, and that I was speaking for many people in saying so. Which is true. The man next to me blurted out something like, “Yeah? What about rising gas prices?” I said, “That’s actually a blessing, because we need to curtail our CO2 emissions, and high gas prices help us do that.” I added, “I’d like to talk to you about all that, but we don’t have time right now.” The staffer was due to leave in five minutes.
Then I asked the staffer to tell the senator that we need national health care, too. I asked her to encourage the senator to get discussions going alerting the public to the electronic voting machines which are sucking off the vote and killing democracy, and told her I believed it had happened locally. “And we need more veterans’ benefits.” “Are you a veteran?” she asked. “No,” I said. “But veterans need them.” And future veterans. Bush keeps cutting benefits. And there’s not enough medical staff overseas. Later, I told my husband, Jim, about the “rising gas prices” remark.
I understood then, that despite all our education, children — ours and those in countries at war— are still being thrown into the volcano to pacify the gods. And we’re letting it happen. We allow recruiters in our high schools! If we can’t do better than that, what are we doing? We’re hunkering down in fear, that’s what. We’re afraid to talk to people about what most needs talked about, to speak up. Whatever “side” you’re drawn to, however you feel, exchanging thoughts is what needs to happen.
Calmly. Respectfully. Talk. Listen. Write. Think. Please put hands to the wheel of democracy. And ask for a receipt when you vote.
Peggy Whetzel
Dear First Capitol News,
The ugliest block of North Second Street has one of the most insulting sights in town – an American flag is used as a curtain in a warehouse owned by Kelly’s Heating and Cooling.
Since every window in the cement-block building is curtained off, it looks as if the owners, Jerry Kelly and Steve Miles, are hiding behind the flag.
Guys take the flag out of the window and fly it properly, please.
More appropriate, how about putting a pirate flag in its place? It’s the perfect statement, considering the thousands of dollars you poured into getting Richard Veit on the City Council, and now it’s payback time – he’s working for you to industrialize Frenchtown.
As for Frenchtown, maybe it should succeed from St. Charles, because Councilman Veit has stripped every single Frenchtown-dedicated dollar from the city budget for years to come, even money for park benches. They probably don’t want any tourists or shoppers lured to Frenchtown’s upcoming industrial zone.
Call 636-946-4313 and tell Jerry and Steve how you feel.
Media Jane
CaSE IN POINT by Joe Koester
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Oscar Wilde
In a public letter from Sunday, November 11, 2007 – State Representative, Cynthia Davis, R-19th District writes in a letter to the editor captioned, “Does this county need a public bus system?” (you need to read the letter in its entirety):
The idea of bringing public buses to St. Charles County is one issue that raises some philosophical questions that need answers before we are ready for a tax increase.
Many of our people live on cul-de-sacs and don’t even have sidewalks. To get to a bus stop, you have to be able to walk safely and not too far.
When I was in city government, I voted on approving most of these subdivisions because that is what our constituents wanted. Buses only work best with high density and streets laid out on a grid. St. Charles County is distinctively different from St. Louis County.
Some people think we need buses to get people to work. What kind of jobs are these that don’t pay people enough to afford a car? When my husband and I were first married, his take-home pay was $126 per week. Our pickup truck wasn’t very pretty, but it was enough for our basic needs. If the employer really needs employees, and can’t pay them enough so that they can afford to buy cars, why doesn’t he charter his own bus to bring them to work?
Our high school parking lots are filled with students’ cars. They are offered free bus rides to school, yet the demand for student parking always exceeds the amount of space available. Even our kids would rather drive.
Waiting at a bus stop in bad weather can be a bad experience if one has to sit out in the heat, rain and freezing temperatures to catch another bus. This is not a workable option for the elderly and those with fragile health conditions.
I believe we have enough kindhearted friends and families that will give their neighbors a ride if they can’t drive.
There is much that is wrong with this letter from a state lawmaker who represents a part of our county in Jefferson City. First off, however, let me say that my point here is not pro or con public buses in St. Charles County and I agree with one part of the letter from Mrs. Davis – namely, our county has epitomized sprawl-style growth that does make bussing, if not impossible, very challenging. It is the attitude of the remainder of the letter that seems pretty sad and off mark.
To start, where Mrs. Davis states that she approved most of these subdivisions complete with cul-de-sacs because “that is what our constituents wanted” I really must ask myself whether that is truly what the residents of O’Fallon wanted. More likely, new residents wanted a yard, a relatively low-priced home in a safe area with decent schools. The fact that their neighborhood was filled with curvilinear streets that created few connecting roads turning their otherwise three-minute commute into fifteen minutes is, perhaps, something the residents didn’t really want at all. The fact that some streets became major arteries lined with strip malls may just have been the price you paid if you wanted the big house with a yard in a safe area with good schools. Certainly, the very role of the community leader is to meet both the interests of his or her residents and also think about the consequences of actions that create wastefully laid out street grids that require great infrastructure with extremely low density and huge future costs both in street and sewer maintenance and hours wasted by residents sitting in traffic or zigzagging over field and dale to move a few blocks down the road (as the crow flies).
More likely, “constituents” are the same characters you know from St. Charles. Well, they are usually not so much “constituents” as “bankrollers” for chosen campaigns. You guessed it – the developers!
In fact, if the aldermen in O’Fallon had wanted to create both low-traffic streets and a basic overall grid pattern then one day of researching street options would have shown them several ways to build that provide both.
Next, to answer the question posed by Mrs. Davis, “What kind of jobs are these that don’t pay people enough to afford a car?” These are mostly service jobs that have been created as our country de-industrializes. Mrs. Davis, these are the jobs that employ the people that your own Party time and again works against by fighting living wage initiatives and universal health care, as well as a host of other public-good services that would benefit working women and poor children. You should remember, one of the first acts your own Governor took when entering office was to throw quite a few of these poor children off of such public assistance previously provided by the state. The next time you stop at a restaurant or pick up dry cleaning, or maybe even step into your own book store, you may see some of these people doing the very jobs you wonder about.
While we all use our own personal experiences to make generalized judgments about life, we also have enough experience as adults to know that many factors come into play and that sometimes the way we experience things is not how the next fellow will. This is why I find the anecdote above about take-home pay of “$126 per week” rather adolescent. It doesn’t tell the whole story – just one personal (maybe partial) story. Many have the luxury of strong family support, good education, etc. while others do not. In fact, some people may have no family support; have chronic health problems, etc. This is not to make excuses for anyone, but rather to illustrate the eventuality that many people who are hard-working may still be struggling due to factors that you and I do not know about.
As far as high school kids driving – indeed they do. These students pay a huge cost to drive too. Many work nights and weekends in order to pay for gasoline and insurance and they can afford this because they usually are supported from home. Besides, do we look to high school students to decide policy of transportation?
The last two paragraphs are also limited in their vision. Yes, when you ride a bus you are exposed to weather fluctuations. When you have no means of transportation you are exposed to dependence on others. There are options available to help with this problem too. For example, bus shelters can be built and even a fan or heater could be installed. There are cities that are looking into smaller buses that would pick up elderly closer to home and sometimes from their home.
