St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 108

Happenings: State Parks: Volunteers A look at some of the SSS. 14 events scheduled in MPtroPast Harry Uvms: columnist Meiro casi takes pungei puts hjs communities household online MONDAY. JULY 28, 1997 (D PAT GAUEN Deairo Sweep Belleville's Mayor Takes Aim At Trash, Seeks To Spiff Up Image Sometimes, Falling Events Land Smack On Politicians' Heads BNTJERVENING YEARS never faded my memory of the day I read about a woman's death in Chicago. She was walking along a crowded downtown sidewalk when a hunk of masonry fell off a building and plummeted a couple dozen floors to her head. What haunted my imagination was that I had walked the same side of the same block at about the same time the day before.

It was unsettling to ponder how disaster can zap out of nowhere. Three examples recently came to mind, none of them as catastrophic but each randomly frustrating to the victim. First, there is the story of two of my relatives who decided one recent hot and stuffy night to stop by a chain L-1V 3 restaurant in the Metro East area. -I The wife headed for the bathroom and the husband, i parched, eagerly gulped from the water glass served at his table. She returned to find him in distress and insisting to help promote, execute and finance the campaign.

A report to the City Council estimated that the cost could run as high as $40,000. "But we feel we can't wait," Eckert said. "We need to set the tone for a healthier, cleaner Belleville." The trash collections will be free and restricted to residents who pay annual fees for regular city trash-collection service, Regular recycling bins and buckets will not be included in the collection. Yard waste also will not be picked up. Even the political opposition to Eckert's and Kern's Neighborhoods for Good Government Party is jumping on the clean-up-the-town bandwagon.

"I'm all for it," said Ward 7 Alderman Pam Acker-mann, a member of the Progressive Party. "I know a lot of people hold on to things because they can't afford the cost of large-item pickup or. paying for disposal at the landfill," she said. Ackermann said the program merited the projected expense. "I think it will be well worth it.

I applaud them for coming up with this," she said of Eckert and Kern. The new North Illinois Street entranceway, meani while, will serve as an early signal of the Kern adminis: tration's emphasis on the city's appearance, the mayor said. The city is negotiating to buy slightly less than an acre from the Norfolk Southern Railroad for $13,000 fof the entrance. The city will first clean up the site, remove scrub trees and underbrush, then develop a landscaped entranceway and sign. The site will also be the entrance to the city's greenway, a system of pedestrian and bicycle trails under development on Richland Creek.

Kern said the entrance way project was part of a plan to redevelop North Illinois Street where a number of properties are vacant and where high weeds are all too common sights. Kern called the entranceway "part of the City Council's vision for North Illinois Street." By Joe Maty Special to the Post-Dispatch BELLEVILLE Talk about campaigns to clean up the town. First, it was video poker machines that Belleville May-. or Mark Kern and his City Council colleagues targeted for removal from their city. Next up on the hit list is trash of all shapes and sizes, from old refrigerators to unwanted pint-sized cans of paint.

It's all part of an ambitious program launched by Kern, who was elected April 1 with, he says, a mandate to prevent the city's slide into decay and disrepair. Evidence of this clean-up-the-town theme can be found everywhere from North Illinois Street where the city plans to build an eye-catching "welcome to Belleville" gateway at the city limits to the fine print of city ordinances, which have been revised to give the city more muscle in enforcing building- and property-maintenance codes. But this is no one-man show, Kern is quick to point out. New Ward 5 Alderman Mark Eckert, a key Kern ally, announced last week plans for a trash clean-up effort to be carried out under the newly unfurled banner of "Keep Belleville Beautiful." The campaign, to be promoted with plenty of fanfare and a slick, professionally produced art logo, will be launched this fall with a special city-wide junk-collection program scheduled for the weekends of Sept. 20, Oct.

4, Oct. 18 and Nov. 8. A different part of the city will be targeted during each weekend. "The goal is to give people the opportunity to clean up their yards, garages and basements and provide them the chance to have a healthier, safer environment," said Eckert, chairman of the newly established Keep Belleville Beautiful Committee.

Kern gave the campaign a glowing endorsement. "It's a monumental effort and will be one of the greatest things to happen in the city in a long time," he said. Eckert, 40, owns Maine Chimney Sweep Ltd. in on a trip to the hospital. It turned out that near closing time, this popular eatery cleans out its water pitchers with a solution of bleach.

And just as surely as gravity takes hold of a piece of building now i i -i lLi-i 7 1 dim dgdui, a gidaa iium sui.ii a piu-u- er will get poured. The episode ended well, by the way, owing to a diluted mixture of bleach and the efficiency of a hospital's emergency room. I'm told the IL Joseph Maty Alderman Mark Eckert standing across North Illinois Street from a site where Belleville plans to build a northern entrance way to the city. Belleville. Eckert said he was working to enlist the aid of business leaders, community organizations and citizen volunteers hi-; cm ti it J.

