Archive for the ‘In Our Town’ Category

More than $23 million of unclaimed property has been returned during the first six months of fiscal 2012, says Mo. State Treasurer Clint Zweifel. “The amount is a 31 percent increase over the same record-setting period the previous year,” he wrote. . .The City of Dellwood has requested assistance from the St. Louis County cops and additional county officers are temporarily detached to Dellwood beginning today, according to county Chief Tim Fitch. . .Clayton barrister, Albert Watkins, who usually bombards media with emails: “‘Watkin’s World” airs on Fridays, 7-9 a.m. on KFNS FM 100.7″‘. . .From the “Stuff Journalists Like” blog: “New Year’s resolution for reporters: (1) Dinner can’t be anything that can be ordered by the number or in a drive-thru. (2) Quit smoking (unless accompanied by drinking). (3) Work on making bar tab less than rent. (4) Drink less at work, and (5) Appreciate the fact you still have a job in journalism.”

Wonderful scene at Herbie’s Vintage ’72 last night. Great food and a smorgasbord of fascinating people there. Among them was Ryan Juneau, president of Baton Rouge-based Triomphe, a development firm. He explained his visit here was to scout the land behind the old St. Luke’s Hospital, 5535 Delmar Blvd., for construction of an office complex. The old St. Luke’s became a hospital in 1903 and subsequently became Regional Hospital, St. Louis ConnectCare and was shut down in 2002.  Lately, it became an urgent care center. Juneau’s target for the complex might work well given its proximity to the sterilized and endless BJC campuses that make you feel like you’re in an Antonioni film.

as I drove aimlessly northward on Union Boulevard.  Amazing how those pre-fire houses have survived as have Soldan High School, Clark School, the old YMHA, Krumenacher’s Pharmacy and farther north – the neighborhood movie houses such as the Will Rogers. Our town boasted of a bevy of neighborhood movie theaters such as the Plymouth, Powhatan, Ivanhoe, Rio, Fairy Airdome, Victory, Wellston, Tower, Norside, Ritz, Armo, Lindell, Pageant, Tivoli, Varsity and Bess Shulter’s Columbia Theater on The Hill.  Reared within the neighborhood of St. Barbara’s Parish, I can never forget learning the basics of basketball from the late NBA player, Ed Macauley, with an assist by St. Barbara’s spiritual leader the Rev. John Shockley in the church’s backyard. The City: a gorgeous mess and all things to all people!

Sean Houlihan, Frank Schmitz, Thom Sehnert, Klaus Schmitz, Mark Hinkle

The columnist goes crazy on New Year’s Eve. Last year, just at the stroke at midnight, I grabbed the person  next to me and kept kissing until “Auld Lang Syne” was finished. I’ll never forget that night. I don’t think the detective will either! You know when it’s countdown to midnight. Your liver is beginning to cringe. Last year a reporter for an Israeli newspaper landed a big New Year’s scoop and cell phoned the city desk editor with, “Hold the back page!”  The reporter then asked the editor, “Should I put more fire in my articles about New Year’s Eve?”  The editor replied, “Vice versa would be nice.” It’s hard to remember what life had been like in the old days. What did people do then, what did they talk about?  It might be true there’s nothing deader than this season of football, but we’ve lived in it so long with its emptiness and letdown. The world champ Cardinals has risen to fictional heights and had left its mark on everyone, whether they wanted to be marked by it or not. Restaurants will have a bonanza on New Year’s Eve. The clannish Group gathered just before New Year’s at Jane and Thom Senert’s Annie Gunn’s where they got handshakes on their expansion plans. Brothers Frank and Klaus Schmitzruminated over the third BARcelona in Milwaukee and another Mosaic west of Boone Crossing. With them were Annie Gunn’s bossman Mark Hinkle and landscape architect Sean Houlihan. Next stop – at Steve and Jamie Komorek’s Zagat-hailed Trattoria Marcella to join Cyndi and Charlie Rossi along with their sons, Tim and Michael, and Steve Komorek, who was dizzying over reservations for a record 450 on N.Y. Eve. Charlie, once proud owner of his namesake bar/restaurant in south St. Louis county, is now an educator at the culinary classes at Jefferson College in Hillsboro.  He pointed out, “I grew up with Father Vince Bommarito and became part of Monsignor Sal Polizzi’s gang.”

If you make the turn there, check out some fun comforts available along with walking the marble halls. At Alexandro’s Restaurant, owner Alex Mastrogiannis looks more like Omar Sharif every day, and wifeVenus is channeling Sophia Loren. The hot dinner dish in the upstairs dining room is deep fried lobster tails.  As a state sentator and Eternal General Guv. Jay Nixon and his top aide,now Stinson, Morrison barrister Chuck Hatfield, dined so often at the Arris Pizza joint buffet they shouldl have bought pizza dough stock.  Over at the Library Lounge inside the Truman Hotel, Jeff City’s favorite entertainer, Mike Michelson, stars at the piano bar twice a week. He enjoys sharing the spotlight accompanying his old friend Neal E. Boyd, the “America’s Got Talent” million-dollar warbler. Gregarious Neal flirted with running for the Missouri House, but he decided lawmakers at play are more fun to watch.

Thompson Coburn lawyers and staff used their recent holiday party at the Champions Club at Busch Stadium to present a check for $25k to Little Patriots Embraced, a Kirkwood-based charity that supports families of military members deployed overseas. TC raised the money by collecting donations,by auctioning off a pair of flat screen TVs donated by the firm, and, by raffling off a pair of airline tickets purchased with the lawyers’ frequent flyer miles. About 275 of the firm’s business family attended.

There was a 7.1 percent drop in fatal intersection crashes nationwide during 2010, according to date analyses from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Authorities say the reduction shows effective combinations of technology and enforcement strategies. “Safety belt programs, drunk-driving initiatives, intersection safety cameras – they all deliver positive results and save lives,” says David Kelly, president and exec director of the National Coalition for Safer Roads. Meanwhile, the Missouri State Highway Patrol has a grim holiday responsibility: tallying up traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities.  Col. Ron Repogle counted four deaths and 388 injuries in 1,264 Missouri traffic crashes during the 2010 holiday season. He reminded folks to have their cell phones programmed with the Patrol’s *55 traffic emergency line.

A resident of Wildwood, *Dave S., *reports that warning signs alerting drivers to deer crossings reveal that the Highway Dept. may have discovered a completely new breed of deer – the Dobe-a-Lope.  For example, the warning sign appears to depict a Mule Deer leaping across the road. But the sign bears a striking resemblance to a Doberman
Pinscher sporting a pair of horns.  Apparently, lurking in the dense forests of Missouri are horned beasts that prove you cannot cross-breed Dobermans with antelope creating a new breed called the “Dobe-a-Lope.”  Drivers must worry not only about hitting this animal, but avoiding its ferocious bite afterwards! Drivers beware!