Finally, there are not enough kindhearted friends and family for some folks to depend on for a daily trip to work and to the store, bank, doctor’s office, etc. Again, personal experience seems to somehow indicate reality for everyone else in the greater community in Representative Davis’ eyes. In case Cynthia Davis doesn’t know this, most citizens do not have a campaign account with which they can purchase a private vehicle either.
I believe that Representative Davis is sincere in her beliefs. I also believe that like so many who view the world solely from their own experiences and who see things in black and white with no shades of grey, she is also mistaken about how the real world works.
I would like to end by reiterating that I agree a bus system, as we traditionally think of it, would be difficult to operate, costly, and very likely not used by a huge portion of residents in our county due to our demographics and current infrastructure. I just think it is better to speak the truth about the matter rather than determine policy by, well-this-is-how-I-do-things approach. If a traditional bus system won’t work – what options are there? This is something that can be explored and debated as it should be. If you have a decent job and can afford a car, that’s terrific. Maybe you have gotten where you are today because you were smart, worked hard and just deserve it. I find that usually the story (if told honestly) more often is a combination of work, relationships and fortune. Some folks marry well; others inherit well; while others get help by family and friends. It is certain that many people “deserve” their wealth as much as many others “deserve” their poverty. I hope I never need to depend on a bus system in St. Charles County, however, that doesn’t change the fact that their may be a need for one. Who knows, if gasoline prices double or triple, we may all be asking, “Where’s the nearest bus stop?”
Oscar Wilde
In a public letter from Sunday, November 11, 2007 – State Representative, Cynthia Davis, R-19th District writes in a letter to the editor captioned, “Does this county need a public bus system?” (you need to read the letter in its entirety):
The idea of bringing public buses to St. Charles County is one issue that raises some philosophical questions that need answers before we are ready for a tax increase.
Many of our people live on cul-de-sacs and don’t even have sidewalks. To get to a bus stop, you have to be able to walk safely and not too far.
When I was in city government, I voted on approving most of these subdivisions because that is what our constituents wanted. Buses only work best with high density and streets laid out on a grid. St. Charles County is distinctively different from St. Louis County.
Some people think we need buses to get people to work. What kind of jobs are these that don’t pay people enough to afford a car? When my husband and I were first married, his take-home pay was $126 per week. Our pickup truck wasn’t very pretty, but it was enough for our basic needs. If the employer really needs employees, and can’t pay them enough so that they can afford to buy cars, why doesn’t he charter his own bus to bring them to work?
Our high school parking lots are filled with students’ cars. They are offered free bus rides to school, yet the demand for student parking always exceeds the amount of space available. Even our kids would rather drive.
Waiting at a bus stop in bad weather can be a bad experience if one has to sit out in the heat, rain and freezing temperatures to catch another bus. This is not a workable option for the elderly and those with fragile health conditions.
I believe we have enough kindhearted friends and families that will give their neighbors a ride if they can’t drive.
There is much that is wrong with this letter from a state lawmaker who represents a part of our county in Jefferson City. First off, however, let me say that my point here is not pro or con public buses in St. Charles County and I agree with one part of the letter from Mrs. Davis – namely, our county has epitomized sprawl-style growth that does make bussing, if not impossible, very challenging. It is the attitude of the remainder of the letter that seems pretty sad and off mark.
To start, where Mrs. Davis states that she approved most of these subdivisions complete with cul-de-sacs because “that is what our constituents wanted” I really must ask myself whether that is truly what the residents of O’Fallon wanted. More likely, new residents wanted a yard, a relatively low-priced home in a safe area with decent schools. The fact that their neighborhood was filled with curvilinear streets that created few connecting roads turning their otherwise three-minute commute into fifteen minutes is, perhaps, something the residents didn’t really want at all. The fact that some streets became major arteries lined with strip malls may just have been the price you paid if you wanted the big house with a yard in a safe area with good schools. Certainly, the very role of the community leader is to meet both the interests of his or her residents and also think about the consequences of actions that create wastefully laid out street grids that require great infrastructure with extremely low density and huge future costs both in street and sewer maintenance and hours wasted by residents sitting in traffic or zigzagging over field and dale to move a few blocks down the road (as the crow flies).
More likely, “constituents” are the same characters you know from St. Charles. Well, they are usually not so much “constituents” as “bankrollers” for chosen campaigns. You guessed it – the developers!
In fact, if the aldermen in O’Fallon had wanted to create both low-traffic streets and a basic overall grid pattern then one day of researching street options would have shown them several ways to build that provide both.
Next, to answer the question posed by Mrs. Davis, “What kind of jobs are these that don’t pay people enough to afford a car?” These are mostly service jobs that have been created as our country de-industrializes. Mrs. Davis, these are the jobs that employ the people that your own Party time and again works against by fighting living wage initiatives and universal health care, as well as a host of other public-good services that would benefit working women and poor children. You should remember, one of the first acts your own Governor took when entering office was to throw quite a few of these poor children off of such public assistance previously provided by the state. The next time you stop at a restaurant or pick up dry cleaning, or maybe even step into your own book store, you may see some of these people doing the very jobs you wonder about.
While we all use our own personal experiences to make generalized judgments about life, we also have enough experience as adults to know that many factors come into play and that sometimes the way we experience things is not how the next fellow will. This is why I find the anecdote above about take-home pay of “$126 per week” rather adolescent. It doesn’t tell the whole story – just one personal (maybe partial) story. Many have the luxury of strong family support, good education, etc. while others do not. In fact, some people may have no family support; have chronic health problems, etc. This is not to make excuses for anyone, but rather to illustrate the eventuality that many people who are hard-working may still be struggling due to factors that you and I do not know about.
As far as high school kids driving – indeed they do. These students pay a huge cost to drive too. Many work nights and weekends in order to pay for gasoline and insurance and they can afford this because they usually are supported from home. Besides, do we look to high school students to decide policy of transportation?
The last two paragraphs are also limited in their vision. Yes, when you ride a bus you are exposed to weather fluctuations. When you have no means of transportation you are exposed to dependence on others. There are options available to help with this problem too. For example, bus shelters can be built and even a fan or heater could be installed. There are cities that are looking into smaller buses that would pick up elderly closer to home and sometimes from their home.
Finally, there are not enough kindhearted friends and family for some folks to depend on for a daily trip to work and to the store, bank, doctor’s office, etc. Again, personal experience seems to somehow indicate reality for everyone else in the greater community in Representative Davis’ eyes. In case Cynthia Davis doesn’t know this, most citizens do not have a campaign account with which they can purchase a private vehicle either.
I believe that Representative Davis is sincere in her beliefs. I also believe that like so many who view the world solely from their own experiences and who see things in black and white with no shades of grey, she is also mistaken about how the real world works.
