St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 78

IN SPORTS: River Otters blow 4-0 lead, but hold off Mohawk Valley for win. Page SC6. rn. A IB) if I nnJ lULtl. Hi ,0 xoi SERVING: St.

Charles, St. Peters, O'Fallon, Lake Saint Louis, Wentzville, and Dardenne Prairie. Also serving communities in Warren and Lincoln counties. fJ'V'iTTTrrrTiifjnTi-ifiir gygWHarSTpfcay Friday, December 31, 1999 ST.LDUIS POST-DISPATCH (Q)C)(Q)YISflE DM MEW i I rTNOl fl AH H7 III! Cottleville, SL Paul, New Melle, Weldon Spring, Augusta, Defiance, iiiiiMitoiiiiiMiiillBti'iTr' IlUfiiff' 3 4h- "rfel (7 on the St. Charles side of the Missouri River work on the Page Avenue extension project.

No place to call home Highways, bridges and urban sprawl SAM LEONE FILE PHOTO The St. Charles Family Arena hosts pro basketball and hockey. Rascals, Swarm, Otters and the Family Arena St Charles County took tthe minor-league sports world by storm in 1999, welcoming the River City Rascals baseball team of the Frontier League, the Missouri River Otters of the United Hockey League and the St. Louis Swarm of the International Basketball League. Despite some complaints from their O'Fallon neighbors about noise and a late-season slump that caused the team to miss the playoffs, "Baseball From Another Era" played to standing-room-only crowds at T.R.

Hughes Ballpark all summer. The Rascals smashed the Frontier League attendance record, averaging 3,792 fans a night in a ballpark that seats about 3,500, and the club is making plans to make the family-oriented experience even better in 2000. Both the River Otters and Swarm are near the top of their leagues' standings and in league attendance figures. Seems people in the area have taken to "Hockey with an Ot-ter-tude" and are starting to "Catch the Buzz" as well. Both winter teams call the Family Arena in St Charles home.

The arena has overcome some labor concerns to provide a home for all sorts of entertainment, including concerts, tournaments, trade shows, rodeos and professional boxing. 5,550 jobs created in county this At a ceremony honoring St. Charles Workers JzL. be heap years. be times The Page Avenue extension in St Charles County will cut across the river and through the woods not When the St.

Charles City Council decided to go along with a request to rezone the site of Trio Mobile Home Park for commercial development about 150 families found themselves looking for a home. to mention subdivisions and farmland. By John Sonderegger St. Charles County Post Editor went through some growing 111 pains again in 1999, but it was a very good year in St Charles County. Highlighted on this page are the Top 10 stories of the year, as voted by the news staff of the St.

Charles County Post The arrival of the River City Rascals and T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, followed by the Missouri River Otters and the St. Louis Swarm in St. Charles, and the completion of the Family Arena, obviously is our top story of the year. We became the Minor League mecca of the St.

Louis area. Of course, this page will pay tribute to the tremendous strides we made in transportation (Page Avenue extension is a done deal now) and development (MasterCard International and MCI WorldCom). And we'll duly note the continuing dispute between County Executive Joe Ortwerth and city officials in St. Charles and St Peters over tax increment financing. We had horrible truck crashes on Interstate 70, and the closing of Trio Mobile Home Park put a face on the festering problem of the lack of affordable housing in a relatively affluent community.

The Francis Howell School District went from riches to rags because of mismanagement. And the two sensational crime stories of 1998 came to an end when former Lindenwood University student Jason Shipman was sentenced to life in prison for the beheading death of Tiffany Sabourin near the campus, and Brian Stewart also got life in prison for injecting his son with the virus that causes AIDS. The growing pains? Our continuing traffic problems on Interstate 70 at rush hour, and the backups on Highway 94 and First Capitol Drive. The problems have mushroomed in St. Peters because of the completion of Highway 370, and the Spencer Road-Mexico Road intersection now is a No.

1 headache. Ditto for the problems in O'Fallon along Highway all the way to Highway 40. Our school districts don't seem to have enough money to run smoothly, and taxpayers in Wentzville don't want to spend more. Twice this year, they defeated tax proposals on the ballot. Teachers in St.

Charles and Francis Howell are unhappy with their respective administrations. The result: Three of the four superintendents of major school districts in the county have either left or will retire at the end of this school year. Only Bernard DuBray of Fort Zumwalt will remain. So we bid adieu to 1999, and look forward to another eventful year in 2000 in St Charles County. Rest assured, when it happens in this county, our readers will be the first to know.

TIFs cause a tiff One of the more entertaining stories of 1999 is St Charles County's continuing tiff over TIFs. De velopers love them. The cities of St Peters and St Charles embrace them. County Executive Joe Ortwerth cant stand the mere mention of them. At least not in his county.

For example, St. Peters has plans to create a $75 million TIF district so 1,100 acres in a flood plain near Highway 370 can be developed. Ortwerth doesn't believe TIFs were designed for that "You are going to burn in hell from here to eternity" iML While 1998 ended fi I with a jury convict-MM ing Brian Stewart in the most sensational trial in county history, 1999 began with a judge sentencing him to life in prison. Stewart, 33, was found guilty of injecting his son with HIV-tainted blood in 1992 while the boy was being treated at St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake Saint Louis for respiratory problems.

