West Newsmagazine 11-26-2014

10 I NEWS I
NOVEMBER 26, 2014
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
@WESTNEWSMAG
NEWSMAGAZINENETWORK.COM
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News Briefs
Pennies Make Sense check presentation: (front row, from left) Henry Elementary third- and
fourth-grade leaders Sylvester Young, Annie Reiter, Alex Vitiello, Daphne Gonzales, Ava
Reuther, Victoria Whistle, Barbara Davis, Brian Isele and Lauren Bothmann; (back row) Patrick
Delhougne, Ballwin Police Chief Steve Schicker, Henry counselors Lauren DeBorg and Julie
Hermann, and Asstistant Principal Dan Guariglia.
(West Newsmagazine/Jim Erickson photo)
Ballwin schools, police team
up for record donation
The Pennies Make Sense campaign conducted
by the Ballwin Police Department
and schools in the city has been an annual
occurrence since 1994, but this year’s
effort proved to be far from routine.
The campaign this year yielded an alltime
record $5,947, more than doubling
the previous record of $2,471 set just last
year – all for the benefit of St. Louis Area
Foodbank.
If you’re counting, this year’s amount
equals 594,700 pennies. And that’s a
weighty matter – nearly 3,300 pounds
worth to be more precise.
Of course, coins of any denomination,
as well as folding money, were cheerfully
accepted, so the total haul wasn’t quite that
bulky. But it was large enough that it took
personnel at River City Casino several hours
to count it all. The casino provided its equipment
and personnel for the counting task.
The $2,252.79 contributed at Parkway’s
Henry Elementary was the highest amount
raised at any of the six schools that took
part in this year’s campaign. Other participating
schools were Claymont Elementary,
Holy Infant in Ballwin, Woerther Elementary
and Selvidge Middle.
By leading the way, Henry students and
faculty members won the honor of presenting
the ceremonial check, as well as the
real one, to Patrick Delhougne, a Foodbank
development associate.
During the 20 years that the Pennies Make
Sense program has operated, it has raised
more than $27,132. The campaign invites
students and faculty members at participating
schools to toss their contributions into
classroom containers each October.
BALLWIN
Nixle brings community
alerts to you
The Ballwin Police Department is
reminding West County residents that now
is a good time to sign up for the Nixle communications
program to keep up to date on
community alerts and advisories.
With the Nixle program, information from
Ballwin police and any other agency a user
selects is immediately available via the user’s
mobile phone, email and computer.
Whenever there’s an emergency, the possibility
of civil unrest or other major incidents
affecting a community, Nixle ensures
that users in the affected area receive trusted,
immediate and relevant information.
Nixle is a free community service
designed to help users stay connected with
information important to them. The program
is built on a secure, reliable and high-speed
distribution platform housed in the National
Law Enforcement Telecommunications
System facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
Registering for the service is simple and
can be accomplished in several ways:
• Visiting nixle.com to register online
• Using the registration widget on the
Ballwin Police home page
• Texting “ballwinpd” to 888777.
Anyone wanting further information
about the program can contact Sgt. Jim
Heldmann of the Ballwin Police Department
at 207-2351 or by email at jheldmann@ballwin.mo.us.
CHESTERFIELD
Municipal judge reappointed
The Chesterfield City Council has unanimously
approved Mayor Bob Nation’s reappointment
of Rick Brunk as municipal judge.
Brunk, a Chesterfield attorney, first was
appointed to the part-time position in June
1994. The municipal court tries all city
ordinance violations, including traffic,
criminal, housing and zoning.
Commenting on municipal court operations
during a budget work session before
Brunk’s appointment at the Nov. 17 council
meeting, City Administrator Michael Herring
noted that court receipts account for just
5.7 percent of the city’s general fund revenues.
He noted that other area municipalities
have come under critical scrutiny for relying
on municipal court fines and fees to finance
most or a large part of their operations.
CREVE COEUR
Drive-throughs get green light
After lengthy discussion at several meetings,
the Creve Coeur City Council has
approved a tough new ordinance on drivethrough
restaurants.
The ordinance, approved at the council’s
Nov. 10 meeting, drops the minimum lot size
for a drive-through from 3 acres to 2 acres.
However, it includes stiff requirements to
protect nearby residences from noise and
unsightliness and requires stacking lanes to
be long enough for at least 10 cars.
An order and service window located
next door to a residence has to be at least
50 feet from the property line. It also must
be in a building with multiple tenants that
is at least 200 feet long. The restaurant
itself must be at least 2,400 square feet and
have seats for at least 55 people.
Standalone restaurants are not allowed in
areas next to residences. They must have at
least 2,500 square feet and at least 55 seats.
In all cases, speakers must have automatic
volume control to keep noise down.
The noise level at the property line cannot
be more than the average level in the middle
of the day on Monday through Friday.
MANCHESTER
Proposed budget includes
city pay increase
City services would remain unchanged,
and city employees would receive a pay
raise under an $18.8 million budget currently
being considered by the Manchester
Board of Aldermen.
The proposed budget for the year beginning
Jan. 1 provides for expenditures
about $900,000 higher than the current
fiscal year, according to city budget documents.
Revenues, however, are projected
to be sufficient to provide for a $300,000
year-end budget surplus, documents show.
Most of the spending increase is due to
higher bond retirement payments associated
with the city’s tax increment financing
fund, Finance Director Dave Tuberty said.
About 85 city workers would receive a
pay hike of 2.5 percent, Tuberty said following
a Nov. 17 public hearing on the
proposed budget. Employees received a 2
percent raise this year, he added.
In September, aldermen approved property
tax rates that remained unchanged
from the prior year. For owners of residential
and commercial property, the combined
tax rate for operating expenses and
debt service totals 23.8 cents per $100 of