I would like to end by reiterating that I agree a bus system, as we traditionally think of it, would be difficult to operate, costly, and very likely not used by a huge portion of residents in our county due to our demographics and current infrastructure. I just think it is better to speak the truth about the matter rather than determine policy by, well-this-is-how-I-do-things approach. If a traditional bus system won’t work – what options are there? This is something that can be explored and debated as it should be. If you have a decent job and can afford a car, that’s terrific. Maybe you have gotten where you are today because you were smart, worked hard and just deserve it. I find that usually the story (if told honestly) more often is a combination of work, relationships and fortune. Some folks marry well; others inherit well; while others get help by family and friends. It is certain that many people “deserve” their wealth as much as many others “deserve” their poverty. I hope I never need to depend on a bus system in St. Charles County, however, that doesn’t change the fact that their may be a need for one. Who knows, if gasoline prices double or triple, we may all be asking, “Where’s the nearest bus stop?”
WINE NOW BEING PRODUCED IN WATER STREET CAVERNS
By Tony Brockmeyer
Photos by Tony Brockmeyer
Little Hills Winery of St. Charles now has a new home in which to make and store their famous wines. Although the location may be new to Little Hills Winery it has been a fixture in St. Charles since 1851. Little Hills Winery wines are now stored and produced about 50 feet underground in historic St. Charles in about 5000 to 7000 square feet of caverns under Water Street.
Until the early 60’s the caverns were the home of the Fishback Brewing Company. In 1965 Nick Van Dyke purchased them from the Fishback family and began brewing batches of Van Dyke Beer. After the Van Dyke Brewing Company closed the caverns were purchased by Jim Reed of Cavern Springs Winery. Now they are the new home of the Little Hills Winery production division.
Ten years ago David Campbell and his family purchased the Little Hills Winery Restaurant at 501 South Main Street and operate it on a daily basis. “When we bought the restaurant 10 years ago there was a gentleman who made our wine for us and put our label on it,” David Campbell told the First Capitol News. “In the last three years we have made the change over to producing our own wine. Making sure it really is a legitimate winery.” The Campbell family also operates the Little Hills Winery Wine Shop at 710 South Main Street in St. Charles.
According to David Campbell, “Little Hills Winery sells about 8,000 cases of wine in the wine shop and restaurant a year. A case is 2.3 gallons of wine. In the caverns we are only going to do about 3,000 gallons. Anything more than that would be difficult because the caverns are really not designed for a heavy commercial production. We are somewhat limited.”
Little Hills Winery has a secondary bottling line in the St. James area where they will do another 3,000 cases. “We may be able to get production a little bit higher in the caverns but this will be more intended for red aging in barrels,” he said.
When asked if wine was good for your health David said, “Typically the red wines more than white. The tannins are very good I drink a glass in the evening. They have some other scientific components in there but it is the red. White wine is okay but it is the tannins that help digest your food and help lower the blood pressure.”
Little Hills Winery can bottle about 50 bottles an hour in their cavern production area. They have a small vineyard in Eolia, Missouri where Vignoles and Norton are grown and they have just purchased a small farm in Wentzville where they will be planting more grapes next year. “As grapes are a popular crop, there are many available for our purchase,” David said. “We get grapes from Mountain Grove, St. James and Augusta, Missouri areas.”
The only power equipment used by Little Hills Winery in the caverns is a corker. The machine that places the corks in the bottle. Everything else is pretty much gravity driven. “We pump the wine into tanks,” he said. “The wine then gravity feeds into our filler where we can fill six bottles at a time. They get corked and then we put labels on by hand. We place capsules over the corks and the top of the bottles and a heat gun is used to shrink the capsules onto the bottles which are then placed in a case and they are stored in the driest room in the caverns.”
The caverns usually maintain a temperature of about 64 degrees year round. In the lower chamber of the caverns a spring flows at a rate of about 85 gallons a minute. According to David that is why the street was named Water Street.
When we visited the winery David and his crew along with his wine maker, Phil Grazyk, were bottling Alpenglow and Alpenglow Blanc, a holiday wine best served warm, that Little Hills has produced for almost 20 years.
Grapes are usually obtained in the fall. Some juices and concentrates are available throughout the year and are used for fruit wines like Little Hills Winery Strawberry that is usually made in July. Traditionally the grape crop isn’t ready until the last part of September through October.
When asked if he was planning on expanding his restaurant operation into the caverns, David said, “I think one restaurant is enough. The goal is to be able to get the caverns to a point where we can share them back to the community because they are truly historic. Our intention is to do some private wine tasting activities down here but we will not be making this into a restaurant.”
The caverns also contain beer brewing barrels that are thought to be over 100 years old.
Photos by Tony Brockmeyer
Little Hills Winery of St. Charles now has a new home in which to make and store their famous wines. Although the location may be new to Little Hills Winery it has been a fixture in St. Charles since 1851. Little Hills Winery wines are now stored and produced about 50 feet underground in historic St. Charles in about 5000 to 7000 square feet of caverns under Water Street.
Until the early 60’s the caverns were the home of the Fishback Brewing Company. In 1965 Nick Van Dyke purchased them from the Fishback family and began brewing batches of Van Dyke Beer. After the Van Dyke Brewing Company closed the caverns were purchased by Jim Reed of Cavern Springs Winery. Now they are the new home of the Little Hills Winery production division.
Ten years ago David Campbell and his family purchased the Little Hills Winery Restaurant at 501 South Main Street and operate it on a daily basis. “When we bought the restaurant 10 years ago there was a gentleman who made our wine for us and put our label on it,” David Campbell told the First Capitol News. “In the last three years we have made the change over to producing our own wine. Making sure it really is a legitimate winery.” The Campbell family also operates the Little Hills Winery Wine Shop at 710 South Main Street in St. Charles.
According to David Campbell, “Little Hills Winery sells about 8,000 cases of wine in the wine shop and restaurant a year. A case is 2.3 gallons of wine. In the caverns we are only going to do about 3,000 gallons. Anything more than that would be difficult because the caverns are really not designed for a heavy commercial production. We are somewhat limited.”
Little Hills Winery has a secondary bottling line in the St. James area where they will do another 3,000 cases. “We may be able to get production a little bit higher in the caverns but this will be more intended for red aging in barrels,” he said.
When asked if wine was good for your health David said, “Typically the red wines more than white. The tannins are very good I drink a glass in the evening. They have some other scientific components in there but it is the red. White wine is okay but it is the tannins that help digest your food and help lower the blood pressure.”
Little Hills Winery can bottle about 50 bottles an hour in their cavern production area. They have a small vineyard in Eolia, Missouri where Vignoles and Norton are grown and they have just purchased a small farm in Wentzville where they will be planting more grapes next year. “As grapes are a popular crop, there are many available for our purchase,” David said. “We get grapes from Mountain Grove, St. James and Augusta, Missouri areas.”
The only power equipment used by Little Hills Winery in the caverns is a corker. The machine that places the corks in the bottle. Everything else is pretty much gravity driven. “We pump the wine into tanks,” he said. “The wine then gravity feeds into our filler where we can fill six bottles at a time. They get corked and then we put labels on by hand. We place capsules over the corks and the top of the bottles and a heat gun is used to shrink the capsules onto the bottles which are then placed in a case and they are stored in the driest room in the caverns.”