Stewart worked at a St Louis hospital as a person who draws blood. Circuit Judge Ellsworth Cun-diff gave Stewart the maximum sentence but said that still wasn't enough. "You are going to burn in hell from here to eternity," he said. "Maybe that's the only justice in this case." The boy, now 8, has AIDS. He takes medication 24 hours a day through a tube in his stomach.

Suddenly, St. Charles and St. Charles County had to look at itself in the mirror. With upscale subdivisions being built one after the other, taking care of the young professional families, what would become of those on a limited or fixed income? Trio became a focal point. These people had quietly lived their version of the American dream, and now it was as if a rug was being pulled out from underneath them.

And the scarcity of housing for low-income people in St. Charles County came into abrupt focus. Voicing the conscience of many, Miriam Mahan of Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Service observed that the desperate search by poor people for a place to live in St. Charles County "is an example of what can happen when a community does not make provisions for all its residents." Grandmother's house will be reachable one day.

With opposition groups no longer in full cry, the project is picking up steam, and, given luck, the first phase could completed before 2002. A 10-lane roadway through the southern tip of Creve Coeur Park will span the river into the county, stretching to Wentzville. For this reason, transportation will climb near the top of the as a significant issue in the county over the next two But the growth of traffic and residents moving west to St. Charles County escalates the debate over urban sprawl. Census figures show the St.

Louis metropolitan area population to about the same as it was six years ago, but occupying 10 the area. Sprawl leads to increased costs for roads, sewers and utilities. SAM LEONE FILE PHOTO A. -3" a- -fey yruVl, summer at Busch Stadium, broadcaster Jack Buck told Mayor Patti York that her I city must be special because people line up every day between 4 and 6 p.m. just to get into town.

Ho-ho! At the rate companies are relocating to St. Charles County, however, that rush-hour crush might not be so bad in the future. The year of 1999 brought some major employment opportunities to town. Thanks to a full-court press by municipal, county and state officials, 5,550 jobs were created this year on this side of the Missouri River. Something didn't add up in Francis Howell year resident and baseball great Lou Brock this life; Logsdon walks away free We knew kindergartners could cause trouble, but not to the tune of $7 million.

The Francis Howell School District admitted that it had an arithmetically challenged year. Not only did it overcount kindergarten students for two years and overrun the budget by millions, it will probably be paying the state back for several years for the extra money it got. DEREK VALENTINE Two fiery crashes on Interstate 70 involving tractor-trailers have prompted Warren County officials to seek a concrete median barrier along the highway. Trucks are out of control on 1-70 The area saw two devastating fiery Even though the district slashed its budget by $7 million this year, it will remain on the state's financially stressed list until 2003. This activity caught the attention of least 1,000 angry residents who showed up at a free-for-all town meeting in August.

Gov. Mel Carnahan also noticed and ordered a state audit of the district. For months, school board meetings became a media circus. The board couldn't figure out whom to blame and bickered with one another, while Superintendent Lee Brittenham figured it was time to leave. He resigned due to health reasons, and Dan Brown took over.

crashes involving tractor-trailers one in I May that touched our hearts with a heroic rescue and another in October that broke our hearts with the death of a boy and his involving the gruesome murder of 13-year-old Sabourin came to an end Sept. 8 with one of attackers pleading guilty and the other walking Old wounds are reopened in Fort Zumwalt The Fort Zumwalt School District avoided what could have been a damaging courtroom trial and settled a case that began several years ago. A former student, Deanna Muhrline, was sexually abused by one of the district's football coaches in 1992, when she was 15. She filed a civil suit against the district for failing to stop the abuse, claiming school officials knew it was happening. School officials denied prior knowledge of coach David Primeau's actions.

But they decided it would be better to end the matter rather than to let it drag on. The district's attorney said at the time of the settlement that they were confident the district would win, but "didn't want to risk a sympathetic jury." grandparents. The rescue came after a rig hauling evergreen trees hit six cars during rush-hour traffic in St. Peters before smashing Lisa Owsley's car into the median barrier. Flames erupted in the crash.

Limousine company owner Eric Erwin broke a window and pulled Owsley, a mother of four, from her crumpled car seconds before it exploded. The westbound lanes were closed for more than three hours, causing nightmarish commutes home for thousands. A boy from St. Clair and his grandparents were not so lucky when a big rig going too fast on slick pavement crossed the grassy median in Warren-ton and smashed into their Ford Ranger. They were killed.

This deadly crash prompted Warren County officials to push for a concrete median barrier along Interstate 70. Shipman gets Jason Shipman, 23, pleaded guilty of rape and murder to avoid the possibility of a death sentence. The case Tiffany the accused free. Jason to avoid the possibility the plea agreement, April 25, 1998 and mostly nude Shipman said he prove otherwise. 16, were dropped.

after confessing to guilty, Logsdon walked moved in with his life in prison with Shipman, 23, pleaded guilty of rape and murder of a death sentence from a jury. As part of he agreed to tell the truth about the night of when he killed Tiffany and left her headless body near the Lindenwood University campus. acted alone, and a police investigation couldn't Murder charges against Billy Joe Logsdon, He had been certified to stand trial as an adult the crime. The same day Shipman pleaded out of the St. Charles County Jail and aunt in Kentucky.

Shipman was sentenced to no possibility of parole..