Parks Department Finds Extra Cash After Laying Off Employees

An audit of the department also revealed it spent $500,000 on vehicles.

Less than three months after 20 St. Louis County Parks employees received lay-off notices, an audit of the parks department spent hundreds of thousands on new vehicles. The St. Louis County Council ordered the audit in January and also located an extra $129,000 in bank accounts, Paul Hampel with the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported. The audit, released on Tuesday, said the department spent $500,000 on new vehicles such as pick-up trucks and sedans. More than half of that was spent after Dooley said the county was in a financial crisis last summer, Hampel reports. Two accounts, containing $129,000, were also found untouched from bonds sold in the 1970s and 1980s. In his preliminary 2012 budget, County Executive Charlie Dooley proposed …

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Yes or No: $700M on St. Louis Rams' Dome Upgrades?

The St. Louis Rams have outlined a renovation plan for the Edward Jones Dome that is estimated to cost $700 million.

The Rams want us to buy them a new house. Just fixing up its current home—the Edward Jones Dome—won't do. Instead, the St. Louis football franchise expects an extreme makeover, to the tune of $700 million, as it is estimated by a company hired by the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) to analyze the team's counter proposal to a the CVC's own plan to upgrade the Edward Jones Dome with a $124 million facelift. If someone doesn't cough up the $700 mil to redo the Dome, it is feared the team will take its football and go home to Los Angeles, where it came from before it was the St. Louis franchise. All of this wrangling was set in motion in 1995 when the team negotiated a 30-year lease with the CVC. It was stipulated that the …

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Phil Gonzalez

11:36 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012

THE HANNCOCK AMENDMENT to the Missouri Constitution ( a bad constitution, by the way) PROHIBITS TAX INCREASES OR FEES for anything WITHOUT A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE. Do you people know this bit of information?   more ›

Sewer Vote Would Slow Guaranteed MSD Rate Increase

A June 5 vote is planned in St. Louis county and city on Proposition Y, along with eight charter amendments aimed at increasing the efficiency and transparency of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District.

People living in the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) can't change the fact that their sewer bills are going to rise incrementally over the next several years, Ed Rhode said. What they can control is the rate at which that change happens. That's why Rhode and Mike Kelley—members of the pro-Proposition Y committee Clean Water STL—are encouraging residents of St. Louis County and St. Louis city to vote yes on the $945 million bond issue June 5. If St. Louisans vote yes, sewer rates for the average single-family MSD user would rise from roughly $29 for the average single family to roughly $44 by mid-2015. The new rate effective July 1 of this year would be about $31. By contrast, a rejection of the measure would raise that average …

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Board and Teachers Clash on School Calendar Length

"I feel like students lose in this contract,” board member Ron Fedorchak said.

Early release days, raises for teachers and a committee to look at merit-based pay came out of negotiations between the Board of Education and Mehlville National Education Association (NEA). The annual negotiation period develops a memorandum of understanding between teachers and the district regarding pay and improvements to the district. The decision was met with some board opposition, but passed with a 5-2 vote on Thursday. Ron Fedorchak and Board President Venki Palamand voted against the motion.   Ron Fedorchak said the agreement was “historic,” because of the progress toward a merit-based compensation plan and commended administration and staff for reaching a common ground. Fedorchak ran for the board in April on the promise of …

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MoDOT Seeks Public Input on Transportation Needs

A meeting will be held Monday afternoon to address the needs and challenges of Missouri's transportation system. It's a chance for St. Louis area drivers to voice concerns.

The Missouri Department of Transportation's ‘Blue Ribbon’ Committee hopes to hear input from residents Monday on future transportation needs. MoDOT stated in a news release the meeting begins at 1 p.m. Monday at MoDOT's Transportation Management Center, 14301 South Outer Forty Road, in Town and Country. MoDOT released the following information in that press release. The future needs and challenges facing Missouri’s transportation system will be the subject of a series of public forums across the state this spring and summer.  The meetings are sponsored by the Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee on Missouri Transportation Needs that was appointed by Missouri House Speaker Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, in early March. The Blue Ribbon Committee is …

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Jim Walters Won't Return to Mehlville's Point Elementary

A late-evening email on Saturday informed Mehlville families that Dr. Jim Walters won't be returning as principal of Point Elementary School. Eric Knost, superintendent of the Mehlville School District, alerted parents to the news at 8 p.m.