The caverns usually maintain a temperature of about 64 degrees year round. In the lower chamber of the caverns a spring flows at a rate of about 85 gallons a minute. According to David that is why the street was named Water Street.
When we visited the winery David and his crew along with his wine maker, Phil Grazyk, were bottling Alpenglow and Alpenglow Blanc, a holiday wine best served warm, that Little Hills has produced for almost 20 years.
Grapes are usually obtained in the fall. Some juices and concentrates are available throughout the year and are used for fruit wines like Little Hills Winery Strawberry that is usually made in July. Traditionally the grape crop isn’t ready until the last part of September through October.
When asked if he was planning on expanding his restaurant operation into the caverns, David said, “I think one restaurant is enough. The goal is to be able to get the caverns to a point where we can share them back to the community because they are truly historic. Our intention is to do some private wine tasting activities down here but we will not be making this into a restaurant.”
The caverns also contain beer brewing barrels that are thought to be over 100 years old.
The View From The Cheap Seats by Jerry Hafferkamp
The View From The Cheap Seats
By Jerry Haferkamp
The long wait is over. We have a permanent Chief of Police and will soon have our new Director of Administration.
The Director of Administration should be what our mayor calls a “good fit”. He comes from Miami, Oklahoma. Miami has less than 1/4th our population and probably 1/20th our revenue. I don’t know if he’s up to the task ahead, but I’m sure the mayor will “guide” him.
Chief Corley has had time to become adjusted to the position. The mayor called him a “proven person”. One of the first actions he took as interim Chief was to re-assign an officer that happened to have supported the wrong mayoral candidate. Patti says Corley had a “calming” effect on the department. That type of activity will calm anyone who dares to speak out against this mayor. It’s sort of like in The Godfather, waking with your horse’s head under your covers. Maybe a better analogy would be the “calming effect” the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese Empire. He has definitely “proven” that he knows the requirements of his position.
While Frenchtown residents and business owners are trying to improve the area, it seems like someone is working against them. There is a proposal before the Council to spot-zone certain properties, adding to the problems facing Frenchtown. There were several speakers at the last Council meeting expressing opposition. It will be interesting to see if Councilman Veit listens to his constituents, or turns a deaf ear as he did in the parking situation. We all know the businessmen and women lost their parking after political contributions were made and the Veit contributor benefited. But while this beneficiary eats steak shouldn’t Richard at least throw his constituents a bone? Or maybe he has already given them exactly that.
Note to Frenchtown: Money talks, and apparently Veit can’t hear you talking. Maybe if you hold an illegal poker game and contribute the house cut to his campaign, he’ll listen.
Of course, that’s just the view from the cheap seats.
By Jerry Haferkamp
The long wait is over. We have a permanent Chief of Police and will soon have our new Director of Administration.
The Director of Administration should be what our mayor calls a “good fit”. He comes from Miami, Oklahoma. Miami has less than 1/4th our population and probably 1/20th our revenue. I don’t know if he’s up to the task ahead, but I’m sure the mayor will “guide” him.
Chief Corley has had time to become adjusted to the position. The mayor called him a “proven person”. One of the first actions he took as interim Chief was to re-assign an officer that happened to have supported the wrong mayoral candidate. Patti says Corley had a “calming” effect on the department. That type of activity will calm anyone who dares to speak out against this mayor. It’s sort of like in The Godfather, waking with your horse’s head under your covers. Maybe a better analogy would be the “calming effect” the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese Empire. He has definitely “proven” that he knows the requirements of his position.
While Frenchtown residents and business owners are trying to improve the area, it seems like someone is working against them. There is a proposal before the Council to spot-zone certain properties, adding to the problems facing Frenchtown. There were several speakers at the last Council meeting expressing opposition. It will be interesting to see if Councilman Veit listens to his constituents, or turns a deaf ear as he did in the parking situation. We all know the businessmen and women lost their parking after political contributions were made and the Veit contributor benefited. But while this beneficiary eats steak shouldn’t Richard at least throw his constituents a bone? Or maybe he has already given them exactly that.
Note to Frenchtown: Money talks, and apparently Veit can’t hear you talking. Maybe if you hold an illegal poker game and contribute the house cut to his campaign, he’ll listen.
Of course, that’s just the view from the cheap seats.
Comments & Commentary by Charles Hill
This past month the South Main business owners had the opportunity to experience a water main break. The dedicated City Staff fixed the break and business went on. At the next council meeting the break was discussed and our illustrious City Council President, Bob Kneemiller, had this to say,”At least they didn’t complain like the North Main businesses.” That might not be an exact quote but it is close. This statement sums up the council and mayor’s belief of what our opinions are to them. We are a nuisance when we hold them accountable, we are troubling them when we want a street fixed, it’s an inconvenience to them when they have to repair something. This attitude exists because the fish rots from the head down. Mayor York has always placed the average residents in second place. Kneemiller’s comment was directed at the hard working business owners who had to endure weeks and weeks of North Main Street being closed. This closure hurt our only means of income, hurt our families and our customers. So Bob, next time you want to call us complainers be ready to fork over the money for our loss when you can’t keep the city running. Last time I looked that was your job.
The other part of my anger is about South Main and our usual complainers. Archie Scott, Gene Woods, Karen House and the infamous Mydler family. They just can’t stop complaining about one thing or another. Archie complains because the city won’t spend a million dollars on a visitors center, Wood complains about a business simply wanting to increase revenues for the city by adding a temporary tent that can’t be seen from the street. House complains about the building of new housing on South Main. They all complain and rightfully so about the lack of maintenance of the street.
When it comes down to it. Main Street is not full of complainers per se. There are people who actually believe the city is responsible to them as taxpayers and the city should be able to fix things in a timely manner.
Back to the tent and South Main. Only in Historic St. Charles can you get permission to place a crappy looking tent on Main Street, blocking a Historic Marker to sell cookies that were baked in a residence off of Sibley Street. Then the same South Main complainers decided that a tent that would help support a business, bring in tax dollars, bring people to Main Street, a tent that is high quality and can’t be seen from the street, doesn’t cover anything historic, should not be allowed. Come on!
Lastly, I watched the Veterans Day Memorial Service and want to thank our Veterans. The one thing that struck me as we honored our Vets in front of a memorial that cost in excess of $300,000, is how many vets could we have helped with that money? Recently it was discovered that 25 percent of those homeless in the US were veterans who had served our country. This is a national disgrace. Instead of spending money on monuments we should be finding out ways to help our service men and women. Creating an environment that helps them find jobs, helps them find shelter. This monument was spearheaded by a group of self-serving veterans who felt they deserved a statue. These veterans should be finding ways to help their brothers in arms, not create monuments to themselves.
The other part of my anger is about South Main and our usual complainers. Archie Scott, Gene Woods, Karen House and the infamous Mydler family. They just can’t stop complaining about one thing or another. Archie complains because the city won’t spend a million dollars on a visitors center, Wood complains about a business simply wanting to increase revenues for the city by adding a temporary tent that can’t be seen from the street. House complains about the building of new housing on South Main. They all complain and rightfully so about the lack of maintenance of the street.