-A restaurant folks have been attentive, offering to pay the hospital bill and to provide their sore-throated victim with a "very nice gift." At least he didn't need an after-dinner mint to freshen his breath. Next we have the case of some close friends whose daughter painted her room and waited for the fresh coat of teal to dry. That was weeks ago, and she's still waiting. Folks from the store have been out to see it. Folks from the paint maker have been summoned.

There's been talk of sealers and talk of sandings. (Frankly, I'm not sure the wet paint is entirely a bad thing. My own children regularly buy sticky little squares of putty-like stuff to hold up posters of space ships or movie heart-throbs. Imagine what they could save if things would just stick to the wall all by themselves.) Anyhow, the humor at our friends' house has faded far faster than the paint smell. The manufacturer is taking responsibility for some unspecified chemical malfunction and soon will send experts to make things right.

May I suggest that the drinking water from a certain restaurant might remove it. But seriously, what are your chances of buying the presumably one can of paint in the world that doesn't know it's supposed to dry? This brings me to poor Carter Hendren: He's the Republican political operative who managed Jim Edgar's first campaign for Illinois governor, and more recently has chiefed the staff of state Senate President James "Pate" Philip. A few years ago, Hendren accepted a home computer from a guy who provided computer services to Edgar's first campaign. Actually Hendren bought the thing for 1 ,400, but the payment terms apparently were quite liberal. The seller was Michael Martin, who owned Management Services of Illinois Inc.

It has been one of Edgar's biggest contributors, delivering $270,000 since 1990. An anonymous whistle-blower wrote to the governor's office, accusing the company of fraud. The complaint was relayed to the state police and on to the feds, who did some digging into connections between political donors and state contracts. Hendren told investigators he paid for the computer in 1994, and he had an invoice to prove it. But that turned out to be a little disingenuous, he admitted in court last week.

He actually meant to pay it, but Martin wouldn't let him. Martin may have been too busy collecting more than $11 million from the Illinois Department of Public Aid, under a contract Hendren helped the company to get. By 1995, Hendren testified, he got tough with Martin and insisted on paying the $1,400 in cash. That's a little untidy in terms of a paper trail, but Hendren indicated he was afraid if he wrote a check Martin would never cash it. Hendren had no way to expect Martin and current company co-owner Bill Ladd to end up on trial for allegedly trying to bilk the taxpayers out of $7.8 million on public aid work nor that he would end up trying to explain his home PC from a witness stand.

Sometimes Illinois politicians can bleach the stain of insider influence right off the shimmering walls of government. Sometimes they cover it with paint that never dries. But once in a great while, a brick comes loose and hits them square on the head. i I rA'i h-- l-v' L'; I J. "-q i i i i i (, i- Jerry Naunheim Jr.Post-Dispatch All The Way To The Bank Brittany Williams (left), 7, her brother, Michael Williams, 12, and Shanayl Edwards, 13, run their lemonade and goodies stand Friday on Second Street in Madison.

The trio found plenty to smile about: They made more than $100 in three days selling lemonade, straws, chips, cookies and hot dogs. Pat Qauen can be reached by phone at 618-692-1830, by fax at 618-692-001 9. by mail at the Post-Dispatch, 1 20 North Main Street. Edwardsville, IL 62026, or by e-mail at pgauenpd.stlnet.com. Gateway Trailnet Has Big Plans For Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge By Sue Hurley Special to the Post-Dispatch MADISON Lou Mavros stepped through the new wrought-iron gates on the Missouri side of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge and immediately knelt down to pat his pet project.

Slipping a U-shaped vi- Shut down a year after the nearby Interstate 270 bridge opened in 1967, the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge had become a liability to its owner, the city of Madison, which bought the bridge in 1939 from private owners for $2.3 million. City officials have granted Gateway Trailnet a long- term lease for transforming it into a public-use facil Pin is2s. Ar, vrv vr a nyl sleeve over a section of crumbled curbing on the 68-year-old span, Mavros announced, "This may save us $100,000. That's what new curbs were going Gateway Trailnet has a long-term lease for transforming the bridge into a public-use facility. ity that will link bike trails and greenways on both sides of the river.

Tolls once contributed more than one-fourth of Walter Grogan to cost. Restoring the bridge, designated part of the historic Route 66 in 1936, has kept Mavros more than a little busy for over a year. Although he once worked in the manned space program at McDonnell Douglas Mavros a retired engineer now volunteers his time with Gateway Trailnet the St. Louis-based group determined to rocket into the 21st century by transforming the mile-long bridge into the longest pedestrian river crossing in the world. the city's annual budget, but with maintenance costing about $75,000 a year and most drivers preferring to take the wider, faster 1-270 bridge, Madison officials tried to find another use for the abandoned bridge.

Everything from a golf course to dog races, a gas pipeline and a tramway were posed for consideration. At one time, the U.S. Army expressed an interest in blowing See BRIDGE. Page 2 si EMILY, a 1 -year-old female boxer, is housebroken and is good with children but not with other dogs. TO ADOPT: Apply in person at the Madison County lumane Society, 8495 Illinois Route 1 43, Sue Hurley Karlene McAllister and Lou Mavros are helping to restore the abandoned Chain of Rocks Bridge and turn it into a pedestrian crossing.

)'.