When it comes down to it. Main Street is not full of complainers per se. There are people who actually believe the city is responsible to them as taxpayers and the city should be able to fix things in a timely manner.
Back to the tent and South Main. Only in Historic St. Charles can you get permission to place a crappy looking tent on Main Street, blocking a Historic Marker to sell cookies that were baked in a residence off of Sibley Street. Then the same South Main complainers decided that a tent that would help support a business, bring in tax dollars, bring people to Main Street, a tent that is high quality and can’t be seen from the street, doesn’t cover anything historic, should not be allowed. Come on!
Lastly, I watched the Veterans Day Memorial Service and want to thank our Veterans. The one thing that struck me as we honored our Vets in front of a memorial that cost in excess of $300,000, is how many vets could we have helped with that money? Recently it was discovered that 25 percent of those homeless in the US were veterans who had served our country. This is a national disgrace. Instead of spending money on monuments we should be finding out ways to help our service men and women. Creating an environment that helps them find jobs, helps them find shelter. This monument was spearheaded by a group of self-serving veterans who felt they deserved a statue. These veterans should be finding ways to help their brothers in arms, not create monuments to themselves.
Kratzer's Corner by Mel Kratzer
The Changing of Johnson-Shut-Ins
During the late spring and summer months, many of us St. Charles Countians make the two and a half hour pilgrimage drive to the crown jewel nature paradise known as “Johnson Shut-ins.” This refreshing special conservation area consists of a mile stretch of various boulders overrun by a crystal clear river offshoot creating a swimming mecca made up of mini waterfalls, whirlpools, and deep waterholes. But a few years ago, the enormous Tom Sauk Mountain reservoir collapsed transforming Johnson Shut-ins into a place very different than before.
A few years ago, my woman and I were wrapping up a mini-camping trip and decided to satisfy our curiosity by visiting the Tom Sauk Mountain Dam and Reservoir operation. After an up close view of the dam, we traveled up a protracted incline to the reservoir, which was encompassed in a large lake- sized aboveground pool-like concrete container. The showing -wear exterior reservoir walls revealed a hint that a structure failure could be a possibility. Your mind’s imagination kicked into full gear contemplating wondering what the disaster scenario would be if this reservoir gave way. Little did we know that two months later, that dam reservoir breakage would become a reality?
In laymen’s terms, here’s how AmerenUE’s Tom Sauk Mountain Dam works. Water is released from the mountain top reservoir flowing downhill to the energy turning turbines of the dam below. The water is subsequently pumped back up to the reservoir, as this process is repeated over and over constantly generating electricity for you and me. When Tom Sauk Mountain Dam Reservoir collapsed, the water in the top-of the mountain tank was at full capacity, a definite worse case scenario.
Driving to Johnson Shut-Ins entrance, you’ll notice a two hundred yard empty swath of space carved down the mountain through the forest into the state park’s beginning. What really looks like what happened is a F5 tornado buzz sawed its way through the area with vengeance. A high chain link prison-like fence is also at the park’s front part to the middle as I am told some restoration is still taking place.
Johnson-Shut-Ins inside the park characteristics have made a mind-boggling transformation. There are house-sized boulders that were picked up and moved downstream that no human or human made machine could move. Trees throughout the park are permanently bent into an “Arch” shape due to the force of the wall of water that overran them. The deck-like wooden walkway has vanished courtesy of that fifteen-minute gigantic burst of water that barreled its way by. The width of Johnson-Shut-Ins banks is now enormous nearly quadruple in size. That’s what happens when a two-football field wide water sudden release takes place.
The Shut-Ins themselves are recognizable but very different too. What strikes out first to your eyes is the massive amount of gravel all over the Shut-Ins area. It’s everywhere and I’m told its there to stay, as workers and AmerenUE have no equipment to get it out of there. In bulldozers or backhoes would sink into the small river’s bottom. Sound’s to me that AmerenUE doesn’t want to pay to remove the gravel manually by shovel and wheel barrel. This electric company got a sweetheart damage pay-off deal thanks to our sell-out Governor Blunt, so they don’t have to worry much about the park anymore unless Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon successfully sues the paints off them.
Favorite Shut-Ins spots like the brief underwater under boulder cave, the mini waterfall/whirlpool, and the steeper mini waterfalls have disappeared. Only millions of years of natural river transformation can change them back so you and I will never see them again. The deep pool at the Shut-Ins ending is smaller and shallower to a point where it’s outlawed to jump from the cliffs and boulders. If you do jump from these upper rock formations, a six hundred dollar fine will be levied against you if a ranger witnesses it and they are almost always on patrol. In the years past, you would see cliff jumpers plunge into the deep pool below occasionally seeing someone come up to the water’s surface with a strawberry of blood on their body from hitting bottom.
An enlightening item about the Shut-Ins is that the water is still clear as a bell and comfortably cool. Park workers tell me that a biodegradable substance was put into the water to remove all the mud and murk that was present after the reservoir breakage mishap. Varieties of fish and turtle are still plentiful and can be spotted easily from the surface to the bottom. I do not know how clean the waters are as my little girl accidentally swallowed some of it and was sick with a virus for two weeks.
The amount of water that flows through the Shut-Ins is less than before and the reasons for that are quite interesting as I learned from chatting with the park’s workers. A nine-year drought has plagued the area to a point where people in the county may have to figure out alternative ways of getting water and go into a full-blown conservation mode. Also “Leaky Creek” as locals and park workers refer to it as, has dried up. The Tom Sauk Mountain Reservoir leaked from its inception and the leakage formed Leaky Creek which fed the Shut-Ins. AmerenUe always new about this and maybe that’s why Attorney General Nixon maybe be going after the company for neglect damages.
In August through early September, the park opened, but you were restricted to use of the Shut-Ins only. The Johnson Shut-Ins Parks’ trails and campgrounds were off limits due to under repairs. The park’s store is open and in decent shape. Next year the park will open sometime but in what kind of capacity is unsure. I know the adjacent businesses near the park would welcome the opening as they have suffered immensely from the park’s prolonged closure. You’ll see some closed down “ghost-town-like businesses” not too far from the park. It depressing to see how this “disaster’ caused economic strife to these park-related companies.
But all is not gloom and doom with the Shut-Ins as the park still is the great getaway paradise you can’t wait to get to visit when you get a hot summer day off and want to escape the heat. Hopefully a lesson has been learned here; never build anything that will adversely affect an ecological treasure. And the Johnson-Shut-Ins are still a beautiful though they are not quite like you may remember them.
Editor’s note. Since this article was written AmerenUE has agreed to a settlement with the state.
During the late spring and summer months, many of us St. Charles Countians make the two and a half hour pilgrimage drive to the crown jewel nature paradise known as “Johnson Shut-ins.” This refreshing special conservation area consists of a mile stretch of various boulders overrun by a crystal clear river offshoot creating a swimming mecca made up of mini waterfalls, whirlpools, and deep waterholes. But a few years ago, the enormous Tom Sauk Mountain reservoir collapsed transforming Johnson Shut-ins into a place very different than before.
A few years ago, my woman and I were wrapping up a mini-camping trip and decided to satisfy our curiosity by visiting the Tom Sauk Mountain Dam and Reservoir operation. After an up close view of the dam, we traveled up a protracted incline to the reservoir, which was encompassed in a large lake- sized aboveground pool-like concrete container. The showing -wear exterior reservoir walls revealed a hint that a structure failure could be a possibility. Your mind’s imagination kicked into full gear contemplating wondering what the disaster scenario would be if this reservoir gave way. Little did we know that two months later, that dam reservoir breakage would become a reality?
In laymen’s terms, here’s how AmerenUE’s Tom Sauk Mountain Dam works. Water is released from the mountain top reservoir flowing downhill to the energy turning turbines of the dam below. The water is subsequently pumped back up to the reservoir, as this process is repeated over and over constantly generating electricity for you and me. When Tom Sauk Mountain Dam Reservoir collapsed, the water in the top-of the mountain tank was at full capacity, a definite worse case scenario.
Driving to Johnson Shut-Ins entrance, you’ll notice a two hundred yard empty swath of space carved down the mountain through the forest into the state park’s beginning. What really looks like what happened is a F5 tornado buzz sawed its way through the area with vengeance. A high chain link prison-like fence is also at the park’s front part to the middle as I am told some restoration is still taking place.
Johnson-Shut-Ins inside the park characteristics have made a mind-boggling transformation. There are house-sized boulders that were picked up and moved downstream that no human or human made machine could move. Trees throughout the park are permanently bent into an “Arch” shape due to the force of the wall of water that overran them. The deck-like wooden walkway has vanished courtesy of that fifteen-minute gigantic burst of water that barreled its way by. The width of Johnson-Shut-Ins banks is now enormous nearly quadruple in size. That’s what happens when a two-football field wide water sudden release takes place.
The Shut-Ins themselves are recognizable but very different too. What strikes out first to your eyes is the massive amount of gravel all over the Shut-Ins area. It’s everywhere and I’m told its there to stay, as workers and AmerenUE have no equipment to get it out of there. In bulldozers or backhoes would sink into the small river’s bottom. Sound’s to me that AmerenUE doesn’t want to pay to remove the gravel manually by shovel and wheel barrel. This electric company got a sweetheart damage pay-off deal thanks to our sell-out Governor Blunt, so they don’t have to worry much about the park anymore unless Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon successfully sues the paints off them.
Favorite Shut-Ins spots like the brief underwater under boulder cave, the mini waterfall/whirlpool, and the steeper mini waterfalls have disappeared. Only millions of years of natural river transformation can change them back so you and I will never see them again. The deep pool at the Shut-Ins ending is smaller and shallower to a point where it’s outlawed to jump from the cliffs and boulders. If you do jump from these upper rock formations, a six hundred dollar fine will be levied against you if a ranger witnesses it and they are almost always on patrol. In the years past, you would see cliff jumpers plunge into the deep pool below occasionally seeing someone come up to the water’s surface with a strawberry of blood on their body from hitting bottom.
An enlightening item about the Shut-Ins is that the water is still clear as a bell and comfortably cool. Park workers tell me that a biodegradable substance was put into the water to remove all the mud and murk that was present after the reservoir breakage mishap. Varieties of fish and turtle are still plentiful and can be spotted easily from the surface to the bottom. I do not know how clean the waters are as my little girl accidentally swallowed some of it and was sick with a virus for two weeks.
The amount of water that flows through the Shut-Ins is less than before and the reasons for that are quite interesting as I learned from chatting with the park’s workers. A nine-year drought has plagued the area to a point where people in the county may have to figure out alternative ways of getting water and go into a full-blown conservation mode. Also “Leaky Creek” as locals and park workers refer to it as, has dried up. The Tom Sauk Mountain Reservoir leaked from its inception and the leakage formed Leaky Creek which fed the Shut-Ins. AmerenUe always new about this and maybe that’s why Attorney General Nixon maybe be going after the company for neglect damages.
In August through early September, the park opened, but you were restricted to use of the Shut-Ins only. The Johnson Shut-Ins Parks’ trails and campgrounds were off limits due to under repairs. The park’s store is open and in decent shape. Next year the park will open sometime but in what kind of capacity is unsure. I know the adjacent businesses near the park would welcome the opening as they have suffered immensely from the park’s prolonged closure. You’ll see some closed down “ghost-town-like businesses” not too far from the park. It depressing to see how this “disaster’ caused economic strife to these park-related companies.
But all is not gloom and doom with the Shut-Ins as the park still is the great getaway paradise you can’t wait to get to visit when you get a hot summer day off and want to escape the heat. Hopefully a lesson has been learned here; never build anything that will adversely affect an ecological treasure. And the Johnson-Shut-Ins are still a beautiful though they are not quite like you may remember them.
Editor’s note. Since this article was written AmerenUE has agreed to a settlement with the state.
First Capitol News Sports - Mike McMurran Sports Editor
“Deferred gratification,” is a phrase that pretty much describes my life. Don’t think it wasn’t hard being thirty something years old and trying to complete my undergraduate degree at UMSL. Often times I would run into people I grew up with and they would share with me how they had started a family and were working on furthering their career. All I could say was, “I’m still going to school.” All they while they were making money and collecting “stuff.” As time went on things kind of balanced out and in some cases I even surpassed them in the race “to collect stuff.”
As regular readers of this column know, I started having children later in life – I was 41 years-old when my daughter, Maggie, was born. Today’s column deals with Maggie, having my priorities in order – and the opposite of deferred gratification – immediate gratification.
For the past three years or so, Bob Barton and I have covered the “Guns and Hoses” event held downtown on Thanksgiving Eve. This year was to be no different. Of course as those of you with children know, when you have children – things change at the drop of a hat. It seems Maggie’s performing arts troupe, Just Kids (the youngest group from the Patt Holt Singers) had a gig at Macy’s on Thanksgiving Eve. The group has a Christmas Show where the children dress up like elves and sing and dance and make everyone within the sound of their voices smile and feel better. That’s pretty much what they do – make people feel better. Well, it seems Macy’s was having a giant celebration to kick off the official holiday season and they needed some elves. The folks at Macy’s did what anybody with any sense would do if they needed some elves, they called Patt Holt. “How many elves do you need and what size,” is probably what Patt said to the folks at Macy’s. You see she has a wide variety of elves for just such an occasion.
The “t’s” were crossed and the “i’s” were dotted and my daughter had a Thanksgiving Eve gig – a real paying gig! The girls had to be downtown by 6 p.m. Ah, but you see, Lynn, who usually volunteers to transport the girls, wouldn’t get home from work until 5:45 or so – she wouldn’t be able to take the girls. I couldn’t because I had to go to Guns and Hoses – or so I thought. “Dad, can you drive us downtown to Macy’s – please?” Well, I guess if you’ve seen one fight you’ve seen them all – so I agreed. On Thanksgiving Eve I was in a van full of young elves on their way to their paying gig.
All went well, the girls had a good time, and were home by 10 p.m. I was none the worse for missing Guns and Hoses.
Thanksgiving morning the dogs woke me up at their usual 5 a.m. – they didn’t know it was a holiday and they could have slept in. I’m one of those types of people that once I get up I’m awake – at least for a few hours. So I made some coffee and read the morning paper. By the time the rest of the family was up, I was ready for a nap. So at about 11 or so I laid down for a power nap.
Then it happened, not deferred gratification, but rather one of those magic moments of being a parent. One of those moments that make everything you’ve done worth wild! At noon, on Thanksgiving Day, Maggie came in and woke me. “Dad, it’s noon, it’s noon on Thanksgiving Day, and that song we always listen to will be coming on soon – get up!” For those of you who don’t have a rock and roll background, every Thanksgiving Day, at high noon KSHE 95, the rock station most of us grew up with, plays Arlo Guthrie’s, Alice’s Restaurant. It’s been their tradition for over thirty years. Well, some five years ago, I turned Maggie on to the song. Remember now, Maggie loves music, and found the song very interesting.
Rather than go downstairs and listen to Alice’s Restaurant, Maggie and I laid down in the bed, my arm around her, and listened to the classic tune – that is until the final two stanzas of the song. On Thanksgiving Day, at around 12:20 or so, Maggie and I were singing out loud, together, one sounding sweet, the other terrible: “You can get anything your want, at Alice’s Restaurant.”
In case I didn’t make my point clear, I would have missed the song had she not waken me from my Thanksgiving morning nap – she remembered our Thanksgiving tradition. I couldn’t help but think – this is what you get for giving up Guns and Hoses and taking your daughter to do her Thanksgiving Eve paying gig at Macy’s. Then it really struck me, I bet, years after I’m dead and gone, my daughter will be listening to Alice’s Restaurant with her kids, and saying something like, “I used to listen to this song with my dad when I was your age. Now I’m listening to it with you.” And for a moment, she’ll remember her dear old dad.
As regular readers of this column know, I started having children later in life – I was 41 years-old when my daughter, Maggie, was born. Today’s column deals with Maggie, having my priorities in order – and the opposite of deferred gratification – immediate gratification.
For the past three years or so, Bob Barton and I have covered the “Guns and Hoses” event held downtown on Thanksgiving Eve. This year was to be no different. Of course as those of you with children know, when you have children – things change at the drop of a hat. It seems Maggie’s performing arts troupe, Just Kids (the youngest group from the Patt Holt Singers) had a gig at Macy’s on Thanksgiving Eve. The group has a Christmas Show where the children dress up like elves and sing and dance and make everyone within the sound of their voices smile and feel better. That’s pretty much what they do – make people feel better. Well, it seems Macy’s was having a giant celebration to kick off the official holiday season and they needed some elves. The folks at Macy’s did what anybody with any sense would do if they needed some elves, they called Patt Holt. “How many elves do you need and what size,” is probably what Patt said to the folks at Macy’s. You see she has a wide variety of elves for just such an occasion.
The “t’s” were crossed and the “i’s” were dotted and my daughter had a Thanksgiving Eve gig – a real paying gig! The girls had to be downtown by 6 p.m. Ah, but you see, Lynn, who usually volunteers to transport the girls, wouldn’t get home from work until 5:45 or so – she wouldn’t be able to take the girls. I couldn’t because I had to go to Guns and Hoses – or so I thought. “Dad, can you drive us downtown to Macy’s – please?” Well, I guess if you’ve seen one fight you’ve seen them all – so I agreed. On Thanksgiving Eve I was in a van full of young elves on their way to their paying gig.
All went well, the girls had a good time, and were home by 10 p.m. I was none the worse for missing Guns and Hoses.
Thanksgiving morning the dogs woke me up at their usual 5 a.m. – they didn’t know it was a holiday and they could have slept in. I’m one of those types of people that once I get up I’m awake – at least for a few hours. So I made some coffee and read the morning paper. By the time the rest of the family was up, I was ready for a nap. So at about 11 or so I laid down for a power nap.
Then it happened, not deferred gratification, but rather one of those magic moments of being a parent. One of those moments that make everything you’ve done worth wild! At noon, on Thanksgiving Day, Maggie came in and woke me. “Dad, it’s noon, it’s noon on Thanksgiving Day, and that song we always listen to will be coming on soon – get up!” For those of you who don’t have a rock and roll background, every Thanksgiving Day, at high noon KSHE 95, the rock station most of us grew up with, plays Arlo Guthrie’s, Alice’s Restaurant. It’s been their tradition for over thirty years. Well, some five years ago, I turned Maggie on to the song. Remember now, Maggie loves music, and found the song very interesting.
Rather than go downstairs and listen to Alice’s Restaurant, Maggie and I laid down in the bed, my arm around her, and listened to the classic tune – that is until the final two stanzas of the song. On Thanksgiving Day, at around 12:20 or so, Maggie and I were singing out loud, together, one sounding sweet, the other terrible: “You can get anything your want, at Alice’s Restaurant.”
In case I didn’t make my point clear, I would have missed the song had she not waken me from my Thanksgiving morning nap – she remembered our Thanksgiving tradition. I couldn’t help but think – this is what you get for giving up Guns and Hoses and taking your daughter to do her Thanksgiving Eve paying gig at Macy’s. Then it really struck me, I bet, years after I’m dead and gone, my daughter will be listening to Alice’s Restaurant with her kids, and saying something like, “I used to listen to this song with my dad when I was your age. Now I’m listening to it with you.” And for a moment, she’ll remember her dear old dad.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
FIRST CAPITOL NEWS FRONT PAGE November 10, 2007
(Click to enlarge image) Please scross down to read highlights of November 10 - 30 edition of the First Capitol News. The entire edition including the ads can be found at firstcapitolnews.com.
Is the Ghostly Lady In Red Still Haunting The Goldenrod Showboat and Bringing It Bad Luck?
By Phyllis Schaltenbrand
The Goldenrod Showboat, once a main attraction on the great rivers of the United States, and later the St. Louis Riverfront, was sold to the city of St. Charles in 1989. It was later moved into specially designed mooring facilities on the Missouri river causing a drain of $5 million in St. Charles taxpayer dollars. It has now become a drain on its current owners and is still siphoning off tens of thousands of dollars and causing major problems without any return on the more than $225,000 they have invested to keep the boat afloat. Many are wondering if the owner is suffering the curse from the ghostly “Lady In Red” known as Victoria who is said to haunt the vessel.
For years the Goldenrod has been rumored to be inhabited by a ghost called the “The Lady In Red.” She has been seen by many people wearing a red Victorian type dress in many locations throughout the boat. She apparently roams the Goldenrod at all hours. Rumor has it that a young lady and her father were visiting St. Louis and upon seeing the Goldenrod the young girl and her father had an argument over her wanting to be an actress. Her father reportedly said no and, in a fit of anger, she ran off the boat and was murdered that night.
The current owner of the vessel, John Schwarz of St. Charles said, “I have heard the stories but have never seen the Lady In Red myself, but apparently she is angry and still on board.” Schwarz said that after they moved the Goldenrod from St. Charles they stored it for a short time on the St. Louis riverfront south of the Gateway Arch. “We had ADT put an alarm on the boat and numerous times we were notified that the alarm had gone off but before we arrived it had reset itself. Once when the alarm went off the St. Louis police discovered that the boat had been broken into and during their investigation they discovered that on a table in the main lounge someone had written Victoria with salt on a table.”
The Goldenrod had been moored in St. Louis at the foot of Locust Street from 1937 until it was purchased by the city and brought to St. Charles in 1989 at the behest of the then CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Steve Powell. The Goldenrod was considered by many residents to have been a financial drain on the city.
In 2003 the Coast Guard declared the vessel unsafe and the boat was closed thus saving the St. Charles taxpayers the bleeding of millions more. After suffering the loss of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on the vessel, including building a $1.5 million dock that sits vacant at Bishop's Landing in Frontier Park, the city gave the boat to Schwarz and his group in May of 2003 by a unanimous vote of the St. Charles City Council and the approval of the Mayor. (As a side note on the dock, several years ago one of the largest vessels ever to be on the Missouri River, The Hotel Barge, was tied to a tree near downtown St. Charles and passengers were disembarked. When we questioned the Captain why his vessel was not using the $1.5 million dock he replied, “ I am a river man. We don't need any fancy docks. All I need for my boat is a large tree and a stout rope.”)
Schwarz and his group had planned bringing the Goldenrod up to Coast Guard safety standards and then having it moored somewhere in Missouri as a regional entertainment draw. While contemplating on what could be done with the vessel Schwarz had it towed to Calhoun County, Illinois and put in storage. There, with probably some urging by the Lady In Red, an argument between the storage company and Schwarz’s group escalated into a court fight where the outcome could have resulted in a sheriff's sale of the Goldenrod and the eventual dismantling of the vessel. Its steel hull would be valuable if sold for salvage.
Hopefully the Goldenrod will be saved and the boat will continue to float and be the home of the elusive and angry Lady In Red. According to attorney Scott Schultz, who represents Schwarz, “We are close to working out an agreement that is satisfactory to all parties and maintain the historical value of the boat.”
Built in 1909 by the Pope Dock Company of Parkersville, West Virginia for W.R. Markle, the boat cost $75,000 when it was new. It was 200 feet long and 45 feet wide and had an auditorium 162 feet long with twenty-one red velour upholstered boxes and a seating capacity of 1,400.
Several notable entertainers worked on the Goldenrod during its glory days. Red Skelton was a dockhand and when an actor fell ill he took his place and the rest is history. Ted Mack played an offstage bloodhound in one of the melodramas and Bob Hope toured with the Goldenrod. It has also been reported The Goldenrod served as an inspiration for the musical Showboat.
Hopefully by the time this story appears in print a settlement will have been reached. Schwarz told the First capitol News that his group is looking at several options and maybe soon the vessel will be alive with the sounds of music and fine dining and the “Lady In Red” will once again roam the decks of the Historical Landmark Goldenrod Showboat greeting its many guests.
The Goldenrod Showboat, once a main attraction on the great rivers of the United States, and later the St. Louis Riverfront, was sold to the city of St. Charles in 1989. It was later moved into specially designed mooring facilities on the Missouri river causing a drain of $5 million in St. Charles taxpayer dollars. It has now become a drain on its current owners and is still siphoning off tens of thousands of dollars and causing major problems without any return on the more than $225,000 they have invested to keep the boat afloat. Many are wondering if the owner is suffering the curse from the ghostly “Lady In Red” known as Victoria who is said to haunt the vessel.
For years the Goldenrod has been rumored to be inhabited by a ghost called the “The Lady In Red.” She has been seen by many people wearing a red Victorian type dress in many locations throughout the boat. She apparently roams the Goldenrod at all hours. Rumor has it that a young lady and her father were visiting St. Louis and upon seeing the Goldenrod the young girl and her father had an argument over her wanting to be an actress. Her father reportedly said no and, in a fit of anger, she ran off the boat and was murdered that night.
The current owner of the vessel, John Schwarz of St. Charles said, “I have heard the stories but have never seen the Lady In Red myself, but apparently she is angry and still on board.” Schwarz said that after they moved the Goldenrod from St. Charles they stored it for a short time on the St. Louis riverfront south of the Gateway Arch. “We had ADT put an alarm on the boat and numerous times we were notified that the alarm had gone off but before we arrived it had reset itself. Once when the alarm went off the St. Louis police discovered that the boat had been broken into and during their investigation they discovered that on a table in the main lounge someone had written Victoria with salt on a table.”
The Goldenrod had been moored in St. Louis at the foot of Locust Street from 1937 until it was purchased by the city and brought to St. Charles in 1989 at the behest of the then CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Steve Powell. The Goldenrod was considered by many residents to have been a financial drain on the city.
In 2003 the Coast Guard declared the vessel unsafe and the boat was closed thus saving the St. Charles taxpayers the bleeding of millions more. After suffering the loss of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on the vessel, including building a $1.5 million dock that sits vacant at Bishop's Landing in Frontier Park, the city gave the boat to Schwarz and his group in May of 2003 by a unanimous vote of the St. Charles City Council and the approval of the Mayor. (As a side note on the dock, several years ago one of the largest vessels ever to be on the Missouri River, The Hotel Barge, was tied to a tree near downtown St. Charles and passengers were disembarked. When we questioned the Captain why his vessel was not using the $1.5 million dock he replied, “ I am a river man. We don't need any fancy docks. All I need for my boat is a large tree and a stout rope.”)
Schwarz and his group had planned bringing the Goldenrod up to Coast Guard safety standards and then having it moored somewhere in Missouri as a regional entertainment draw. While contemplating on what could be done with the vessel Schwarz had it towed to Calhoun County, Illinois and put in storage. There, with probably some urging by the Lady In Red, an argument between the storage company and Schwarz’s group escalated into a court fight where the outcome could have resulted in a sheriff's sale of the Goldenrod and the eventual dismantling of the vessel. Its steel hull would be valuable if sold for salvage.
Hopefully the Goldenrod will be saved and the boat will continue to float and be the home of the elusive and angry Lady In Red. According to attorney Scott Schultz, who represents Schwarz, “We are close to working out an agreement that is satisfactory to all parties and maintain the historical value of the boat.”
Built in 1909 by the Pope Dock Company of Parkersville, West Virginia for W.R. Markle, the boat cost $75,000 when it was new. It was 200 feet long and 45 feet wide and had an auditorium 162 feet long with twenty-one red velour upholstered boxes and a seating capacity of 1,400.
Several notable entertainers worked on the Goldenrod during its glory days. Red Skelton was a dockhand and when an actor fell ill he took his place and the rest is history. Ted Mack played an offstage bloodhound in one of the melodramas and Bob Hope toured with the Goldenrod. It has also been reported The Goldenrod served as an inspiration for the musical Showboat.
Hopefully by the time this story appears in print a settlement will have been reached. Schwarz told the First capitol News that his group is looking at several options and maybe soon the vessel will be alive with the sounds of music and fine dining and the “Lady In Red” will once again roam the decks of the Historical Landmark Goldenrod Showboat greeting its many guests.
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